Pursuit of Happyness.....

Few days back i watched a movie, 'The pursuit of happyness' starring Will Smith(as Christopher Gardner) and his real life son Jared Smith. What moved me most while watching this real life story was the persistence, father-son relation and stubborn will of Chris Gardner. The movie is down to earth and dialogues are heartbreakingly real.

The story is about Chris Gardner, who makes a living by selling bone-density scanners. The movie is about struggles when he hits a low point after he and his 5-year-old son are evicted from their San Francisco apartment. Gardner acquires an unpaid internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm where he struggles to keep appearances while forced to carry a suitcase with all his belongings to work. Along with his son, Gardner faces many hardships, including living in a shelter, but continues to strive to carve his place in the firm and to pursue his dream of a prosperous, happy life.

Few of the scenes in the movie are very eye catchy, like the one where Gardner solves the Rubicks cube puzzle in a cab, in front of a person from a stock brokerage firm, where he hopes to get an internship.

In the movie Gardner tries to define his views about happyness.. He realizes what Thomas Jefferson, the third US president wrote in his Declaration of Independence, that all men were endowed with the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Jefferson had specified the pursuit of happiness as a right, not happiness itself. "And I thought about how he knew to put the 'pursuit' in there," says Gardner, "like no one can actually have happiness. We can only pursue it."

Everybody has their own idea of happyness, Gardners wife leaves him to pursue her happyness, her idea of happyness is a good home, food, clothes, money to spend... A crazed man tries to steal Gardner's bone-density scanner, which he thinks is a time machine. That is his way of pursuing his happyness of time travel. Gardner finds happyness in being a stock broker, being a responsible father.. He pursues it by enduring all difficulties.. Some of the scenes in the movie are very moving, for example, Gardner does not keep the phone receiver down between calls so that he can save few seconds, he does not take breaks to drink water, by doing all this, in a day he could save 9 minutes.. wow can u imagine the struggle he puts in.. all to pursue his happyness... Gardner makes his son believe that the toilet room in the train station is a cave and they have to hide from dinosaurs in the cave, and spends a night in the toilet room.. His struggle in the personal life to achive happyness has been beautifully portayed and Will smith has done justice to the role.Gardner pursues happiness and finds it as a father having fun with his son, while watching a match in the stadium, enjoying time on the beach, or spending the night in a luxury hotel although he knows they might soon have to sleep on the street again.

Gardner, who sees his son playing basketball with so much enthusiasm says that "No matter how well u play, some day u will have to leave this and find ways to do job to earn money for living". seeing his son disheartened by his words, Gardner feels guilty.. he says to his son "Listen, dont let anybody tell you that you cant do something, not even me. People cant do it themselves, they say you cant do it.. you've got to dream... And you've got to protect your dream.. you've got to pursue your dream".

The scene where chris explains his son how 'Probably' is different from 'Possibly' is also nicely shot .

Another notable part of the movie is the scene where Gardner comes to the interview for internship in a old shirt with paint spilled all over it. The moment he enters the interview room after seeing the mess and noise in the stockbroking firm he says " Wow, For half an hour i have been sitting outside thinking about the excuse i can give for wearing cloths like this, but now i dont have to." he also says to the panel "I am a kind of person who tells 'I dont know' if i dont know the answer for something, but tell you what, I will find the answer.." Gardners positive ness and sense of humor is nicely portrayed in the scene where the interviever asks him "Mr. Gardner, what would you say if someone comes to an interview without a shirt on him and i give him the job, what would you say Mr. Gardner" and Gardner Replies "He must've had on some really nice pants."

There are hundreds of other scenes that i liked in the movie, but it is best felt when watched. The movie gives a new paradigm of looking at things, with inspiring true life struggles and incedents in Chris Gardners life..

Now i recognize the importance of knowing about peoples life, earlier when somebody used to read biographies and autobiographies i used to think, why should someone waste their time in knowing what happened in someone else's life.. But now i know that life is a school and experience is the best teacher.. Knowing about people is like education, we can learn from their mistakes and put things that worked for them into our lives..

There are very few movies which you remember for years, just because of the way you felt,the way you started to think, the way you involved yourself when you were seeing the movie. This movie is one among those few..

And About Chris Gardner, he later started his own finance-consulting-stock brokerage firm by name 'Gardner Rich'. The company went public in 2005 and Gardner, still holding 75% shares amassed millions... He is a true legendary inspiration...