Avatar, an Alien World with a Message

Avatar is not just a technically brilliant animation movie that could give an out-of-the-world experience to the audience. The brilliance lies beyond its great special effects and its grand budget. It lies in its ability to capture the essence of the universal truth that is beyond the comprehension of many humans. In fact, the specialty of the movie is hardly about its overwhelming graphics. The USP of the movie is its underlying emotional quotient that would connect well with the environmentalists, nature lovers and people who stand against oppression of any form.

The movie is about the larger issue of the human selfishness that is destroying the entire world to its crumbles. It is about the overpowering majority and their oppression against the minority, whose souls are soaked in the elixir of nature. It’s simple. The Na’vi tribe lives in harmony with nature in an alien planet called Pandora. And there we enter, humans, to capture their precious resource. And how do we that? Wage a war against them. Destroy the nature, their lives and the planet and run back with the resource to save your dying planet.

This plot involving aliens is definitely not alien to us. Because, it’s a universal problem that every country in this world would have seen during their years of development. Closer home, we have been witness to many of the tribes and aadivasis being literally driven out of their own homes for a larger purpose, that is, for the benefit of the majority of the population. How many dams, multi storeyed IT buildings and shopping complexes have been built around our country over their destroyed lives and homes?

There is something deeper the movie talks about. The connection with nature. How humans chose to ignore the harmony between their species and nature! How it is important not to play with that ethereal connection of harmony, for it wreaks only havoc. When the heroine, a Na’vi herself, refuses to accept the thanks form the hero, as saving him has cost the lives of so many wild dogs, there is something that should snap in each of us. It should take us to the truths of our selfishness, far into the dark spaces of Jim Corbett park and Sunderabans Islands. Did you get it? If many of us not have wriggled in our seats with a sense of guilt, probably it is an indication that the world has come to an end because this is a proof that humans have gone far beyond in their utter selfishness. The heroine drills a message into the male protagonist’s human head that if he had chosen to understand nature and not have provoked it, he would have escaped the ire of the wild dogs. And since, he hasn’t done it, he became the victims of their feral attack which had cost their lives. Because we all know that lives of human beings are “far superior” to any other living creature, don’t we? So, now what has driven all those tigers in our country to extinction? What has made many of them man eaters and tread into the human spaces only to lose their lives? Well, we all know the answer!

However, there is a slight discomfort in which the movie has handled disability and the way the story unfolds. It is quiet conventional in the way in which the human-hero has to emerge and belong to the Na’vi community in order to save the tribe from the dangers of his own race. Are there a scent of racism and a message of superlative powers of human beings in the movie? Despite these, the movie delivers quiet a strong message!

But, yeah, the message of destroying the lives of tribes may not be driven back to the many of our homes. Because James Cameron has chosen to set it in a futuristic and a fictional world and, quiet specifically, in an alien world. After all, it is the story of a bunch of aliens who do not even exist! May be we choose not to link it up with our opulent lives. But the message is open out there. Whether the earth lives or not, relies heavily on how we act upon the truth!

One among a Thousand Indeed!

Unpredictable and surprising, the much-hyped Aayirathil Oruvan transcends the movie-watching experience to a new level and genre for the Tamil audience. This multi-starrer, which is a revelation of sort for the acting prowess of the movie’s leading protagonists, Reema Sen, Andrea and Parthiban, (Ofcourse, Karthi is the same as he was in Paruthi Veeran) lives up to its hype and sets a new level of standards for the genre of fantasy and adventure in Tamil Cinema.

The director, Selvaraghavan, by weaving in the interesting elements of fictitious history into the story line has managed to keep the interest of the audience sustained through out the movie. The characterization of the protagonists is another unique element which makes the movie interesting and intriguing, as all the characters are etched out in shades of grey with his or her own preferences and instincts for survival. For the first time in commercial Tamil cinema, the male protagonist does not resort to heroic efforts to save the women from the dangers, though the story line has ample scope for such gimmickry. On the contrary, the director has given him space to chicken out many a times in the movie, allowing the women to take the lead. This is his success indeed, the director’s courage and boldness to treat the character of Karthi differently with shades of realistic feelings of a normal human being!

Ofcourse, as is his wont, Selvaraghavan brings in the dimensions of sexual perversions to Karthi’s character, just to cater to the needs of his male audience. Though, this is the dimension that the many of the movie-goers would have found lovable! Moving a step ahead of his usual male characters in the earlier movies like Thullavatho Ilamai, Kathal Konden and 7G Rainbow Colony, the director has even managed to make Karthi seem like a dormant rapist who would vent out his sexual energies on Reema anytime in the best available opportunity. You couldn’t let go of your male fantasies of raping a woman in order to teach her a lesson, could you Mr. Selvaragavan? How could you let go of it when that is what keeps the entire section of the male audience going up in cheers in the auditorium? And do you know that such characters in the movie will only entrench the cruel minds of the men in our society with sexual violence and oppression that are already infested with male chauvinism?

