Avatar : Decoding the Experience

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Insights into the making of a modern masterpiece

Look around you: Newspapers, Television News Channels & Entertainment Networks, Twitter, Facebook, every possible social and mass media platform online and offline is talking about only one thing in a unanimous voice. That is, how awesome ‘Avatar’ the 3D movie, rather the experience is. It is a foregone conclusion by now that at this stage no review or reviewer can influence the fate of this movie. Irrespective of what any reviewer writes, this movie will have its audience, followers, devotees all whom want to experience a slice of history.

The so-called intellectual elite when it comes to movies, the movie critics, for the first time seem totally irrelevant and outdated compared to what James Cameron has achieved with this one movie. This film is critic proof. Am sure most reviewers must have been stumped totally by not knowing what to write after they saw the movie, because it isn’t easy to comprehend what one has witnessed on screen. It’s like someone landing on the Moon and looking for street signs or a map to move around. There isn’t any map that exists. So in the same vein there needs to be a new language, new words that need to be invented to review a movie of such magnitude and technological advancement.

I doubt if most people who watched this movie really know what is so special about this film. I will try to put some things in perspective here so that all this makes some logical sense. In addition, I will also attempt to deal with the all-important question on everyone’s mind: Is this film going to change the way films are made from now on? That is what everyone has been hearing. The answer from me is both a part YES and a part NO. Are you puzzled? I will make my analysis of the movie and its impact a little simpler for everyone by asking a few questions which I shall also try to answer. In trying to answer this, I hope you can figure out if this movie will really change the future of cinema.

BIG Dhoka!

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Date : 17 December (Delhi - Noida)

1. 9.20pm: Finished Dinner
2. 9.23pm: Getting ready, its cold outside, a sweater would be handy 
3. 9.28pm: Start to feel bad as i leave back wifey and kiddos at home while i go to experience a slice of history all alone. Anu (wife) makes this sacrifice for me as she knows how desperate i am to catch this movie first day. And with little kids its not a cool option to take them along on a weekday. 
4. 9.30pm: Say goodnight and head out of the front door towards my car. As i go closer i hope that nothing untoward happens like my car getting stolen, tyres deflated, etc,etc. If so, how would i be able to reach the theater in time.Uff, thankfully all seems to be fine i can see my car
   
5. 9.31pm: Am feeling great, one hour 15mins more to go. Hope there is no traffic on my way, don't want to miss even one second of the show.
   
6. 9.40pm: Roads are clear, no traffic hurray!!! this way i would reach Noida before time. Maybe i could spend some time at the mall. After all am watching the film at 'BIG Cinemas' at the 'The Great India Place' Mall (TGIP). One of the biggest and best malls of the country
7. 9.45pm: Watching the Delhi metro trains along my way, what an awesome sight, i wish the whole country gets connected this way
8. 9.50pm: I enter Noida, few more minutes before i reach TGIP 
   

James Cameron & Me

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My first blog! Where do I start? A question I have been pondering about for the last couple of days. After a little thought about what I like the most, I realize, the first thing I should be writing about is the one topic that I am most passionate about – Movies.

Talking of movies, over the last few days there has been tremendous excitement about the upcoming James Cameron movie ‘Avatar’. I being one of his biggest fans have been looking forward to watch this movie in 3D. What with the entire buzz about the new technology used and the talk of it being the game changer in the motion picture industry. Would this movie really change the way we look at films? Would this be the turning point in the evolution of cinema? Are we at the threshold of a new era in the experience of movie watching? So many expectations riding on this film and the initial word is extremely positive from the international press who got to watch this film before anyone else could. Lucky people, I say to myself, they are the first to witness history in the making. Yet not to be disheartened, as a small concession I have managed to book tickets for the paid preview for tonight’s show at a Delhi NCR multiplex, a day before its official release worldwide. Some concession that is, to soothe my hurt ego. How can I not be the first one to watch this film? I am after all the biggest fan of James Cameron’s movies. Every movie this man has made has been a game changer in the industry so far. He has not only made technologically superior films way beyond anything that was being made each time but also has always made films with a heart. His characters, always placed in extraordinary circumstances yet seemed so believable. He is a true master of technology as well as the craft of compelling storytelling.