PRAGOTI

The film barely offers an honest debate on caste-based reservation; instead the plot merely promotes private education, mixed with an unhealthy dose of charity, individual morality and traditionalism, writes SAQIB KHAN

"Peepli Live can be accused of the same crime that it accuses the media of – just scratching the surface of all issues it could in an hour and a half without really trying to push the envelope of discourse on any front, neither the role of media, nor agrarian crisis or indeed the crisis of Indian politics itself", says Tejal Kanitkar in a review of the movie in this post.

Films like other performative cultural forms can speak the language of its own times, in which they have been created and situated. As a visual reflection of society in which it is contextualized, it can speak both covertly and overtly about the past and present world, and albeit can articulate politics and reflect upon philosophy as well. James Cameron’s Avatar, a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster is not an exception in this regard. Maidul Islam writes in his review of the film.

The film Avatar breaks a trend (but for some exceptions) in Hollywood films - which has been about the self-aggrandisement of the "empire" as the saviour of the world from the ruthlessness of barbaric aliens (either extra-terrestrial or perceived ideological enemy of the United States).