Ang Lee won his second best director Oscar last month for his exceptional work in bringing novelist Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” to the screen. The fanciful yet poignant story centers on an Indian boy named Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) whose family runs a zoo. When his father decides to move to Canada, he packs the family and all of their animals onto a freighter only to see it sink at sea. 

Martel ambiguously thanks Scliar in an author’s note for “the spark of life.” In an Internet essay, he said he got the idea for Pi from an “indifferent” review of Max and the Cats by John Updike in the New York Times. Updike never wrote a review of Max and the Cats, anywhere. Also, it is difficult to believe a reader could be “indifferent” to Max, whose multilayered story evokes a mix of emotions, where Pi might be characterized as a good one-note read.

“Having 10 Best Picture nominees will allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," AMPS President Sid Ganis said at a press conference.  While the expansion of the Best Picture category at the Oscars allows for more movies to receive the recognition they deserve, it does not change the fact that the voters lean towards awarding similar themes and performances every year.  They love dramas, lengthy historical epics, and tales of patriotism, controversy, and triumph over adversity.

The color and visual spendor of India tends to overwhelm any film that is set in India. And Life of Pi is no exception. Ang Lee pretty much admits as much to DNA when he says “the country overwhelms you, with the warmth, the culture and its beauty”. Even in the hands of a director as astute as him, India feels over saturated, wide-eyed and eye-popping, prone to fortune cookie maxim. It’s a striking contrast to the richly detailed but so much more atmospheric Shanghai he created for Lust, Caution. That felt epic and intimate at the same time. This India feels Amar Chitra Katha – bold colors without much shading.