However, this time, the interesting aspect of Selvaraghavan’s piece of work is the refreshing touch to his women characters which gives a breath of relief. Probably, this is the first Tamil movie in which the leading women drink and dance around with a bottle of alcohol. Something which even the acclaimed directors like Maniratnam and Gautam Vasudeva Menon would have flinched to show in their so called urban movies in fear of the negative reaction of the conservative Tamil audience. Very surprising and refreshing that Selvaraghavan has managed to achieve it with élan and grace! Also, the way both the women slap Karthi left and right is yet another unconventionality that has been handled well with poise by the director. In addition, the roles of Reema and Andrea have been portrayed unconventionally, though towards the end in the second half, one of the characters meander into the much beaten track and the other loses its momentum and screen space to the other important characters. The leading women have done their best to do justice to their roles. Where has Reema been all along in Tamil cinema? Reema makes a mark throughout the movie with her apt expressions and bold acts. Sad that the new version of the movie has many of her scenes deleted! The sword fight with Parthiban and the classical song about Tanjore and its lost Chola dynasty that are testimonies to Reema’s hard work have been removed from the movie. Were those deletions really intended, so as to give a booster to the role of Karthi by trimming down Reema’s role which otherwise would have had more prominence in the movie? Quite possible in the male dominated tinsel town! Andrea is quite a revelation in the movie. She has a significant role who leads the gang to the destination, warning them ahead of the possible dangers that exist en route. Her understated liking for Karthi and her revulsion towards him when he assaults Reema sexually have been portrayed with care and subtlety. This adds finesse to her character that is well etched too!

The technical brilliance shines through out in the movie barring few scenes. Be it the camera angles or the cinematography, these aspects have managed to deliver the mood and essence of the movie well. Although, in some of the scenes, the graphics employed has played spoilsport by giving an immature look to the movie, overall the movie has transcended beyond the boundaries set by Tamil movies. Another let down is the sets of Chola town that fails to look like the ruins of the lost civilization. Instead, it has the scattered gold shining, making the town seem like an amateur stage set. It does not even wear the looks of ruins to look like a place that is a decade old, leave alone several centuries old!

And after the story enters into the dark spaces of the hidden civilization that is at least eight hundred years old, the movie gains a different dimension and veers towards the game of hatred, vengeance and redemption. The stark realities of human civilization have been captured well in the movie. The hatred that would survive through several years and generations, only to be vented out at the opportunistic moment is portrayed well. Though, seems unbelievable at certain moments, it only proves the time tested cruelty of human minds. Another interesting angle of the movie is that it gives an opportunity to compare and contrast the ancient and modern civilizations in the same platform. The story line goes a step ahead to showcase the harsh reality that the ancient civilization has evolved into a modern and sophisticated only in its lifestyle, but the cruelty, oppression, hatred and the hunger for power have stayed intact in its raw form in the human society through its many centuries of evolutuion. If the other society that is stuck in times that trace several hundred years back releases its anger and hatred through brutal and cruel games, the modern society which plays with the lives of marginalized does not differ much from its ancient counterpart in its power games. The suffering of Karthi and his group of workers in the hands of the military men is a standing testimony to the unbalanced power equation in the society. Later, in the sequences where the captured Cholas are tortured and killed by the army people, the power equation gains a new dimension in the movie to portray the shocking reality that power is only a volatile thing.

The other interesting element of the movie is the language that is used to depict the Chola lifestyle. For years, Tamil movie goers have been cheated by the movie makers who have employed modern literary Tamil for the depiction of ancient tongue spoken by the kings in their movies. Especially in the ones that eulogizes the lives of kings and queens of Tamil Nadu such as Raja Raja Cholan and Veera Pandiya Kattabomman. Thanks to the in-depth research carried out by Selvaraghavan, we get to hear the real ancient Tamil not in its literary form but in a unique functional form. May be flawed to an extent, the attempt and the attention that the director has paid to the detail deserves an applause. Also, it may be the first of its kind movie in the history of Tamil Cinema which has had the courage to depict the darker sides of the Kings. Added to that, the way Selvaraghavan handles the story without taking sides to any of the kingdoms or any of the characters, enable the movie to rise above the conventions and norms that the Tamil cinema is used to. Rather the protagonists shape up themselves based on the situations and survival instinct forms the main element that aids in the development of their characters in the movie as the story unfolds. However, you wish Reema’s cahracer had been handled with little more care and elegance, as at times it gives a feeling that the director has done injustice to the character only because it is played by a woman.

May be, Aayirathil Oruvan is flawed and follows a safer path at many instances. And in some of the scenes it leaves you with a sense of déjà vu. It is clear that these scenes have derived its inspiration from some of the popular Hollywood movies. Despite these shortcomings, the movie is a must watch at least for its sheer experience. And if you are an ardent movie buff, then it is definitely one of those movies that should not be given a miss for its interesting story that is part fantasy and part adventure, and its unconventional characterization that is hard to be seen often in Tamil movies.

