The pursuit of happyness !!!

That 'y' in 'Happyness' of the title is a mistake done purposely. :-)

I happened to see a movie today which I was urging to see from a long time. It’s called the pursuit of happiness.

I was awestruck by the movie. Amazing acting by Will Smith, hats off to him. And more surprising is the acting of the little boy Christopher (Jaden Smith). He has done a fabulous job. The story revolves around the relationship of a father and a son. It’s just a plain simple story happening in all of our lives daily. The thing is that, they make us realize what we are doing in life. I am sure, while watching this movie; you will have your memories refreshed. I had mine. This must have been happening or has happened in our daily lives.

The film begins in 1981 in San Francisco, California. Linda and Chris Gardner live in a small apartment with their son, Christopher. Chris has invested the family's life savings in a franchise selling portable bone density scanners. Linda works in a dead-end job in a local hotel laundry. The tension between them mounts as unpaid rent and bills continue to accumulate.

When his girlfriend walks out, Chris is left alone to raise Christopher on his own.

Chris accepts an unpaid internship at brokerage firm Dean Witter Reynolds that promises employment to only one trainee at its conclusion. His lack of salary and failure to sell more scanners leaves him riddled with debt; he and his son eventually become homeless. Chris and his son are evicted from their apartment and have no place to go. They spend several nights riding buses and sleeping in subway restrooms, saddled with their meager belongings. They sleep on the street and even behind the locked doors of a metro station bathroom. They begin lining up at the Glide Memorial Church on a daily basis in an effort to secure accommodations for the night. Sometimes they succeed, other times they literally are left out in the cold. As he struggles to provide a semblance of a family life for his son under the direst of circumstances, Chris becomes more determined to complete the intern program and become the sole trainee the firm will hire.

Chris’ determination finally pays off when he lands up getting that job after going trough a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut.

With self-confidence and love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above the obstacles to become a Wall Street legend.

I have two favorite scenes in this movie:

1^st: He is trying to sell a scanner and he begins a demonstration in front of a
Doctor and that machine screws up. It doesn’t work. He is devastated. He has
$ 22 in his bank account and a son on the other side. There is something in
That machine that needs to be replaced. He donates his blood to get that
Money, buys that part, and fixes it in the scanner.
Now is the time to test that. Just one push of a button. His expression before
pushing the button and after pushing the button was just amazing.
I mean, you could just imagine being in that place in that situation.

2^nd: This is when the results of the internship were going to be announced. They
Call him into the cabin to tell him that you are the guy that we want to hire.
When he comes to know that, one can see the expression on his face. He is
Wanting to cry, waiting to cry. Bur somehow he controls it and once he gets out of
that cabin, he rushes outside the building and explodes. Amazing stuff !!

All I will say, is that it is a must see movie for the people who really ‘live’ their life.