Pandora

It was a sleepy, dreary and not so memorable morning, one of those where you truly don’t have a recollection of, and yet…it came to be somewhat of an enigma. The drive was dormant at best, mixed in with flurries and scattered rays of sunshine. The clouds resembled somewhat of an old marshmallow mass, hanging in limbo between two gray masses of abyss. A typical winter morning, never overly depicted in art, and yet so common in real life. Air was stiff with exhaust piling in on top of you, letting the mood set in with the force of hurricane.

I turned on NPR to hear a bit of common sense and divert my attention elsewhere from this hollow void. The words started flowing, releasing a bit of energy with each sound, filling the car with almost a weightless aroma of reason. At first, the topic did not register and yet eventually I started hearing sounds of Bollywood bursting in through the words, engulfing the theme with colorful motifs and fantasy-like settings. The program centered around a new movie being released in US, which was made in Bollywood. It has become a common occurrence to see these appear in main-stream releases and no longer contained the kind of novice that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ brought into American world of cinematic perception.

But, that’s not what caught my attention. The actor being interviewed began to describe the premise of Indian cinema, the reasons behind it’s ever-lasting sugared and almost redundant portrayal of goodness and love. He described how the movies did not present a fantastical view of the world if inspected closer. They portrayed a perfect love, a good life and an uncomplicated future. To a Westerner, these would be considered idealistic and non-attainable. We tend to release a negative/revolting view against pure concepts, which have been a standard of ‘successful’ life for quite a while. Does that portray us as a failed contingency of human species? Do we not have realistic standards in our lives, so that our cinema does not have the drive to present these on the silver screen? Do we never accept a result, without not having to see beyond it? When does over-achieving presents a regression in progress?

The interview proceeded to disclose the goals/dreams/aspirations of an average Indian family. They did not seem out-of-reach… A good education for kids, a good marriage, a nice car, enough to be comfortable. These were not fantastical, these were REAL. What has become a fairy-tale like ideal of over-the-top Bollywood was nothing more then an exaggerated view of what a life should be, no matter what your origin is. These were simply a set of glorified goals of what an American family was back in the 50s. It was not idealistic, it was simplistic.

This realization begs the question: what has become of America? Are we no longer able to lead a life free of complications? Do we bring on those complications in order to justify our existence? Why do our movies depict extreme horror, violence, perverted sexual behavior, hurt and pain? What makes this a bearable direction for a cinematic history that drives this society to such a morbid life’s outlook?

The interview proceeded, as I thought about these things, wondering whether this signifies the opulent power of progress to make the human species revert on their well-being? And then I heard this phrase, “America is Pandora”. I think that I stopped listening after that moment, not realizing how profound this statement was. Just recently having the experience of watching ‘Avatar’ brought back the emotional turmoil that was stirred up by the movie. Pandora, a far-away planet, with eco-friendly species, co-existing in pure harmony and being invaded by the humans… We were considered to be the Pandora to India? How could that be?

And, then, it clicked. The America that we live in and the America that we are a part of, are two very different worlds. Our country is not Pandora to us. But, our country has always been a symbol of freedom, independence, power and humanity. We do not possess the purity of Pandora, nor do we have the emotional intelligence to co-exist in pure harmony with our world. We are the pests of this planet, slowly, but surely destroying it, piece by piece. So, Pandora-like vision of USA is surely the same thing as fantasy-like vision of India’s Bollywood. We see there movies as a ideal of something that does not exists…and sadly, we are seen by the rest of the world as something that we are not…

So, in the mere logic of mathematics, it seems that…if to India, USA is Pandora (the idealized place) and to America, India is Bollywod (the fantastical world of fairy-like themes)…then, America is nothing more then another Bollywod…so, the next question is, why don’t our next Oscar winner dances in the streets and portrays the long-gone era of goodness, purity and so-needed humanity?