Food chain mayhem occurs and then the film essentially becomes a struggle for survival between Pi and that man-eating beast for the 227 days they are adrift, which will have you scratching your head at how Lee and his team managed to convey such amazingly convincing and terrifyingly close contact between our hero and the tiger, using stand-in animals and CGI. Unfortunately, as brilliantly as these scenes are accomplished, there is no denying the fact that the film rather settles into a kind of monotony, given the now very basic situation and dearth of any other incident or characters. The book was able to convey more of Pi’s mental and spiritual challenges and triumphs; the film can only show you the physical effects, and it all becomes a mere case of “The Lad or the Tiger?” requiring a gigantic suspension of disbelief.