The Alien World

Varaha, or the Boar Incarnation of Vishnu.
Mahdya Pradesh, 9th-10th century.
Avatar is a Sanskrit work, which literally means incarnation. Avatar is a very common referenced term in Hinduism, and almost every God has an avatar. For example, Siva has twenty-eight avatars, Vishnu has 10, also referred as Dasavatara (Das = 10), Ganesha has 8, and so on. Rama & Krishna are the two well-known avatars of Vishnu in human form. Both these avatars were to get rid of evil from earth.

Anyway, I m not going to talk about Hinduism, but rather about the latest James Cameron’s movie – Avatar. It is one of the highest grocers of all time (crossing $ 1 Billion mark). The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Humans are exploiting the natural resources of Pandora, and in doing so threaten the existence of the local race Na’vi and its ecosystem.

One important thing shown in the movie is the literal connection between everything that exists there; the neural network between na’vi, animals, & ‘Tree of Souls’, plugging their ponytails into the creatures’ nerve systems or binding with tree’s branches. Humans are shown in their true color in the movie, what we really do is destroy, not realizing that on Earth everything is connected – trees, animals, weather, food. Everything…

We need a new avatar on earth to save her from the evil clutches of humans. Probably humans should be re-engineered so that they become more sensible and learn how to coexist with others.

Well.. the original was release in 1951 was a classic and iconic in many ways. It was a super hit at that time. Michael Rennie did a superb job of playing Klaatu. He was charming and mysterious at the same time. The plot was simple – An alien lands and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. It was a timely movie with a message of peace during a time that the Soviets and U.S. were deep into the ‘cold war’.

2008 saw the remake of the original sci-fi with Keanu Reaves playing the role of Klaatu. Keanu Reaves does not leaves an impression as Klaatu. While in the original movie, Klaatu was shown more humane and friendly, the new movie showed Klaatu to robotic & stone faced, which may not be liked by someone who have seen the original.

Overall, message may be good, but it is no where close to the original blocbuster. You can happily miss it.

I usually don’t write about movies but Tashan is different, it has forced me put my views on the blog. Tashan was supposed to be one of the most eagerly awaited films of 2008, but it turned out to be a biggest disappointment. Watching the movie is pain and torture. No story line and dialogs are hardly understandable. This was certainly not the kind of movie expected from Yash Raj banners. Director has done total ‘kachra’ of all the big star cast in the film. The only saving grace of the film is Akshay Kumar, whose comic timing is superb and is the only thing you can watch in the movie.

In fact, the movie is so damn painful, that our police may plan to use is for torturing the criminals. And I’m sure that all criminal will peal for mercy after watching this. Police can just increase the degree of torture by just making the criminal watch the movie repeatedly!

Songs are good. You may find it hard to believe but if you hear them on a good music system repeatedly than you will start liking them. Lyrics of ‘Dil Dance Maare’ are too funny, ‘Tashan Mein’ is catchy, and ‘Dil Haara’ has good lyrics.

Rating:

Movie: 0.5/5
Music: 3.5/5