Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.
The current of the river swept silently over them all- young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom. 
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. 
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger cried, 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the messiah, come to save us all!'
And the one carried in the current said, 'I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare to let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.'

- from Illusions, Richard Bach

Life has stagnated.
From last three years I have been based in Pune, working from home mostly.
Now its boring.
Same room. Same laptop.

I need change.

I saw The Avengers!!
First time I got to know that there exists this whole world of Superheros, or Start trek, or Star wars or, LOTR was when I started seeing Big Bang Theory. Till then I of course came across these things but never noticed them. They just remained there like some article you see and decide that you dont want to read it.

And after I started seeing big bang, I realised that a bunch of people I know are also into all this. to start with my brothers, some of my best friends etc.

Now this particular film I had heard from these same sources mentioned above was about too many super heroes together. So I decided I might as well see what this whole buzz is all about. So I went with two of my bros.

For first 15 mins I hardly understood anything going on screen. Thanks to Siddharth and Alok, they kept feeding me with all necessary info. So I slowly started to get hang of the story.

I was laughing throughout out the film. Because it was very very hard for me to relate. It was more like some cartoon going on with people flying in sky and spaceship and what not. At first Siddharth and Alok were confused as to why am I laughing. Because something that has a 'wow' effect on them, had a 'haha' effect on me! After a while they got pissed off for my laughing and I had to suppress it but I still kept shaking in chair with mouth shut. And after some more while they also started laughing with me.

Its the same story since ages. A villain, something very very precious at stake (be it woman, or empire, or earth or something else.... in this case- The Tesseract) and ofcourse the dear Hero/Heros for rescue!!5 of whom are men and then to show gender equality (or to add lil spice to screen play) one woman.

Frankly I dont get it. जेव्हा राम रावण गदा युद्ध करतात तेव्हा लोक हसतात. पण जेव्हा Captain America आणि Thor त्यांच्या ढाल आणि हातोड्यानी लढतात तेव्हा its ok!!

रामायणात आणि महाभारतात नाही का दाखवत-
असं कोणी २ जणांचं युद्ध चालू असतं. दोघांच्याही हातात धनुष्य असतं. आणि मग ते दोघं असे डोळे मिटून मंत्र वगैरे म्हणतात आणि मग एकदम दोघांच्या हातात अस्त्र येतात.
ही अस्त्र म्हणजे बाण आणी बाणाच्या टोकाला कुठे असं प्रकाशाचं कारंज, नाइतर चमकणारा प्रकाश गोल, किंवा फुलबाजीमधून येतात तसे प्रकाशाचे तुषार येतायत असं काही पण.
मग ती दोघं ती अस्त्र एकमेकांवर सोडतात आणि ’हाहाहाहा’ असं मोठ्ठ्यानी हसतात. मग ती २ अस्त्र एकमेकांवर आपटतात आणि त्यातलं एक अस्त्र गायब होतं आणि मग ज्याचं अस्त्र जिंकलं तो परत ’हाहाहाहा’ असं हसतो. आणि ज्याचं अस्त्र गायब झालंय तो ’अरे बाप रे!’ असे भाव चेहेर्‍यावर आणतो.

सेम टु सेम वाटत होतं जेव्हा  Thor त्याच्या हातोडीनी आणि Captain America त्याच्या ढालीनी लढाई करत होते.
मग हसू नाही येणार तर काय होणार!


Besides when Iron Man with his legs on fire roams around the sky, all I could remember was this-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Pjo0WjBcs
-The Indian Superman song with Govinda and Kimi Kartkar :D :D

Ofcourse the move is not all that childish. I liked the plot and also the screen play. The sets for labs, the High-Tech Helicarrier (thanks to IMDB for the word - I didnt know what to call it, its not spaceship and its not air plane for sure) etc. are amazing. Shear treat for eyes. The thing I loved most is how the Irons man's suit is automatically taken out when he is back to his house-whatever! And one more scene when the helicarrier is initially a submarine and then it takes off and converted to a helicarrier.

Only all of it doesnt really seem connected to humanly workd on earth. Only once when Loki takes control of that scientist and then at the end suddenly when war is wages poor mortal souls like us are shown.Who seem to be rushing hurriedly for life.


Besides though the movie is all about superheros, god of thunder etc. the whole story triggers with so very human emotions like envy, jealousy, quest for power etc. It is basically triggered with Loki's hatred for Thor as a brother. Isnt that remarkable?


One thing that I did not like and its very common in all these kinda Hollywood movies is that their concept of 'earth' starts with Manhattan and ends with Manhattan. So when some aliens attack earth, they basically attack Manhattan. Even author like Ayn Rand makes this mistake. Her novels also keep referring to New York as 'World'. Thats bullshit. And another thing I disliked is glimpses of India are shown in film, supposedly of Kolkata. And all they have shown is Slums and extreme poverty. So Rest of the world might get notion that India is all about slums (especially after Slum Dog Millionaire)


आणि मला खूपच बेसिक शंका आहेत. म्हणजे ह्या लोकांचे सूट्स काढून घेतले तर ही साधी माणसं आहेत का? हे लोक खातात काय? ह्यांना शी-शू लागत नाही का? असे अनेक.  But I guess its best not to ask them :)

So will I go to see superhero film again? Sure! Its fun!

PS: The film has rating of 8.9 on IMDB. Well thats hard to believe.