[Favorite Films] The pursuit of happiness...

'This part of my life.....is called remembering my favorite film'........."The pursuit of happiness" is one of the best films I have seen. Its a truly inspiring one and the fact that it based on the real story only makes it more special. The film has plenty of dialogs that stick and also a lot of scenes which only make me think how blessed I am.

Before I go into those specific scenes /dialogs that I want to talk about, a brief summary about the whole film can be found in the wiki page here. Now let me get to the parts of it that I savored most...

Offer of the Job - My all time favorite scene. I am sure anybody who has endured the movie till the end is waiting for this scene. Chris is asked to come inside the room where he was interviewed. The dialogs were to this effect

Chris: I decided to wear a shirt today for it will be my last day. (History: he had not worn a shirt for his job interview.)
Partner: Well, why dont you wear one tomorrow for it will be your first day.

And bam... all the pain, suffering, comes back to Chris in that one moment and just passes out of him through his tears turning his eyes red. And after that comes my favorite part where he runs down to the street. He is not able to control his happiness and seen jumping. I like the way its been pictured with the normal life passing by him with poeple moving on, around him. And he wanting to share his happiness with anyone and everyone, finds no words to communicate. He doesnt have that anyone right near him. He has to run all the way to his child's school to share the news. I always contrast this with the ease in which I called my mother as soon as I was made the offer of my first job. It was as easy as dialing a few numbers on my cell.

Repairing the Bone-density scanner - From the time he recovered the stolen scanner to the time he sold it, it has been one hell of a time. He first unsuccessfully tries to sell it only to realize at the last moment, right in front of his customer that it has stopped working because of a fuse. Then with only a few dollars left, he buys a fuse. On the way back, his son out of a child's curiosity wants to take a look that. He neither wants to disappoint his child nor does he want to see anything happen to that fuse. I liked the way he hands it over and at the same time keeps a watchful eye on that fuse. Finally, inside the dorm when he fixed the machine, I love the scene when he switches the machine on. They show the whole dorm and the to his much relief the machine LIGHTS up. This is kind of symobical in a subtle way, because starting from that point, everything in his life seems to light up.

A night in a sub-way restroom - This again is an interesting scene for he wants to somehow spend the night at the sub-way. And at the same time he does not want to make it explicit to his son. He comes up with this whole time machine/caves etc etc story. This kind of reminded me of the famous "Life is beautiful" where the father made the whole stay at the concentration camp appear like a story to his son. However, the difference being, in this film the son is not so innocent to not realize whats happening. Specially, when somebody starts knocking at the door of the restroom, the desperation/insecurity is nicely portrayed by Will Smith.

The spirit of Chris Gardner - Another thing that amazed me about the story was the spirit of Chris. Under no circumstance would he give up. The confidence in himself is well portrayed in the interview. I do admit that desperation sometimes adds to your confidence. But the interview in itself, though a little unrealistic tries to convey the message. I still remember a few dialogs from that interview where he says - "Sir, I am the kind of a person, who, if I do not know the answer will tell 'I do not know the answer', but I bet you what, I know how to find one and I will find it no matter what" and towards the end when partner asks "What would you say to a person who hired someone who had not wore a shirt for the interview." this is one of my all time favorite reply that "I would say that he must have been wearing some damn good pants..." .
The same spirit is also seen when he is seen literally carrying his whole house along with him. Once in the lift when somebody asks him about so much of baggage, without a wink he replies saying he is going out of station on work. He never gives up and also we should notice that there is not an inkling of inferiority complex either.

Finally, after having gone through the entire film, my train of thoughts...("arjun express") comes to a halt, but is still able to hear the echo.."This part of my life......this small part..is called happiness"