Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Illuminated by the Green 3D - AVATAR

Still in awe of the 1st 3D movie experience of my life ( if I disregard the sorry attempt of Appu Ghar way back in time ). Saw AVATAR yesterday and immensely liked it. Do not know whether it was Cameroon or his avatar, but whoever it was who spent all these years making the epic ( remember Titanic came out when we were still experiencing our teen infatuations )did not waster the time.

Many people have already talked about the movie in detail e.g. David Edelstein so I will not go into the technological wonder or the simplicity of the plot but will just touch upon the couple of things which struck me instantly.

The first of course being the fact that there is no limit to a human being's imagination. Left to dream without boundaries a human mind can conjure up limitless possibilities which can manifest themselves in fantasies as exemplified by Pandora. I really wonder why was it referred to as "a hell"! A land with floating mountains, synaptic trees, mystical creatures ( with surprisingly mundane tendencies though ), chiseled inhabitants with magical powers etc. cannot be a hell.

The other thing which came through was the emphasis on the purity of the pagan thinking - the balance of energy, the strength of heart, the purity of purpose all pointed to the times when man had not evolved a lot in his thinking but was probably more in touch with the ecological balance. Do science and progress always induce conflict? Does paganism always imply backwardness? These are questions which do not have easy answers.

Man, can destroy a perfectly good thing working :-)though if he / she puts their mind to it man can also achieve remarkable things.

Did anyone wonder as to why the animals in Pandora serve the same purpose as they do on Earth - the big dogs bite, the many legged horses are used as cavalry, the big birds fly, the big elephants charge etc.? And what would I give to have a body like that of a Nevi - leaving aside the tail bit, though.

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