Of Ma and Mama...

Ever since my renewed fascination with Luck By Chance, I am constantly thinking of what that movie is trying to say. A detailed post is in the offing but I have been reminded of another of my all time favorite movie - Taal. I loved Taal, notwithstanding its mediocre performance at the Box office. Now, there's this scene where Anil Kapoor talks about his ideals. He says his mom told him to follow certain principles which were

• प्यार बलिदान से ही महान होता है
• नेकी कर दरिया में दाल
• कर्म कर, फल की इच्छा मत कर 

And then he says followed this principles for some time but it didn't take him anywhere..all he could do was end up as a background musician playing छैना..

However, then his Mama told him some other ideals which he should follow these principles if he wants to be successful in life, which are as follows

• प्यार सही लेन देन से ही मज़बूत  होता है
• नेकी कर पहले खुद से, फिर दूसरों से..
• बिना फल के सब कर्म बेकार है 
• इमानदारी से ज्यादा ज़रूरी है दुकानदारी
• Competition से जीतने के लिए ज़रूरी है जलन, इर्ष्या
• अमीर बनने के लिए ज़रूरी है लालच..
• बड़ा बनने के लिए ज़रूरी है दूसरों को छोटा दिखाना..

Ans he ends up as a millionaire!

By my own experience, I feel that the 'Mama' philosophy will help you survive in this world, but this has made me question many things - Can good people not survive here then? Will they be always left behind? Why do we have to do something by going against our grain? I really don't know.

Dialogue of the day:

ना प्यार, ना दोस्ती, ना इश्क, ना मोहब्बत, nope. दिल का खेल बताइये, दिल मत दीजिये. हम दर्द बेचते हैं खरीदते नहीं हैं

P.S. - At the end, when Vikrant (Anil Kapoor) realises that Mansi (Aishwarya Rai) will never be happy with him, he lets go of her. So, eventually, the mom principles triumph as प्यार बलिदान से ही महान होता है. But what happened to Vikrant after that? Did he go back to his simple ways? Did he survive? We don't know!

P.P.S. - Did you know that  Taal was selected by the idol-of-us-all-wannabe-critics Roger Ebert for his 2005 Overlooked Film Festival!!