Avatar - 3 idiots-Veer - Facets of Cinema in India

I went gaga over Avatar. For me that was an over-whelming experience. In fact , so much so I was immersed in the visual extravaganza of Pandora , that I was actually depressed when the movie ended and I was back to the deary seats of Inox on Earth. How I wish I was a part of Pandora and not Earth ! I spent more than thousand bucks to watch this movie three times. couldn't get over it, may be I can watch it again.I salute the director who has so much of imagination, vision and ability to pull off such a movie. This was a movie for the masses as everyone loved it.With its incredibly stunning visuals and compelling story line, James Cameron's "Avatar" is memorable and meaningful. It's so much more than a film that looks cool with a 3-D treatment.It's one of the most expensive movies ever made, and it shows in every frame, with incredible CGI work, awe-inspiring landscapes and unforgettable flora and fauna of Pandora.

" Let’s start by talking about the CGI. We’ve seen other movies where entire characters were created by computers using the “motion capture” process. In this process, an actor plays a role on a soundstage so that computer sensors can record all their body/facial movements, which are then used to animate the characters in a lifelike manner. Sometimes that looks pretty good (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) and other times the characters have a bizarre dead-in-the-eyes look (The Polar Express). Avatar doesn’t have this problem. All of the Na’vi are computer rendered, but they have actual emotion and give the illusion of being fully alive. There were times when I forgot I was watching something that is essentially animated and subconsciously thought I was watching actors in suits and make-up. These are by far the most convincing CGI characters ever committed to film.

The action scenes on Pandora (also totally CGI) are really breathtaking. The Na’vi ride on large, colorful dragon-like creatures who eventually do war with military helicopters. Other movies with similar creatures (i.e. Eragon) have always looked fakey to me; these are totally believable within the confines of this fantasy world. Pandora itself has also been beautifully designed. It’s an exotic kind of dream-jungle world, with floating mountains and all sorts of strange flora and fauna. Everything is so fully conceptualized that it’s not difficult to mentally transport yourself to this extraordinary place."

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avatar/?page=3&critic=columns&sortby=date&name_order=asc&view=#contentReviews

Now coming to our Movie of 2009 from Bollywood - 3 idiots. Completely watchable, delivers a strong social message, very very funny and again transports us back to our college days. There is no technology brilliance here, sheer good direction, script and story. Though the autocracy of the directors cannot be forgiven for not mentioning Chetan Bhagat's name , based on whose novel the movie is made, the movie managed to hold on for a brilliant screenplay. Now thats a pure Indian Cinema shunned of technical intricacies and mind boggling effects , but we enjoyed nevertheless, as the characters and the plot touched our heart.

While we discussed the best of the movies we saw in 2009, I am actually scratching my head , is even a movie like VEER worth mentioning here? This movie is supposed to be based in the era of 1857 or before and I mean the hero was wearing orange jeans and fluff half jackets, the herione was wearing shocking pink nailpolish, the garish dialogue and the overdose of screaming , it was such a pity to even see a movie made out of bollywood of this standard when we audience have a standard of movies in our mind which is getting used to see movies like Avatar, 3 idiots, Black, Paa and even marathi movies like shwaas which manages to enthrall our mind and bless our souls as avid movie-goers. I mean you can have a look the image of veer and try to imagine this attire in 1850s in India. Why such inattention to details? Why make a period movie if you cant even manage the costumes and visuals? Why torture us?

Bless James Cameron, Peter Jackson ( Lord of the Rings) , Guy Ritchie ( Sherlock Holmes), Michel Bay ( Transformers and many more) and our own Rajkumar Hirani, Vishal Bhardwaj,Shimit Amin, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and many more who make our cinema , truly cinema !

slumdog millionnaire - trivial insecurity

Well, you know ART has to be liberated and that’s what is the film makers prerogative to show as what he wants and its our prerogative to watch or not to watch/ appreciate what we want to see. 

I completely agree slumdog has shown India on poor light wherein every nation has the dark under the light but again, slum dog is not unreal too. These thing existed and we wanted to NOT to show it or to sweep it under the carpet through our bollywood cinema . Bollywood cinema is now about Indians who stay in new York and share an apartment with girls or may be Indian couple staying in LA and having extra marital affair and we think inwardly “ what great culture” we are portraying. Why people don’t object to cinema like                                                     dostana or kabhi khushi etc? 

The point is , I am also having the pinch in my heart for showing the gross side of slums in India , but , I am sure the world knows much more about India then we think they know. The world knows about Lakshmi Mittal , Ambanis , our growing economic power, n-deal , our millions on Software Engineers across world and Taj Mahal ? 

So,  whats the big deal if Danny Boyle wanted to show the poorer side of India? Let the artist have his freedom , I would say. Or may be we would not have commented if Karan Johar or Shyam Benegal had won the same awards for the same movie. Are we not getting little bitter because a foreign film maker made it and not an Indian? 

Why don’t you protest when Adiga won Booker award ? The white tiger equally talks about slums and poverty of India. No but we appreciate it as pure form of good literature. The same way, we can appreciate this movie too !

Then, we should not forget VS Naipol,  Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri  who showed the bright side of our country and won booker award. 

Basically , the  audience are the same. They are intelligent. So lets not be insecure that someone is going to think of us as slums. Anyone and everyone knows the grandeur of India a lot to isolate our country as a dark country full of slums. 

I have faith in the audience. Are you thoughts with me?