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When you watch Avatar – you most likely will – you can choose to just immerse yourself in the fantabulous visual imagery created by James Cameron using first-time technologies.
You may choose to enjoy the best of what Hollywood has to offer in terms of sci fi adventures, with a love story thrown in to heighten the drama. You may choose to revel in the clear good-vs-evil tale, with none of the grays thrown in. You may also choose to drawn yourself in the dreamlike world that as children many of us imagine should exist, somewhere.
But Avatar is much beyond what everyone will say it is, and what it actually is – stunning cinema in terms of technology and visual imagery. It is what big budget Hollywood does seldom – marry highly saleable fantasy action drama with a strong message of the times.
As you watch the film, you might initially be a little fidgety over the slow pace of proceedings. But that pace is only for the build up, and for driving home the image of a peaceful world about to face dangers it has never witnessed.
Planet Pandora, in Cameron’s scheme of things, is an alter image of numerous those zones in the world where indigenous tribes are getting uprooted because their ancestral dwellings sit on precious minerals.
And the Na’vi who populate Pandora that of those tribes who often sought to be cajoled, threatened, and if required, even killed by representatives of so-called civilized societies who do not bat an eyelid while wearing a big piece of blood diamond.
Pandora could even be a place in India, for example Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa’s mineral-rich Kalahandi district, where powerful MNCs are seeking to drive the indigenous Kandha tribals out of their traditional homeland because it sits on almost endless source of Bauxite, the mineral that makes Aluminium.
Cameron’s film is an appeal to all those conscientious people, particularly scientists and those whose opinions matter, to help protect those ancient but small civilizations existing in what the urban world describes as ‘primitive conditions’. It is an appeal to the world make sustainable use of natural resources, without plundering nature or peoples. And as the movie indicates, if nature gets angry, it is capable of striking back real bad.
You may just choose to return stunned at the world of Avatar, or you may choose to return with that little more than a sublime message. Any which way, Avatar will make you swoon.
Tags: avatar, Development, Indigenous Tribe, james cameron, Mining
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Dude it is stunning but the message is pretty juvenile and if you watch Dances with the wolves, you will realize the similarities! But then it is movie to be watched for the visuals alone… Not that any other Cameron movies have much in way of a story… he knows what he does best and he sticks to it! :yahoo:
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I disagree. I do not think the message is juvenile. It is just one has to realise it. Look at Iraq… just because some bufoon wanted to have oil they attacked and destroyed the country in the name of terror. I dont know but from trailer I could correlate the Iraq situation. I may not be correct as I have not seen the movie as yet.
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was there no story in terminator buddy?? can any film with only visuals and no story really work??thats the difference between a maker of blue who compromise on story and focus only on visuals and an avtaar who knows that story is as impt..and it depends on ones personality and perception what he takes from a piece of art, positivity, negativity or nothing!!
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While watching movies of such grandeur we tend to ignore the actual proceedings. Its success lies in marrying content with technical finesse. Its a story about man vs man, man vs machine, machine vs machine…how equations change…
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Saw a 5pm 3D preview yesterday. It was housefull and the crowd was making “oohs” and “aahs” throughout the wonders of the Pandora planet.
The world that Cameron imagines and successfully realizes in his creation is brilliant. You’ve got to hand it to Cameron. Yet again, he’s taken almost all of the time-tested cliches and used them to basically sweep you off your feet with the sheer visual and technical splendor. Yes, this film doesn’t have the heart of Titanic (that one had an emotive core…this one has a more cerebral one), but Cameron taps into all kinds of modern-day and biblical allusions. The film is rich in mythology and reminded me of the postulation in Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces. The down side I felt was that the film was not as vast in scope as Titanic. I wanted more. Everything was happening too fast…I wanted to know more about the Na’avis, wanted to learn of the other warrior clans, etc.
But all in all…such an experience. And oh, see it only in 3D! I doubt we’ll see such a ‘gorgeous’ looking film in a long while. I never knew there were these many colours!
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The message might not be as subtle as the message in “night of the living dead” but I won’t go as far as saying that the message is juvenile.
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AVATAR was a stunner allright, bcoz I was stunned at the fact that you spend 300 million bucks on a film, yet no money to have a good writer onboard?? You wait a decade for a technology, but not even a second thought on an outdated script??
Agreed, it is Hollywood and it is Cameron and his grand visual expertise coming into play here. But I think its time to call a spade a spade.
AVATAR is visually brilliant. Cameron and his technical team has literally recreated an entire world and brought it to life on the big screen. You are immersed into this world of Pandora, and for the next two hours you become part of the Navi and their life.
