But technique is little without a gripping story to keep one involved. This one details at the outset the life of an Indian family, with the particularly closeness in which the family members exist. Pi Patel, endearingly played by Suraj Sharma, is an Indian lad with a warm relationship with his father, which pays off emotionally when Pi loses his family in a spectacularly shown storm that overwhelms the ship on which they are sailing.

The frightening situation, with the huge waves, the water invading the ship and its sinking with a cargo of animals, is enthralling to watch. Pi, while shouting for his trapped family, gets shoved into a lifeboat. He soon discovers there is a scared tiger aboard. The story takes further shape in Pi’s lonely efforts to survive, using prayers, his brains and the opportunity to catch fish in order to keep alive, as well as what supplies are stacked in the lifeboat.

The dangerous presence of the digitally created tiger, hungry and resourceful, provides a special peril. It also offers the set-up for Pi’s managing to bond with the animal. After a while the situation grows overly cute, but just when that happens, the scene is shook up and the element of survival looms large. Eventually, of course, Pi does survive, but not before we are taken through a nature tour unlike any other.

The twist to the story is the meeting between a writer (Rafe Sapll) and an older Pi (Irrfan Khan), and his relating that his tale was not believed by insurance company inquirers. Whereupon Pi says he told them a more conventional story of how he came through the shipwreck. That seemed to satisfy them more.