Beyond Pandora: Unraveling the Layers of Inspiration in James Cameron's 'Avatar'

As the theater lights dimmed, whisking us away from the humdrum of reality, I found myself plunged into the fantastical 3D world of 'Avatar'. The children's shrieks of excitement mingled with my own wide-eyed wonder as James Cameron's Pandora came to life. The lush, vibrant Pandora, with its grizzly machines, fierce creatures, and mystical floating mountains, unfurled a canvas so vast that even the beloved Star Wars trilogy seemed to pale in comparison.

Exploring the Fantastical World of 'Avatar': A Tapestry of Myth, Nature, and Technology

Cameron's epic saga tells the tale of humanity's quest to colonize another planet, eyeing a rare mineral reminiscent of our world's oil. It struck me as a poignant reflection of humanity's unlearned lessons from history, repeating our conquests and exploitations on an interstellar scale. In this distant world, Cameron paints a universe with conditions akin to Earth's, subtly nodding to the theory of cosmic inflation.


The story, at its heart, is a classic tapestry of adventure, bravery, sacrifice, and redemption, yet it's spun around an imaginative world that draws from a kaleidoscope of inspirations. Cameron's genius lies in how he tweaks these inspirations to craft something truly captivating.

Prehistoric Echoes: The Mesozoic Inspirations Behind Pandora's Creatures

Consider the creatures of Pandora, for instance. They seem like they've leaped out of the pages of a prehistoric encyclopedia. From a panther-like creature reminiscent of the Mesozoic era's Gorgonops, chasing our hero Jake, to a Placerias-like animal with a hammerhead shark's face and a rhino's body. Then there's the Na'vi's horse, a curious blend of an antelope and Clydesdale, and the vividly colored birds, echoing the ancient Archeopteryx and Ornithocheirus.

Machines of War: Drawing Parallels Between 'Avatar's' Tech and Real-World Defense

Cameron's military machines in 'Avatar' are a testament to his keen eye for detail, seemingly inspired by real-world defense technology. The helicopters are a hybrid of the UH-60 Black Hawk and the V-22 Osprey, while the spacecraft bear a striking resemblance to the US space shuttle. It's almost as if these machines have rolled out of a Boeing or Lockheed factory.

The Na'vi Tribe: A Cinematic Ode to African Cultural Richness

The Na'vi tribe, with their societal structures and cultural nuances, seems to draw heavily from African influences. Their rituals, dialect, and even the occasional song in the movie, all resonate with the richness of Central African tribes.

From Comics to Screen: Tracing 'Avatar's' Nods to Popular Culture and Childhood Nostalgia

Cameron's nod to the world of comics and toys is unmissable, too. The concept of transmogrification, reminiscent of Calvin from 'Calvin & Hobbes', is ingeniously adapted as our ex-marine hero switches bodies between his human form and his Na'vi avatar. And let's not overlook the 'Transformers' influence in the motorized robots, or the resemblance of Colonel Miles Quaritch to the toy figure Chip Hazard from 'Small Soldiers'.

In essence, Cameron, much like Spielberg, shows his adoration for comics and toys, weaving them into a cinematic masterpiece. 'Avatar' isn't just a movie; it's a grand confluence of numerous inspirations, masterfully blended into a narrative that is as enchanting as it is reflective of our own world.

Open Office

I was in Bidar recently conducting a 1 day workshop for Govt officials in their district office premises. During the course of our meeting a stray dog entered our meeting room and was quickly given marching orders. That reminded me of a similar instance in Hassan district office when a similar meeting was interrupted by a beggar seeking alms. When I narrated this incident, the senior district officer quipped rather wryly “Yehan toh OPEN OFFICE hai” (its open office here).

Now I know what the term actually means and probably where the German Software Company Stardivision (now owned by Sun Micro system) that developed this software could have got its inspiration from.

