There have been a slew of charges over recent months that James Cameron lifted the plot of Avatar from previous writers, most memorably by the St. Petersburg Communist Party, who called for Cameron’s arrest for plagiarizing the work of Soviet-era science fiction writers.
But this article from Ukraine’s Day newspaper makes the most convincing case of all. Columnist Maxim Chaikovsky writes that there is far more than a passing similarity between the movie Avatar and the ancient Hindu story of Lord Krishna’s avatar – which is blue, descends from the sky, takes the side of a native tribe against his kin, and falls in love with the native king’s daughter. Luckily for Cameron, the author and copyright holder died about 3,000 years ago.
For Day, Maxim Chaikovsky writes in part:
It turns out that the sensational plot of Avatar, which now has columnists and bloggers of every kind wearing out their keyboards, was committed to palm leaves thousands of years ago in elegant Sanskrit lettering. There, the blue-skinned avatar of Krishna flies the giant Garuda to the noble tribe of Vrajah, which lives in the forest of Vrindavan amid precious ore of “cintamani” stone. There, the sacred Govardhan Hill hovers above the ground where the Trees of Wishes grow, under which Krishna’s new tribe hides from an “air attack” by his sky brethren. That is where beautiful native girl Radha lives – whose love of Krishna fills the ancient legend with life and meaning.
But James Cameron need not fret. In contrast to modern playwrights and science fiction writers, Vyasa is hardly likely to sue for plagiarism and seek redress for copyright infringement. Besides, to his credit, Cameron openly admitted to borrowing the name of the film and the blue color of the Na’vi from sacred Hindu texts. It was only due to the regrettable delay with the invention of 3D-cameras that the ancient epic’s conceptual semi-twin became reality only millennia after.
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