But storywise, I think FERN GULLY was a better option. Mish mashing concepts of flicks like MATRIX, DANCES WITH WOLVES, LAST SAMURAI etc, we have one helluva sub-standard script with equally bad screenplay. It really takes the last 30 minutes or so to end things on a flying note, only to be ruined by the last five minutes as they go for a cheesy ending. Did I say the action sequences seem to be a lot Sunny Deol inspired. I thought only Sunny could run across an enemy tanker to pop a bomb inside. Not anymore.
AVATAR is no masterpiece of story telling even though it might be remembered as a path breaking one for the visual medium. It certainly sets a high bar on 3d technology for now on, and I do not see anyone matching it anytime soon.
However it is equally baffling that Hollywood critics who are usually harsch on all the FX-travaganzas are going ga-ga when the weakness of the story and script is so obviously staring into your face. Trust me, no 3D is required …it is that obvious.
Trust me, if this was a Bollywood production, the reviews would have been more on the lines of what BLUE had got. But for some odd reason, I think many out there are being extremely Taran Adarsh-isque (isnt that a new word for ‘extremely generous’) about things.
Well, Cameron …kudos for taking the challenge. Though seriously flawed, it still is a ‘beautiful’ attempt that demands a 3d watch. Sitting through a second would prove to be a huge effort!
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Mohan Kumar Vs James Cameroon
Around 1994 James Cameroon got the idea to make Avtaar, but the idea was put on hold because he had to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. Finally around 2007 they began filming Avtaar and after 2 long years it is now running to packed houses in theatres across the world. Sometimes I really feel these hollywood directors have no vision. How can they wait 15 yrs to make a movie and that too at a budget of over $400M. We Indians are far more futuristic when it comes to making movies. Almost 10 yrs before James Cameroon even thought of making Avtaar, an Indian director by the name of Mohan Kumar had already released his version of Avtaar.
The year was 1983 when a family social drama called Avtaar was released. The film starred Rajesh Khanna in an award winning role, Shabana Azmi and AK Hangal. Rajesh Khanna playes Avtaar Kishan who lives with his wife Radha, two sons Ramesh and Chander and servant Sevak. They lead a poor lifestyle and Rajesh Khanna toils hard in order to earn money so that their children can get good education. One day while working at the factory he meets with an accident and permanently hurts his hand which renders him helpless. They get more and more dependent on their children who are now aspiring to lead a good lifestyle and find their parents a burden on them. As fate would have it, Avtaar, his wife and servant Sevak are forced to leave the house since one of his son has transferred the house to his wife’s name without informing Avtaar. Now the homeless Avtaar Kissan and family are dependent on their servant Sevak for survival. What happens next is quite inspiring and tells us how Avtaar kishan works hard and becomes a rich man and teaches his children a lesson which they will never forget. Its a classic tale of good begets evil shown in full family drama style. Rajesh Khanna was nominated for best actor that year which he failed to win, however the film remains a classic nevertheless. Hats off to Mohan Kumar the visionary. He didnt need technology to create the masterpeice called Avtaar.
Having seen our own original version of Avtaar, I am waiting to see what different James Cameroon has to offer. I have heard he has made some changes to the script and replaced Rajesh Khanna with some blue coloured aliens. The new movie is made in 3D so that you feel as if you are into the movie, but frankly the original Avtaar was so heart warming that you didnt need to be into the movie, the movie would get into you by the time you finished watching it. So next time you have Avtaar playing on TV, dont miss it.
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:wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :witsend: :witsend: :witsend: :witsend:
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@Aviraj … r u kidding ??
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The only reason i would talk abt tarantino’s death proof cud be that there was a race in which QT claimed that he dint use a single bit of CGI…Thats impressive to me. Yes…I never liked to talk abt CGI s ..I hate it and no way am a fan of technology and money hype arnd movies.
But then Avatar is cool…lovely….and I dont care if it ws made in 10 million or 300 million….its great entertainment thru out..! Spectacular..!
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@ Aviraj
Kaafi mazey waali baaten kahi aapney Mohan Kumar aur James Cameron ke Avtaaron ke baare me.
Jis tarah MK ko soojha ki us naukar ka naam ‘Sevak’ rakhna chaahiye, aur JC ko soojha ki us mineral ka naam ‘Unobtainum’ rakhna chaahiye, is baat se bhi donon ke sochne ke tareeke me jo samaanta hai, uska pata chalta hai.
Lagta hai ye donön kisi spiritual level pe copper se baney ek motey-tagdey taar se judey huey hain, jiski vajah se inke thought processes asaamaanya roop se milte-julte hain.
Lekin ek asamaanta zaroor hai MK aur JC ke film banaaney ke tareekey me — jitna samay JC apney ek film ko banaaney me lagaatey hain utney samay me MK ke film ke baal kalakaaron ki shaadi bhi ho jaati hai aur bacchey bhi ho jaatey hain.
Baaki aapki saari baaten apni jagah pe shat-pratishat sahi hain.
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