“AVATAR”
In Hinduism, Avatar refers to the appearance in physical form of a deity that has descended from heaven to earth. It is mostly translated into English as "incarnation", but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation". Avatar is derived from ava (down) and tṝ (to cross), describing the descent of a deity into manifest form . Throughout ages, Lord Vishnu, the Hindu God of Protection has incarnated in various life forms in situations where Dharma (Righteousness) was in danger, because of certain evil elements in the world. An oft-quoted passage describes the typical role of an avatar of Vishnu—to bring Dharma (Righteousness) back to the social and cosmic order. In mythology these incarnations are termed as the Avatars of Lord Vishnu
It appears that this Hindu terminology has been made popular throughout the world by “Avatar” the movie, a science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. May be James Cameron drew the inspiration from the Indian mythologies. The bad and greedy humans (who else) gets beaten black and blue by the Avatars.! The film was touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. If Cameron had dwelled into Hindu mythology, perhaps he could have found more exciting story lines. He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned. . So we can brace ourselves for another onslaught of technical brilliance and record breaking collections! Well, I would be the first one to queue up for the “first-day-first-show” tickets!
I was really disappointed that Avatar didn’t make it to the best film category. To my surprise a movie based on war did!
Enjoy!
Seshadri