Avatar :: Spreading the blues

::DISCLAIMER::
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The things mentioned in this blog are all my personal views, not meant to be offensive to anyone, but if you still feel offended, i apologize in advance.
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An evil plot by the "evil" American government, a display of America’s military power, some fighting here and there, cool special effects, a love story, and victory of good over bad. Mix all this together and you get a Hollywood blockbuster. So what made avatar different from the other similar recipes?? What did it have that made it THE biggest ever grosser in Hollywood history, recently surpassing TITANIC??? Was it those blue creatures on that moon so close to a planet that people could stand and talk between the two heavenly bodies. Or was it the display of 21st century military equipment being used in 2154??? Or the love story between a human and one of the blue (apparently female) na-vis???
If you are one of the hardcore avatar fans who go "Woooooooohoooooo" at every mention of this movie (which i believe is the only population that could like this movie) then go away now, don't waste your time here.
Frankly, the movie was no more than a bunch of haphazard, not-so-well-thought-out ideas that were put together in a movie that primarily was just AWESOME special effects. I'm a guy who works on animations in flash himself, so i really appreciate the wonderful animation techniques used in the movie. But as far the plot and storyline go..... mediocre!
The movie was conceptualized in the 90's, scripted for a release around '99. But citing the lack of "proper technology" back then, the start of the movie was put off until 2005. Apparently this story was compiled as a mixture of a lot of fiction stories that the producer cum director had seen over the years. Pretty apparent now, and clearly justifying my stand on the haphazardness in the film.
My takes on the plot? Well the first part is pretty believable, considering the greedy nature of humans, that IS what we might end up like in the future, and then of-course then look into other extra terrestrial civilizations to rip-off. But anyway that’s not the point here. What i wonder is, being such a developed nation already, with the events of this movie taking place 144 years from now, did not one smart soul there think of using the long distance warfare techniques?? Why are countries spending millions of dollars developing long distance missiles and stuff?? One more thing, fine, you've been chosen for this dangerous mission and have to control an avatar of yours, but dude, falling in love with this blue cat-like creature, who hisses more than the number of times i yawned in the entire movie (a considerable number i assure you), who's double your size and ugly as hell!!! Seriously weak!! Another serious flaw i found was that, even after leaving jakesully for dead and abandoned in the forest, and knowing him to be a traitor, taking him back into the tribe when he returned was too easy and very hard to believe!
The climax, though unexpected, was just as dull... The only adrenaline pumping scenes in the movie being the final war. Here too it was extremely bothering to see everyone else going down but the lead guy avoiding the bullets and missiles as if he was racing a snail!! But after watching "The matrix", ive stopped applying this logic to any movie at all...
All in all, why this movie grossed the highest amount ever is beyond me. Both the movie and this fact still give me the blues!!

P.S. I can understand if you "appreciate" the movie, and so di i, but how can anyone "like" a movie which has no serious plot??

5 point someone ::Living the story:: Part 3

The second rung of tests had already pushed my morale so low that the potholes in the college ground also seemed flat. Thus oasis was the only highlight in an otherwise dull and depressing week. The anxiety levels had touched a new high among the first years specially. With all the fuss, it seemed to me like it was less of a college fest and I pictured it something like a live linkin park performance or some BIG FAMOUS event with many (if not “all”) colleges all over India competing to get in!! Lost in this daze and reason clouded with fancy dreams, I waited rather impatiently for the event. This was also the time I found out that actual work had to be done when you are part of a department.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Department and Club “thing” at our place. So, Bits-Pilani, the no.1 ranked private institute in the country is virtually controlled by students when it comes to internal affairs! Everything ranging from security to sponsorship is student run. To some extent I support this system as it is what I dreamt of. By the students, for the students! As nice as it may sound, that sentence has a small devil. That brings us to the first lesson you “actually learn” here (the acad stuff is… well... mostly just required to be mugged up). Gather around kids and clear all the wax from your ear, lesson one: IT IS EASIER TO APPEASE A PISSED OFF PROF AS COMPARED TO A PISSED SENIOR!! Yes... that’s true and the ugly truth too. So, keep your seniors happy… and good things will just HAPPEN. Getting back to the point, even these departments, amongst themselves are divided into levels. Two things at Bits-Pilani will take you more than one stint at the college to learn, one being ALL the short-forms and what means what in which context and where! And the other is all the departments and clubs and associations and forums and ****gasping for breath*****, how they function, operation, and other balderdash. So, I am (proudly) a part of one of these “minor departments” called CCTV which does all the stereotypical “geeky” stuff that makes people drop down their jaws in awe. So, I’ve been glorifying this department and all its operations all this while, where lies the catch? There has to be one right? Well, not one, there are two! The first being the old stereotyping problem. Girls look upon you as being the typical “smart-ass” know-it-all shy nerd who neither knows nor gives two hoots about girls (NOT TRUE!!! Quite a few dudes are in the department.) The second was a perennial drought of girls IN the department (for obvious reasons, though those who DID use their brain effectively did make it in). No offence.

