Missing Patel

On the morning of January 26,when the news of her Padma Shri award was splashed in newspapers,actor Tabu was on her way to Puducherry to shoot for Life of Pi. Directed by Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee,Life of Pi is based on Canadian author Yann Martel’s novel—set in the Pondicherry of 1970s—that won the Booker prize in 2002. An Oscar-winning director,a Booker-winning story,much-awarded actors like Tabu and Irrfan Khan,Golden Globe-recipient actor Gerard Depardieu— it is a cast which has been there,done that,taken the trophy home and come back to a new day.

The book tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel,an Indian boy named after a swimming pool in Paris,who survived 227 days after a shipwreck,stranded on a boat with a Royal Bengal Tiger. He changed his name to Pi because everyone called him Pissing Patel instead of Piscine Patel. Delhi boy Suraj Sharma,17,chosen from 3,000 auditions will play Pi.

The cast is a story by itself and Lee probably senses the potential of a Making Of…Which is perhaps why,media and bystanders are barred from shoot locations in Puducherry,chosen by a research crew working here for the last many months. “Working with Ang Lee is turning out to be a brilliant experience,just the way I thought it would be,” says Tabu. Sources told The Indian Express that the cast and crew has signed a confidentiality clause that also bars them from taking pictures on the sets even for personal records. Till Lee’s protective barricades around the film crumble,for us it is the story of Missing Patel.