3 Idiots : rolling credit

Last week I went to Fun cinemas at Cunningham road to watch the English flick Avtar with the kids and there I saw these ‘bum’py benches quite popularized by the movie 3 idiots. It reminded me of the 3 issues that unwittingly got tagged with the movie and bore striking resemblance to its namesake. Was it art imitating real life or otherwise? For there could have been only 3 idiots emerging after the release of the blockbuster movie of the year and it would not be difficult to put a finger on it. And the rolling ‘credit’ would go in the following order

Idiot #1(Chetan Bhagat) – the writer who cried foul over the credits for the film. But why cry over spilt milk Mr.Bhagat? I can understand 10 lacs would be a pittance compared to the 200+ Crores that the film has raked in and is still counting. And I am sure you wouldn’t have cared much if your name came in the rolling titles or elsewhere if your remuneration was linked to a percentage of movie proceeds. It doesn’t take so much of arguments over 9 o clock prime time NEWS to figure out whether the film is loosely based on your book or inspired or whatever else you call it. Just the trailer of the movie or the clips that is regularly shown on TV channels is enough to settle the doubt. Anyway you make to the top of the list for making of hash of it, you bargained a candy for the movie deal and then you gatecrash late in the party as a spoilsport .

Idiot #2 (Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra) - ‘All is not well’ Mr.Chopra. You took the bookrights and made it into a successful commercial masala movie but in the whole process conveniently forgot to give the devil its due. The least you could have done was to assuage the poor writer by massaging his alter ego and giving some credit for the movie. But no you choose to relegate him to the back alleys of rolling titles in the film. Whoever so have read the book will not have any doubt about where the movie is derived from . I have read the book but not seen the movie , and the promotional clippings of the movie on TV channels is enough to convince me about its veracity. So why go to town on the subject contradicting the same? Your unconvincing performance in front of the media entitles you to the second honors.

Idiot #3 Viewer (Hoi Polloi) – You neither got any credits nor raked in the moolah, but you were doughty inspired by the movie to go and re-enact the ragging scene. You are the quintessential idiot who ensures that there is no business like show Business.

To Byte or not to....

I lapped up an external Hard drive during the year end promotional offer at STAPLES recently. I was in a bit of dilemma while choosing the capacity of the Hard drive, whether to go in for a 250GB or its multiples thereof. The Grey cells were trying to process the required capacity that would fulfill my need in the long run. But the dilemma was to put a finger on the exact number of bytes & its billion multiples that would suffice my purpose. Considering that just a few years back my 1 GB pen drive (pic inset) which now appears like one of the solid state radio’s of the 1950 era replete with cathode tubes like resistors seemed to be enough of a backpack for all my digital storage requirement.

But Moore’s law equivalent was relentless, the digital information deluge was far outpacing this one GB summit of mine. With swathes of HD content downloads available on superfast internet highways nowadays, the decision was not easy. And compounding the problem was the fact that last year I landed myself with a small wafer sized pen drive that was now gulping 4GB of data quite effortlessly. It also dawned upon me recently that I needed to take regular backup of my laptop data to keep a BCP in place, just in case the red lettered situation arose. I knew of friends & colleagues who landed themselves in a digital snafu after getting their laptops stolen or when the Hard disk crashed and their teary tales of years of toil & sweat , the rag-picked digital heap all vanishing into thin air, just in a snap of the finger.

Wiping out one such nightmare of my mind, here I was trying to mull over the required bite that I need to put in this byte machine to chew up my necessary data. The store did not offer me much options to choose from but with an offer going on Seagate at Rs 4999 for a 500GB storage device, I reckoned it was a good deal. Now 500 GB I reckon is enough to store about 5000 copies of Encyclopedia Britannica. Even this may be a minuscule considering that Facebook, for example, uses more than 1 Petabyte of storage space to manage its users’ 40 billion photos. A petabyte is about 1,000 times as large as a terabyte (1000GB) and could store about 500 billion pages of text.

Given this complexity it crossed my mind to try out the other option of using the services of web hosting providers and online backup services that are available in plenty today. But that would be too adventurous for me , I for one believe in the motto that my data should belong here under my own hood.