During recruitment we were told a lot about the kind and magnitude of work to expect in the months to come. It seemed easy to handle and light at the time. As the much-hyped cul-fest was around the corner, the jobs and more so the pressure was mounting. Night-outs became something common. So much so that I remember seeing the time as 2 am more than I saw my own face in the mirror every morning…. rather afternoon (if I got up early) As I guess I said before, sunrise and sunset were indistinguishable only that we knew we never could possibly see the former, as it always took place at unearthly hours (as far as we were concerned). It was during this period that the All Night Canteen (ANC, going to get to that in a later post) became our favorite haunt. Work hours extended early into the morning hours on days, with gaming being one way to relax ourselves. Finally as the day arrived, anxiety was at fever pitch!

Continued Part 4…….. 

5 point someone ::Living the story:: Part 2

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The start of the first round of tests was a big event for all us freshers. Everyone wanted to prove their mettle, to start off the semester on a high..... Well atleast "everyone" thought "everyone" was preparing hard! For the first time in weeks, our minds were "inhabited" by thoughts of serious preparation, otherwise dominated by THE most devilish plots. These new inhabitants, though, were still pretty much a minority, and the effect they had on our preparation is pretty much comparable to the effect our movement has on the orbit of mars (something that i fancy since we were taught newtons third law!! That we pull a planet with an equal force as that of the planet on us) getting back to the point, as the exams arrived, days flew past and we were hit by more than one debacle. The first round was closed book, ironical.... because so was preparation. Our books practically opened up only on pre-exam nights!

I always looked forward to exams while in school. It used to be the time to show those teachers who thought of me as a worthless bag of pawns and pranks, that.... things are not always learnt from books. In college this continued, but after the first round i realised that i liked exams for some other reason. It was the nights before exams that we came up with these awful ideas and pranks that would make the mahatma gandhi statue (just outside our hostel) frown and look away! Being the only ones up at around 3am, we had all of the hostel for ourselves. And we made full use of it! More than necessary i feel, thinking back. For us these nights were the most anticipated thing at that time, in an otherwise pretty dull and mundane village of pilani. The adrenaline rush they brought was incomparable!

Talking of adrenaline rush, the cultural festival of Bits-Pilani, OASIS-2k9 was due that same month (October). This too was meticulously organized in the middle of our second round of tests. This second round was open book (Our books remained closed though!). There was a hype built around this event, a week prior to it though, the aura described by our seniors was missing and prominently too. Sans the buzz and the excitement, we thought we were in for a disappointment. This, considering it was slap-bang in the middle of our second round of tests, was a double whammy (First being the results of round one!). As the date grew upon us and the shadow of a dismal show looming large, all students, clubs, departments put in extra efforts, doubled their work to get results. There was hardly time to spare even for mundane things such as a bath, as people went days together without a brush up.

To be continued.. Part 3............... :)

5 point someone ::Living the story:: Part 1

I was like just another Indian kid. Happy at getting a 90+ percentage in class 12, maintaining a clean record in school, featuring in the IIT-JEE merit list (Don't care if it was a fluke!!), and most of all, getting into a reputed college, BITS-Pilani, one that featured in the top lists of any survey!

I had it all, it felt like all those years spent among piles of books and papers finally DID amount to SOMETHING! All those assurances by my parents (i'm sure they all do it!) that it's just a little struggle now, study hard and get into a good college and you can relax after that... It all seemed true!! There was also a little voice in the back of my head, though, which kept whispering to me: "A little harder, and you could have been MUCH better off!!"... But i always put it away by asking myself, whether i would sacrifice those wonderful moments of enjoyment, fun for all those years??? No way! ke-sara-sara!I was happy with what i had achieved, and so were my parents!! (Actually overwhelmed having written me off as one who hardly ever studies and always settles for second!! :P )

So finally the moment had arrived for me to go away from home, off to fulfill my dream 200kms away. This was the first time i was to move out of the protective "shell" of my parents i'd lived in for , well, all my life!! It was difficult at first, to adapt to all the changes. First i met my room-mate (fro now on referred to as roomie), this hearty guy who at first appeared to be extremely studious and quiet! A character now i would never think of associating him with, he's anything but quiet! More on that later.He was really outgoing, so it was through him that i befriended the rest of the guys in my hostel.

By and by i met them all and we all got along pretty well. Actually too well i guess! When boys get comfortable in someones company they slowly open up and reveal their true "self"! This did not take long for us guys and pretty soon all of us were devising evil plans and pranks together.

At that time it excited me to think that this was the group i was to live with for a year, a feeling i'd soon come to realise was misplaced! As the semester kicked off, lecture halls were jam-packed, everyone would be running from one class to the other, sitting at the canteen for more than 5minutes would be frowned upon, and everyone was discussing acads! As expected, this initial spirit fizzled out in less than a week, surprisingly it lasted a month for me!! But as more and more were disillusioned by the system and methods of teaching, we (our whole wing) was still sincerely attending all classes with many even sure of scoring 10/10!

After that last bit of spirit in us also burned out, we too succumbed to that devilish monster called laziness. We would wake up every morning to see the other sleeping and so, sleep off again. It was like someone had rewired our body clock 6 hrs ahead. Afternoons were our mornings, sometimes even the sunset would be confused with sunrise!! While all this was happening, we did not realise one thing, that the classes were not running on our whims and fancies. We did realise it though, a little too late unfortunately.

Once the first round of tests began, it was a rude wake up call for all of us. Personally i never knew what was going to hit me, and when it did, i didn't know what to do! I knew what i had to do, but "how??" that was the question that i battled with all the time.

To be continued i Part 2........ :)