The Universal Language

I went to watch Avatar last week. Great fun, really enjoyed it, says Imran Khan.

I went to watch Avatar last week. Great fun, really enjoyed it. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, Avatar is a Hollywood film directed by James Cameron, the guy who made Titanic, Terminator and a bunch of other hugely successful films. Without giving too much away, the story revolves around this alien tribe whose village rests upon a deposit of some extremely expensive mineral. The humans have come here to displace the village, so that they can start mining, and in the climax the villagers all band together to fight off the humans. There’s a full-fledged romantic track as well, between the human hero and the alien heroine (who happens to be the chief’s daughter).

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As the end credits rolled, and I looked back at the film, it occurred to me that what we had here was a Hindi movie. Set in the future, with fancy computer graphics, but story-wise? A full-on melodramatic Ballyvood pichchar! And it’s not the first time I’ve felt this way... over the last couple of years, I’ve been feeling more and more that Hollywood films are feeling like Bollywood films. Not that they’re copying our stuff, but that they’re starting to use classic elements that we would consider major clichés. They simply dress them up differently and make it work.

I have a theory on why this works. (I have theories on most things, you should know this about me; some are insightful, some cause people to point at me and laugh hysterically.) I’ve said time and again that what I love about movies is the fact that they have the power to cut across barriers and touch people. We live in different countries, speak different languages, follow different faiths. There are so many things that make us different from one another, but I think there are just as many things that make us the same. What do we really want from a movie? What do I really want when I go to watch one? I want to feel something. I want to laugh till my stomach hurts, I want to cry, or drop my jaw with amazement and wonder. Scare the hell out of me, make me sit on the edge of my seat with tension, make me feel something. Anything. That’s why I bought a ticket, it wasn’t for the AC or the popcorn. (side note, I hate how people say a movie is ‘timepass’ like it’s a good thing. That’s not a good thing. Films aren’t meant to be ‘timepass’, they’re meant to be entertaining. If a film is mediocre, don’t accept it. We deserve better.)

Why do things become clichés? Because they get used again and again. Why do they get used again and again? Because they work. We may be from different countries, but funny is funny anywhere in the world. And so is sadness. And love. Movies speak a universal language, they connect with us all. How cool is that.

Write to me at imran.khan@hindustantimes.com