Braveheart

* Who is this person that speaks to me as though I needed his advice?

* The problem with Scotland, is that it is full of Scots.

* His passion captivated a woman. His courage inspired a nation. His heart defied a king.

* I shall tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say that I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes. The King of Scotland had died without a son, and the king of England, a cruel pagan known as Edward the Longshanks, claimed the throne for himself. Scotland’s nobles fought him, and fought each other, over the crown. So Longshanks invited them to talks of truce. No weapons, one page only. Among the farmers of that shire was Malcolm Wallace, a commoner, with his own lands. He had two sons: John and William

* Robert Bruce, Sr.: It is time to survive. You're the 17th Robert Bruce. The 16 before you passed you land and title because they didn't charge in. Call a meeting of the nobles.

Robert Bruce: But they do nothing but talk.

Robert Bruce, Sr.: Rightly so. They're as rich in English titles and lands as they are in Scottish, just as we are. Admire this man, this William Wallace. Uncompromising men are easy to admire. He has courage, so does a dog. But it is exactly the ability to compromise that makes a man noble. And understand this: Edward Longshanks is the most ruthless king ever to sit in the thrown of England. And none of us, and nothing of Scotland will remain, unless we are as ruthless. Give in to our nobles. Knowing their minds is the key to the throne.

* Scotland, my land. The French will grovel to anyone with strength, but how will they believe our strength when we can not rule the whole of our own island?

* Go back to England and tell them there that Scotland's daughters and sons are yours no more! Tell them Scotland is free!

* If we can't drive them out, we will breed them out

The last king of Scotland

The movie is a drama based during life and times of the carnivore Idi Amin, the ruler of Uganda. It is about this young bloke who’s passed out from medical college who is uninterested in joining his pop in the business of mundane treatment of people and wants to explore places. He reaches Uganda and makes an impression on Idi Amin. What happens after that is a blend of splurge, love, ego, narcissism and violence.

Learning from the movie –

On Risk taking – The protagonist at the beginning of the movie, closes his eyes and rotates a table world map. Whatever name comes first, he chooses to go. He does not know where he is bound to, but is excited about the journey.

Many a times, we too need to take the risk of the unknown. It is only when we do that, life starts opening up its gifts to us.

On over confidence – Idi Amin tells the protagonist that he knows when he is going to die. Confidence is a great thing, but over confidence could pull the mat off anybody’s feet.

On fear – Adi Amin “A man who shows fear is weak and he is his own slave”.

On the worth of life – “If you are afraid of dying, it shows it’s a life worth keeping.”

Accepted

This movie is about 4 friends who do not get admission in one of the best schools around town. In order to satiate their parents’ wishes, they fake a college admission certificate. The best thing is that there is no college of that name as such “South Hermon College”. They rent out an old dilapidated psychiatric hospital and turn it into a college for their convenience. They also make a fake website of the college. The trouble starts when they get in a lot of reject students to college through an admission through the website. The movie is a humorous and beautiful portrayal on giving non convention a chance

Learning from the movie

On reason to get into a good college – The only reason to get into a good college is to get a good job and earn a great salary

On acceptance (This is what a student tells) – When I got accepted here, that was the first time when my parents said that they were really proud of me.”

Have you heard the emotion somewhere?

On syllabus – Here students are asked what are they interested to learn rather than teachers vomiting the rules of the syllabus to students. To take an example, if you are interested in food why don’t you try your hands at culinary

On exams – There are no exams and results. The college lives by the philosophy of letting creativity ooze out and not be confined on the rooms of examination

300 - The movie

300 – The movie

This scene is one of the most powerful one in the movie where the queen of Sparta requests the councilmen to send soldiers to be sent to help the 300 Spartans who are fighting the multitude of Greek Soldiers.

“Councilmen, I stand before you not only as your queen. I come to you as a mother, I come to you as a wife, I come to you as a Spartan Woman.

I come to you with great humility. I am not here to represent Anidus ( the king). His actions speak louder than my words ever could. I am here for all those voices that cannot be heard. Mothers, daughters, fathers, sons.

300 families that bleed for our rights and for the very principles that this room is built upon!
We’re at war, gentlemen. We must send the entire Spartan army in the preservation of not just ourselves, but our children.

Send the army for the preservation of liberty. Send it for justice, send it for Law and order. Send it for reason but most importantly, send our Army for hope.
Hope that a king and his men are not wasted in the pages of history, that their courage bonds us together, that we are made stronger by their action and that your choices today reflect their bravery.

Any Given Sunday

Any given Sunday – Riveting dialogue by Al Pacino

The scene is when the football team is losing and Al Pacino as the manager of the team gives this riveting speech.

