13 January 2010

Nice, But Surreal !

Surreal – Dreamlike, bizarre, odd, strange, weird, unreal

Surreal, but nice! These were the words uttered by Hugh Grant’s character (an ordinary English guy) when Julia Roberts’ character (a Hollywood superstar) kisses him in the film Notting Hill.

But when I came back after watching AVATAR I felt nice, but surreal. Why?

Imagine the possibilities of the future. I’m not saying that we would like to be transported to an alien’s body (we need to find the aliens first, that too good looking ones). The thought, that a man can change his body by retaining his own self, his psyche, his emotions. It was explored in another Hollywood movie called End of Days starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which explored the phenomenon of cloning and transporting one to a new body, thereby leading to a perpetual existence! I’m not comparing the two movies, I can’t, simply because Avatar talks about the idea of Oneness and One Energy through which all beings are connected and End of Days gives the message of not interfering in God’s way.

But I feel, man being man; he was curious, is and will always be! Anything that was deemed irrational has come true. Let me give you a few examples; our world being round, gravity, talking through an instrument, flying, exploring the vast outer space, etc. The men who discovered or invented the phenomenon which we take for granted today were questioned, ridiculed and for noble souls like Galileo, ostracized from the society.

I just can’t stop thinking of the endless possibilities that we can go from here. James Cameron is just a genius of a film director and also, I must add, a visionary writer.

One of my favourite authors, Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) was a French writer who is considered the pioneer of the science – fiction genre of writing. To his credits are great novels like From The Earth To The Moon, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, A Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and Around The World In Eighty Days, which I devoured as a child. A point to be noted about this man was he wrote about air, space and under-water travel before navigable aircraft and submarines were invented, and before any idea of space travel had been conceptualized. He is often considered to be a clairvoyant, someone having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses. The Father of Science Fiction, Verne is an inspiration to millions around the world.

One of my favourite film-director, James Cameron is a Canadian born American film-maker is considered the best original writers of science fiction and then bringing it to life on the cinema screen. To his credits, as a writer, are truly great films like The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Abyss and Avatar.

When Verne wrote his novels he never knew those things would turn true. He only let his imagination run wild. Same could be the case with Cameron, the man is a dreamer.

The question I’m asking - Is James Cameron the Jules Verne of our time? Tall claim? Only time will tell.

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