Kill the Animals, Who Cares!

When I recently got into a stifled argument about using animals for testing the ‘harmfulness” of cosmetics and a whole range of medicines to “human beings”, my mind just opened up to a wild spectrum of thoughts about selfishness of humans and their welled up anger towards anything that is nature.

Thanks to those animal rights activists (and to the dismay, arrogance and hatred of the self-proclaimed humanists who do nothing to improve the conditions of the human beings they stand for but sit in the corner of a well furnished and an air-conditioned MNC corporate facing a beaming Personal Computer all day long, probably working hard to fill up their bank accounts to own a car, hook up to a man or woman and buy a well-furnished house. Necessarily in that order!), the much debated issue of animal testing is now seeing a positive change in favor of much maligned animals of our planet. In Europe and US, there are many alternative testing methods and laws that have been established to protect the interests of the poor animals, which otherwise is taken for granted.

Few questions to that bunch of cynics and hypocrites who would just turn cold shoulders to the sufferings of animals (I just can see many flaring their noses and calling me names! It took twenty six years for me to understand that the words “animal rights” can evoke such hatred and from people!), do you even know what you are arguing about? Do you know what it means to give up your life to protect the lives of another alien species which has assumed a fake superiority over this world, all because this group of selfish and cannibalistic creatures can talk, walk on two legs, subjugate the females of its own group, create divisions based on class, creed and race and yeah can also moralize and stigmatize sexuality?

Can you understand how it feels to rub some toxic chemical on your peeled skin and be baked at a temperature that is definitely some 20 or 30 degrees higher than the normal temperature? Can you feel the pain? Oh anyway, why do you have to bother about that? Just go ahead with rubbing your newly purchased cosmetics on your face, legs, arms and anywhere appropriate! But, hasn’t it ever struck you that these tiny plastic bottles of colorful cream have done nothing to change the way you look. You still look the way you are, horrible or tolerable, whatever it is!

Do you know how it feels to have your eyes gouged out? If only those hundreds and hundreds of cats, dogs, rabbits and mice could talk! How would you know all these! All you would want is assume that false superiority over the entire planet and its magnificent nature. All you would want is to live under the false impression that you own the planet and you can do pretty much anything as you wish to destroy its soul.

And to those who would raise the questions like “Don’t you take tablets to kill the germs? How is it justified then?” just to counter argue and get a false kick by assuming that this stupid question could probably corner the opponent, may be you don’t know anything about the defensive mechanism that is necessary for any living creature. The very reason that you put both animal testing and bacteria-killing under one umbrella shows your lack of understanding about nature and the rights that every living creature is entitled to. This question closes all the doors of possibilities of any further discussion because either this inanity is intended as an effective tool to stop the argument or is a sign of your lack of ability to understand nature and therefore further argument is going to be useless.

Well, anyways, who needs your support! There is progress that is already happening. You can’t get away that easily after doing loads and loads of damage. And you are already facing the brunt of it. Melting polar ice caps, expanding ozone holes, pouring rains and submerging islands! And I can almost hear you all laughing out there. Laughing at my stupidity of talking about global warming and animal testing as though they are the same. May be they are not same. But both are the outcomes of the same attitude. Arrogance, selfishness, irresponsibility and power-hunger! Aren’t these the same qualities that made humans think that they own animals? And isn’t that this feeling of ownership which has driven us literally to the end of the world?

Anyways, those who have decided to turn deaf ears to people crying hoarse about the dying planet will continue to close their ears. They may just go that extra mile to kill the planet, just for the sake of it! Who are we to ponder on these things anyway? Let’s just carry on with our lives! So what if the polar ice caps are melting? So what if our tigers are disappearing? We don’t eat tigers anyway! So what if the frogs are killed just for the reason that they are ugly croaking creatures? I am not ugly, even if so, I know I won’t be killed (of course as long as I am rich, definitely straight , may be not a woman and do not belong to any of the uncouth tribal class) for this reason because that amounts to murder and we call it bigotry!

So what if there are nearly 186 languages in India that have gone extinct, taking a vast knowledge about nature? Let’s just go ahead and standardize English as the medium of communication because that gives us a hep image and probably gives our country an international recognition that we are so in need of! So what if there are hundreds and hundreds of tribes, like Banjaras in Hyderabad, who are being evacuated in the name of development? Let’s just work in those multi-storey IT buildings and earn as much as we can. So what if animals are tested in the science laboratories? Let’s just go about consuming those branded medicines (definitely not generic!) and cosmetics to make us look beautiful and also probably kinder by helping us to hide our ugly, sinful and demonic faces under that sticky mask that would have killed at least a dozen of animals!