I wasn’t a film critic when James Cameron's Avatar took the world by storm in 2009. I was in Class 12, deep into preparing for my impending pre-board exams. But even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have taken the trouble to go to the theatre to watch the film because it just wasn’t my genre. I avoid sci-fi, superheroes, and aliens if I can help it.

Also, I like engaging with popular stuff long after the world has forgotten about it. Friends, Harry Potter, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and The Lord of the Rings, I took to them years after the dust had settled on them. It was like discovering an old relic abandoned somewhere in the attic; it allows you to travel through time. It’s all yours. To love, hate, or cry over with glee. Oh, the joy.

So, in the buildup to the much-anticipated sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, I watched the original—the world’s highest-grossing film—for the first time this Tuesday. I know. And I was mighty impressed by it all—the magnificence, the vision, the beauty, the hard work, the perseverance, the performances, the heart. Even 13 years later, Avatar holds up and how. But most of all, what bowled me over was how, despite being a sci-fi blockbuster of such staggering scale, Avatar is intimate, intuitive, tender, mature, and gives you a lot to think about. And how, in spite of so much going on, it manages to carve space for one of the most memorable heroines ever created on screen.

Can you imagine Avatar without Neytiri? The svelte, sexy daughter of the Omaticaya chieftain who teaches our human hero Jake Sully the ways of the Na’vi and falls in love with him while at it. Jake is mostly brawn. Neytiri, meanwhile, is brawn, brains, heart, and soul. She lets an outsider in on sheer instinct and what she considers a sign from Eywa, the guiding force of the Na’vi. She is for Avatar what Devasena, the princess of the Kunthala dynasty, was for Baahubali.

This is high praise for a CGI blockbuster, a genre that barely leaves room for paper-thin female characters because Devasena is one of my favorite movie women of all time. But in Neytiri, I couldn’t help but see her. The fire, the oomph, the charisma, the grit, the valor, and the wisdom. Much like the Baahubali films, Avatar circles around its leading man. But it is its central woman that stands out and grounds the narrative, making it a rich, textured, and satisfying experience.

The parallels between Neytiri and Devasena are many. Consider their introductory scenes. Neytiri kills jackal-like native animals to save Jake on his first night in Pandora’s forests. Devasena, meanwhile, fights a gang attack on her procession. Both women display exemplary prowess at warfare, making the men gape, awestruck. Or how both of them fall for an outsider they know little about and are willing to defy convention for love. Or their unafraid fight for what’s right. Even if I watched it later, Avatar released eight years before SS Rajamouli showed Devasena in all her brilliant glory in Baahubali: The Conclusion in 2017. Neytiri, then, is the OG boss-babe, the classic antithesis of the damsel in distress. If you have watched Avatar closely or recently, you’ll remember it is she who saves Jake not once or twice, but three times.

Of course, I was clapping my hands with joy when Jake finds his ikran and takes his first flight or when he establishes himself as the new Toruk Makto of the Na’vi. Of course, my jaw dropped to the floor and stayed there all through that final battle between the humans and the various clans of the Na’vi desperately trying to protect all that is rightfully theirs. Of course, I was moved by how director James Cameron managed to base his most ambitious film yet on the debate of science vs nature, batting for a return to a more mindful, spiritually connected way of living. Of course, I loved his way of seeing capitalism as unbridled vandalism and his scathing commentary on individualism, industrialisation, and war. Of course, I was dazzled by the rich natural diversity and beauty of the Pandoran flora and fauna.

For me, it was a delight to discover that Avatar was not the empty carnival that Marvel and DC films have lately become. It is no Brahmastra, it is a Baahubali—that rare technological marvel that’s deeply rooted in emotion and ancient wisdom. Cameron deserves all the laurels for creating a world as wondrous and enchanting as Pandora. But his true achievement lies in making Neytiri the beating heart of this iridescent wilderness. Zoe Saldaña gives a performance of a lifetime, much like Anushka Shetty did as Devasena. I cannot wait to see how this feisty Na’vi is navigating motherhood and life in water 13 years later.

Read other pieces by Sneha Bengani here.