“I don’t know what to say, really. 3 minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives, all comes down to today.
Either we heal together as a team or we’re going to crumble, inch by inch, play by play till we finish. We’re in hell right now gentlemen! Believe me, and we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us or we can fight our way back to the light.

We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time!

Now, I cant do that for you, I am too old. I look around, I see these young faces and think, I mean, I made every wrong choices a middle aged man can make… I pissed away all my money, believe it or not, I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me and lately, I cant even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know when you get old in life, things get taken away from you… That’s a part of life.
But you only learn that when you start losing stuff, you find out life’s a game of inches…so is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small, I mean, one half you step too late or too early, you don’t quite make it… one half too slow or too fast, you don’t quite catch it..

The inches we need are everywhere around us

They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch…
We claw our finger nails for that inch, because we know, when we add up all those inches, that’s going to make the f****** difference between winning and losing, between living and dying…
I’ll tell you this, in any fight it’s the guy who’s willing to fight and die who’s going to win that inch.
And I know if I’m going to have a life anytime, because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch because that’s what living is

This six inches in front of your face, now I can’t make you do it, you got to look into the guy next to you, look into his eyes, now I think you’re going to see a guy who will go that inch with you
You’re going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for the team because he knows, when it comes down to it, you’re going to do the same for him

That’s a team Gentlemen

And either we heal as a team or we will die as individuals… That’s football guys, that’s all it is… Now what are you going to do?

Sarkar Raj - Lessons from it

Sarkaar Raj – Ram Gopal Verma

Lessons from the movie

On power – “Power cannot be given, it has to be taken”. This statement can well be taken a step further when we are dealing with the aspect of responsibility. Responsibility to a certain extent can be thrust upon or given, but when it comes to looking at the bigger picture and growth, it has to be taken. That is what pro-activity is about. That is what life is about.

On long term and short terms results – Before looking at short term benefits look at the long term repercussions. Likewise, it is also beneficial to look at the farthest gain than the short term pain.

On making a difference – People live under the stupid impression that the only goal in life is to earn money, not realizing that the only goal is to bring about a change in themselves, their society and their world.

On the power of passion of the spoken word – Look out for Somji’s speech against the power project where he tells the villagers that the project will bring in doom for the village

On conflict resolution – At the point in time when the tempers flare between the two warring youngsters (Shankar and Somji), Abhi says that he wants to talk to Somji because the objective of both of them is the same. Many a times, we too at the end of the day want the same result but do not keep ourselves open to the idea of the other person. The routes might be different but the destination is the same! Coexistence in its finest avatar!

On principles – “Many a times our principles becomes bigger than our own lives.” Those people who believe in this are the ones who shine like a star in the horizon, inspiring and being the light to guide and direct.

On values – Those who live their lives by the values that they have made for themselves have to pay the price for it.

On ego and jealousy – Chandan, the right arm of Sarkar in the end pleads that he did what he did because he was not respected. He pleads for forgiveness but the damage has already been done.
We too in our lives, because of our myopic vision do not tend to look at the bigger picture. If we know the destination ( in this case, it was being in allegiance to the family and not the individual) it would be easy for us to pacify the jealousy and the ego trip that we get for ourselves.

Border - Lessons from it

Movie - Border – JP Dutta
Lessons from the movie -

On leadership – When Sunny deol at the start of the war knowing that they have too less a troupe asks anybody who wants to leave to move out because he says that later on if somebody runs away, I will not spare. Lesson learnt – as a leader be clear on your communications and also show the followers the repercussions of taking up the ownership. Lead from the front

On Irony of fate – The Indian airforce team led by Jackie Shroff who prides on being the best of the lot cannot do anything at the crucial juncture because the planes that he has cannot maneuver in the night. Though being the best he is helpless. This makes him sigh out “Why is this the longest night?”

On friendship – The friendship between Sunil Shetty and Akshay Khanna. The former becomes a friends and a mentor to the young lad. Also the friendship between Puneet Iassar and the cook! Towards the end when he is about to die, how Issar tells the cook to remember his promise of sharing the money and requests him to send his share to his parents.

On Passion – Sunil Shetty fiercely guards his mother land and cannot stand anyone who tries to speak something against his motherland.

On determination – The determination of Sunny Deol to even divorce his wife if not given an opportunity to go to the border to fight.

On trying to run away from yourself – There is a scene where Pooja Bhatt, the fiancé of Akshay Khanna narrates an incident she had seen when she was in Merrut. She says that she saw a man who ran for a while, stopped turned back and walked slowly. After a while he turns back and then hides himself in his palms. The he slowly peeps out, turns back and starts running again. The after a distance, he squats. Looks back, gets up and starts the same process again. She goes on to say that the man was trying to run away from his own shadows.

So many times, we as individuals do the same, don’t we?