Missing Patel

On the morning of January 26,when the news of her Padma Shri award win was splashed in national newspapers,actor Tabu was on her way from Chennai to Puducherry for a shooting schedule of the 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 in 2002. An Oscar winning director,a Booker winning story,award winning actors like Tabu and Irrfan Khan,Golden Globe recipient French actor Gerard Depardieu– it is a cast and crew which has been there,done that,taken trophies home and come back to a new day,new film. A 17-year-old Delhi boy Suraj Sharma chosen from 3000 auditions,will play Pi,the protagonist.

Life of Pi is the story of Piscine Molitor Patel,an Indian boy named after a swimming pool in Paris who survived 227 days after a shipwreck,while stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger. He changed his name to Pi because everyone mistakenly called him Pissing Patel instead of Piscine Patel.

The cast is a story by itself and Lee probably senses the potential of a Making Of…Which is why,media,photographers or prying public—everyone is kept off shoot locations in Puducherry,chosen by a research crew working here for the last many months. “I am very happy that I am working with Ang Lee but that’s all I can say. For anything else,please speak to the film’s media representative,” said Tabu. Sources told The Indian Express that the entire cast and crew has signed a confidentiality clause that bars them from sharing any details with anyone,also from taking any pictures on the sets,even for their personal records.

Till Ang Lee’s protective barricades around the film crumble,for us,it is the story of Missing Patel.