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Hollywood is ignorant of India's space achievements. They are unaware of ancient spaceships from Vedic times. I'm confident that under Modi-ji's brilliant leadership India will become a superpower by 2020. Hollywood will not be ignoring India for long!
Hollywood reflections: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ shows where China and India stand in the global pecking order - TOI Blogs
Hollywood reflections: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ shows where China and India stand in the global pecking order
Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster The Martian is winning praise for its stellar narrative of manned space exploration and actor Matt Damon’s superlative performance. The gripping story of how an astronaut is accidentally left behind – Damon’s character spaceman Mark Watney is presumed dead by his crew members – on Mars in course of a Nasa manned mission to the Red planet in the not-so-distant future and subsequently rescued, makes for thrilling cinema. But what is also interesting is the subtle commentary on China and India.
As The Martian’s plot unfolds we find Nasa scrambling to rescue Watney. Their initial plan is to send a supply pod to Mars so that Watney can survive till the next manned mission to the Red planet. However that plan fails as Nasa tries to rush through the rescue project, leading to the launch vehicle blowing up shortly after take-off. It’s then that the Chinese space agency decides to help its American counterpart. But the Chinese are cautious and there’s an interesting dialogue between two directors of the Chinese space agency where they debate the modalities of offering such help. Since this would involve offering a secret Chinese booster rocket to launch a supply craft, they decide to proceed gingerly and go for agency-to-agency cooperation.
In subsequent scenes, the Nasa guys fly down to China and one of them is seen complaining about the technical preparations for the Chinese launch. But his Chinese hosts give him a stoic, confident look. When the launch is successful, the Americans sheepishly congratulate their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese help turns out to be critical in rescuing Watney. And one of the last scenes of the movie has the Chinese space agency directors present during the launch of the next manned mission to Mars, which becomes a collaborative project between the two countries.
Taken together, one could concluded that The Martian reflects China’s position in the world today. It recognises that China has made huge progress over the last few decades and has become a technology giant in its own right. Seen in the context of the fact that Hollywood has long been used as a propaganda tool – playing out Anglo-American perspectives of history where Germans, Soviets, Japanese and of late Muslim terrorists are the bad guys – The Martian’s take on China is refreshing.
China today wants to be treated as an equal to the US. In fact, Beijing has been pushing for a new major powers relationship with Washington that takes into account current geopolitical realities. It would be wrong to conclude that China wants confrontation with the US. However, both countries will do whatever it takes to preserve their respective strategic interests. This doesn’t mean that they can’t cooperate when opportunities arise, something that The Martian amply highlights. The very fact that the movie shows the Chinese coming to the US’s rescue – as opposed to the Americans saving the day in other space movies like Armageddon – reflects that China has truly arrived and now occupies an important space in the American psyche.
Contrast this with the Indian element in The Martian. The character of Vincent Kapoor, Nasa’s technical head of Mars operations, is actually played by Nigeria actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. In fact, throughout the movie one struggles to figure out why Ridley Scott had a character with an Indian surname when it was going to be played by a black actor. This becomes even more perplexing when one finds out that in the original book that inspired the movie Vincent Kapoor is actually Venkat Kapoor, an Indian-American.
One can only conclude that the Indian element in The Martian was forced – it may not have been there at all. Whereas China is very much front and centre. That, as it happens, is a fair assessment of where China stands in the current global scheme of things and how the West views India – exotic and charming but too far down the pecking order.
Hollywood reflections: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ shows where China and India stand in the global pecking order - TOI Blogs
Hollywood reflections: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ shows where China and India stand in the global pecking order
Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster The Martian is winning praise for its stellar narrative of manned space exploration and actor Matt Damon’s superlative performance. The gripping story of how an astronaut is accidentally left behind – Damon’s character spaceman Mark Watney is presumed dead by his crew members – on Mars in course of a Nasa manned mission to the Red planet in the not-so-distant future and subsequently rescued, makes for thrilling cinema. But what is also interesting is the subtle commentary on China and India.
As The Martian’s plot unfolds we find Nasa scrambling to rescue Watney. Their initial plan is to send a supply pod to Mars so that Watney can survive till the next manned mission to the Red planet. However that plan fails as Nasa tries to rush through the rescue project, leading to the launch vehicle blowing up shortly after take-off. It’s then that the Chinese space agency decides to help its American counterpart. But the Chinese are cautious and there’s an interesting dialogue between two directors of the Chinese space agency where they debate the modalities of offering such help. Since this would involve offering a secret Chinese booster rocket to launch a supply craft, they decide to proceed gingerly and go for agency-to-agency cooperation.
In subsequent scenes, the Nasa guys fly down to China and one of them is seen complaining about the technical preparations for the Chinese launch. But his Chinese hosts give him a stoic, confident look. When the launch is successful, the Americans sheepishly congratulate their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese help turns out to be critical in rescuing Watney. And one of the last scenes of the movie has the Chinese space agency directors present during the launch of the next manned mission to Mars, which becomes a collaborative project between the two countries.
Taken together, one could concluded that The Martian reflects China’s position in the world today. It recognises that China has made huge progress over the last few decades and has become a technology giant in its own right. Seen in the context of the fact that Hollywood has long been used as a propaganda tool – playing out Anglo-American perspectives of history where Germans, Soviets, Japanese and of late Muslim terrorists are the bad guys – The Martian’s take on China is refreshing.
China today wants to be treated as an equal to the US. In fact, Beijing has been pushing for a new major powers relationship with Washington that takes into account current geopolitical realities. It would be wrong to conclude that China wants confrontation with the US. However, both countries will do whatever it takes to preserve their respective strategic interests. This doesn’t mean that they can’t cooperate when opportunities arise, something that The Martian amply highlights. The very fact that the movie shows the Chinese coming to the US’s rescue – as opposed to the Americans saving the day in other space movies like Armageddon – reflects that China has truly arrived and now occupies an important space in the American psyche.
Contrast this with the Indian element in The Martian. The character of Vincent Kapoor, Nasa’s technical head of Mars operations, is actually played by Nigeria actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. In fact, throughout the movie one struggles to figure out why Ridley Scott had a character with an Indian surname when it was going to be played by a black actor. This becomes even more perplexing when one finds out that in the original book that inspired the movie Vincent Kapoor is actually Venkat Kapoor, an Indian-American.
One can only conclude that the Indian element in The Martian was forced – it may not have been there at all. Whereas China is very much front and centre. That, as it happens, is a fair assessment of where China stands in the current global scheme of things and how the West views India – exotic and charming but too far down the pecking order.
