The Movie Avatar from a Hindu’s perspective
By:Rudra Chatterjee, HinduVoice UK
James Cameron's Avatar shares characteristics with Hinduism
I went to see the twelve years in making James Cameron epic “Avatar” the other day. There had already been some talk in Hindu circles regarding the movie’s use of the Hindu word/concept as its title. But, being a huge fan of the Terminator movies (Terminator 2 in particular), this wasn’t my main reason for wanting to go see the movie.
After being told that the tickets were sold out in at least three cinemas, we rode through the freezing cold weather for more than an hour to go to another cinema in the ass-end of nowhere in the hope that we might catch a show there. So was it all worth it? Yes, but I don’t really wanna do a traditional review or even feel that this is a movie that you need me to convince you to go and watch. In fact, if you haven’t seen the movie already and happen to be reading this, then read no more, and just watch the movie – and then read this. Nor do I wanna recount the flaws of the movie here, and yes, there are some flaws; or talk about how cool the three million dollar 3D technology is and yes again, it is very cool indeed; but both of these are amply talked about elsewhere and in fact, are quite obvious; so I shall say no more. I shall however, from time to time, just to amuse myself, quote excerpts from what Russ Fischer of SlashFilm.com calls the “utter right-wing lunacy of the Movie Guide’s take”; Movie Guide by the way describes itself as “The Family Guide to Christian Movie Reviews”.
The plot of Avatar pits the corporate greed of the human colonists against the peaceful Pagan natives of the distant world of Pandora known as the Na’vi, whose land sits on a priceless mineral deposit that the humans want called “Unobtainum” (when you read it spelt out it does seem a bit silly but it didn’t occur to me at the time). To help the humans get it, the corporation that mines the Unobtanium and its mercenary army recruits a young paraplegic soldier, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), to infiltrate the Na’vi by linking his mind to one of Na’vi bodies called “avatars”, genetically bred by the corporation for the purpose. So, the ‘real’ Jake lies wired-up and unconscious, at HQ – but, while in this state, he is taken in by a Na’vi tribe, and the rest is all, well think of The Last Samurai. This is a simplistic recounting of the plot and to be sure, the plot really isn’t ingenious or anything, but this film is about the experience and if anything, the simplistic good versus evil story adds to the epic scope of the movie.
From what I understand of James Cameron, he is a deep sea expedition buff and has taken inspiration from the deep sea flora and fauna to create the completely phantasmagorical world of Pandora that really has to be seen and for which no amount of words can do justice; whilst being completely beyond belief Pandora feels completely relatable at the same time. I think the biggest compliment I can give the movie is that whilst I felt transported to another world, as a Hindu it felt like being home in a way I have hardly ever felt before. The film has a heavy nature oriented and pagan spiritual element to it. There is a scene in Avatar where the Na’vi are sat around a large Mother Tree invoking their Mother Goddess, Ewya and singing what sounded an awful lot to me like the Gayatri Mantra. Reminded me of when I visited my village in India as a child and the entire village was sat around a very old Banyan tree praying to Dharti Maa (Mother Earth) on day of Bhumi Pujan. Other more subtle philosophical similarities between the Na’vi culture and Hindu Dharma are enumerated here. The look of the Na’vi themselves appears to be based on African and Native Americans tribes and their culture and spirituality is representative of many indigenous pagan traditions, including Hindu Dharma. The summary of Avatar on the MovieGuide describes it as:
“AVATAR is a visually stunning, but slow, shallow and abhorrent, science fiction adventure pitting evil human capitalists against heroic, spiritually sensitive aliens on the planet Pandora, who worship a false deity and nature. Too graphically intense for children, AVATAR has an abhorrent New Age, pagan, anti-capitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race”.
I guess they are right … well minus “shallow and abhorrent” … and the “false deity” part.
This is that James Cameron had to say in an interview (click here for full interview):
“With my relationship with the ocean and seeing the devastation of the coral reefs and by all kinds of human activity … I do feel a sense of outrage, in the sense that as an artist, it’s kind of my responsibility to create a warning and remind people. People need to be reminded from every direction. Maybe people want to go see a film for pure entertainment, and not want to think about it and not have to feel guilty – I’m not trying to make people feel guilty, I just want them to internalize a sense of respect and a sense of taking responsibility for the stewardship of the earth … and I think this film can do that by creating an emotional reaction”
I feel compelled to say that even if I didn’t like this movie (which I do and I can say with some certainty that it gets better on repeat watch) I would still have liked this film, if for nothing else then for the service it does in planting that seed of thought that we ought to take responsibility for the stewardship of Mother Earth. Eco-mindedness and environmentalism is something which appears to be a bit of a fad at this moment of time. Avatar also goes to some length in adding to the popular zeitgeist a spiritual element to this, something I feel is sorely lacking. We all talk about “Mother” Nature but never actually see it as a mother, and Avatar, I would hope, could remind us of that.
Another thing that Avatar made me feel was (and perhaps I’m being naive for feeling this way, but one can hope) a sense that Hollywood is maturing, even if in a very small way, and in fact has come some way from the skewed portrayal of native populations – remember the Indians in Temple of Doom or when Marlon Brando refused to accept an Oscar for the way Natives Americans were portrayed in Hollywood. Despite the genocides committed by the Europeans, they are not used to seeing themselves being portrayed as the bad guy. And even when this subject is addressed in Western cinema there still tends to be a refusal to portray it from the point of view of the natives themselves. The plot usually involves a white protagonist who comes into contact with an alien, native or indigenous culture, manages to get himself accepted into this closed society and not only does he become accepted he becomes their greatest member or warrior. An eloquent reviewer had this to say:
“These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color – their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the “alien” cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become “race traitors,” and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It’s not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it’s not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It’s a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.”
Avatar shows exactly same trend, but it I believe that it takes a very small step forward nonetheless from previous similar portrayals. In films such as ‘Dancing with Wolves’ and ‘The Last Samurai’ although the protagonist changes sides he still remains white; in “The Last Samurai” although Tom Cruise becomes the samurai in the red armour, he doesn’t put of the samurai mask that would have covered up his ‘I’m Tom Cruise’ face. ‘District 9’ which came out a few months ago, takes a small step forward in that the white protagonist who initially does not want to turn into an alien eventually accepts it in the end. And Avatar goes a little bit further still in that the protagonist willingly turns into the native. ‘Baby steps’ as a friend of mine called it.
This was a great movie and definately had spiritual characteristics in it..from Buddhism and Hinduism from my knowledge on the 2 religions
Loved the emphasis on nature and peace in Avatar