Life of Pi as directed by Ang Lee almost did not happen. The project, ever since its 2003 inception, had been passed on by three directing heavyweights (M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón, Jean-Pierre Jeunet) before it landed in Lee’s lap in 2009. For some time, many doubted if Lee, Oscar-winning Taiwanese-born director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Lust, Caution , was the right choice for this idiosyncratic Indian tale about a young boy stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. All doubts can be put to rest, now that it is more than apparent Lee has made cinematic history with this new entry. The Yann Martel novel on which the movie is based needs no introduction. Since its publication in 2001 and its winning of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year, the wildly imaginative story that works like some ancient folklore has entered our collective cultural consciousness, transforming the way we perceive the relation between myth and r...