Surreal

For a long time,I argued with my friend about this movie 'Avatar'.
The movie,by James Cameron, is about a wheel-chaired man,Jake Sully who replaces his brother in a mission on a distant moon,Pandora.At Pandora,Jake meets an army colonel and learns about a greedy corporate head,who connive to drive away the native humanoid "Na'vi", in order to mine for 'unobtanium',which is lavishly scattered beneath the tribal habitat .
What follows,is a fight between the extra-terrestrials and humans,that is,the good and the evil forces where ultimately the good,win.To my mind,for the first time in any movie,aliens have been represented as a 'good' force.
After watching this,I tried to convince my friend that James Cameron,had surely been inspired by the famous Ogoni Nine case.My friend refuted since the credits did not mention anything.
Maybe not exactly.But,there is a similarity in theme.After all,cinema is a reflection of reality.
But what if reality begins to reflect cinema?Nasty things coming a full circle?A bit disconcerting,to say the least.
Not too far from where I live,in nearby Orissa,at Niyamgiri hills,things may look very familiar to millions of Avatar fans.
A reputed company wishes to mine for bauxite in these hills.The government is willing to oblige with customary clearances.Our political as well as corporate leaders have agreed that only industrialization can provide the real path to salvation for this wretched country.
However,a small thorny bush has come in way of their envisioned path.
Niyamgiri hills are considered sacred by a certain Dongria Kondh tribe,an indigenous group inhabiting these wooded areas,so they are putting up a hard fight to safeguard their gods and livelihood from being blown up.
Our leaders,find the tribe's unyielding stubbornness, most retrograde to their own plans.
Ah,these people and their queer ways!What's a few hundred already miserable lives on the altar of progress?
Quite interestingly,the word progress has an asterisk mark.Its definition,too, is provided by the government.Interesting also,because in this dark age,men fight to keep Gods alive.
The plot thickens, now,since the government has unleashed CRPF (armed forces) on the tribal people and labelled them as terror-mongering Maoists.

There is no director,no screenplay,no special effect,no animation for this story.So unlike the movie,ultimately the spontaneity of the real-life actors will unfold the plot to us.And because this is not cinema,we are yet to know if good(in this case 'god') triumphs,we keep our fingers crossed,we hope for a win-win conclusion instead of a win-lose one.
Shah Rukh Khan was so right!Don't we all like "happy is ending"s?