………….Pratik Shah

I had heard a lot about ‘Avatar’ and the associated reviews were fantastic. I was very eager to see the movie. After 3 idiots the next movie I wanted to see was ‘Avatar’. The thought was……..300 million dollars spent on the movie and it has to be something out of this world. I had very high expectations from the movie and fortunately the movie lived upto it. To add to the excitement was the ‘3D’ masala which had excited me a lot. Chota Chetan was the last 3D movie I had seen in India. On 30th Dec 2009, I and my office colleague booked the tickets for 8 pm show at the Hub Mall, Goregaon. It was a working day but we couldn’t have waited till the weekend…the eagerness was quite high.

We bought the spectacles for watching the 3D movie by paying Rs 30 for each specs. The movie started as sharp 8 and it was an awesome experience. The 3 Dimension effect was mind boggling. We can see the images so near and so real, it was a paisa vasool movie. It was a technological wonder, seamlessly combining live action and digital image. James Cameroon has written and directed the film. He has leveraged his experience in ‘Titanic’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Terminator’ to create this marvel. The idea conceived in Year 1994 was finally given a shape in 2009.

‘Avatar’ the brain child of Director James Cameroon depicts the greed of the human race. Humans can go to any extent to exploit the universe to explore riches/resources which can help them earn millions of dollars on earth. The story revolves around American soldiers trying to invade a different world ‘ Pandora’ (earth sized satellite based on polyphemus) . This world is a different planet with floating mountains, unusual creatures, dense forests and their inhabitants were called ‘ Navis’ (similar to tribals). This world was supposedly full of rich resources which could earn millions in the real world. With the help of technology the army had created state of the art monitoring systems and machine-robots (based on motion sensing technology) which could help them achieve their goal. The US Army had identified an individual from the Marine Navy whose clone will be created and will resemble to the inhabitants of the Pandora world i.e the Navis. Navis are shown as a mixture of animal and human beings and they are reasonably larger than the normal human body. The clone was created using his DNA; however the identified person died in midway. The brother of this person (the protagonist- Sam Worthington) ‘Jake’ agrees to help the army in place of his brother. Initially, there is resistance from the research team due to noviceness of this guy, but finally, under due pressure from the army they accept him.

The Objective- To get into the world of Navi’s, befriend them and explore their planet ‘Pandora’ and support the army to invade Pandora and loot the planet.

The technology used is similar to the movie ‘ Matrix’ where in through a machine connection the person goes into a different world and starts living there. Thus, he is sleeping in one world and is alive in other world and when he sleeps in the other world he wakes up in the real world. As it goes with all cinemas, Jake is attacked by the inhabitant creatures of the forest and Neyteri (daughter of the tribal head) saves him from those creatures. He starts liking her. He is then attacked by the Navi’s and he convinces them that he is one of them. Neyteri is given the task by the tribal head to teach Jake their style, values, etc and make him like one of them. In this process, Jake falls in love with Neyteri. He then becomes the supporter of Navi’s and fights the army and in the end truth and honesty wins.

The entire screenplay is amazing with graphics and 3 dimensional tools playing a pivotal role to bring an enriching movie experience to the audience. The following movie sequences are worth viewing

 DNA cloning
 The learning skills of Jake at Pandora
 The invasion of American army at Pandora
 Jake’s master strategy to fight the US army-Climax

This movie seems to be a remake of an old movie ‘Pocahontas’ made in 1995, but still it is worth an experience. The movie has already grossed 617 million worldwide in 2 weeks.

Watch this movie in theaters only. You will not enjoy it on DVD.