The Pursuit of Happyness

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen and would always be in my favourite list of powerful movies.“The Pursuit of Happyness”, which means the chase for happiness, is based on a true story. As you can readily notice, the word "Happyness" is misspelt in the title. A wall present in the neighborhood of the protagonist has a graffiti which wrongly quotes the phrase as Pursuit of Happyness, thus emphasizing the world where he lives. The phrase incidentally, was made famous by American President Thomas Jefferson in one of his quotes:)

The movie draws an outline of the life of the protagonist who is at the bottom rock, the lowest of the lowest strata of the society, yet who dares to dream. Dreams that are unrealistic; dreams that are big....full of great achievement,of becoming 'A Somebody'. The movie is the story of a 'self made' man who stops at nothing but success. Coming from a not so educated background, our hero runs a family and strives to make ends meet. He works as a sales person trying to sell x-ray machines which he had bought with all the money that he could manage . The machines unfortunately,do not have a great demand and thus create a personal crisis for him . His wife working as a waitress,being the only actual bread earner of the household decides to leave him. There is a saying which goes like 'When it rains, it pours'. Very true to the saying, he faces many obstacles at the same time, such as being abandoned by his life partner, not being able to afford a good shelter for his son, living a poor lifestyle, crumbling under debts, his x-ray machine being stolen, being put in jail etc.,to put it in correct perspective, even struggling for mere survival. It is a torture from all sides - mental, physical, social, emotional and finally he triumphs through the virtue of his strong will power. Will Smith has done a fantastic job on emoting the common man's struggle. He also carries his role on his shoulders and effortlessly brings out the challenges and problems facing the unprivileged.

This movie sprang new thoughts in my mind ! Every man faces hardships – big or small. Sometimes you may think how worse can things get. and you may end up in another bigger and far worser situation. Sometimes you may think, 'okay, what else can happen'; and you may end up in the midst of nowhere with all your options closed! One may be forced to lie, cheat, fight or even give up. One can choose any of the options, but the goal always leads to one and only one aim in life – Being Happy. How can a common man keep his dignity and self-respect; and at the same time come out of the miseries caused by this materialistic, dominating, shallow and self-centered world is actually the pursuit of happiness!!

Coming back to the story,despite of all the hardships, Will Smith tries and keeps trying until he runs into an investment planning firm,which becomes a turning point in his life.

The movie concludes with a message that it was those obstacles and the ensuing struggle that became a fierce weapon in the hands of the protagonist to fulfill a desperate need - A need to be happy. I would also add a moral to the story; nothing stays permanent .And it is the law of nature.

Summing it all up,I feel this movie is an inspiration to the common man ... a common man who resides within all of us.