Takeaways From The Movie: "Garam Masala"

Remember the movie Garam Masala of 2005 -- the typical Priyadarshan style comedy, featuring John Abraham and Akshay Kumar as two flirtatious bachelors, "Sam" and "Mac", who live together, work together, and attempt to woo three air-hostesses at the same time, even while Mac was already engaged to someone else?

It ended up as a generally-liked movie, but when I had originally seen it, soon after it was released, I had found it to be absolutely crap! (In fact, make that in bold – C.R.A.P.!) Total waste of my time! Eventually though, I started having second thoughts about it.

As I have already stated in my “Disclaimer”, my views, on stuff that happens around me, are totally based upon my perception or perspective at any given point of time… and with a shift in my perspective, my opinion about this movie also changed!

If you recall this movie Garam Masala, it was practically TOTALLY based on “DOORS” -- one door closing, another opening; that one closing, the third one opening -- and so it continued throughout a MAJOR part of the movie, until I felt I was ready to pull my hair out! I finished the movie with a loud “UFFFFFF”, giving it a big “thumbs down” whenever anyone asked me how it was!

Later on though, I realized that whoever came up with the concept of this movie must have experienced a momentary flash of satori, for the movie basically sums life up in its totality!

So what insights on life did I take away from Garam Masala?

Life-Lessons From The Movie: Garam Masala

If you look at it from my current perspective, isn’t LIFE also practically all about “DOORS”? One door closes – another one opens. That one closes – a third one opens. And so on, it continues!

LIFE, in short, IS all about CHOICES. You make certain choices that eventually lead up to some really good times in your life, and you also make certain choices that result in some “not so good” times.

But the one BASIC fact about life is that you NEVER run OUT of choices. You NEVER find yourself at a “dead-end”, where there is NO “DOOR” to open!

Sure, you cannot retrace your steps, you cannot go back in life. It’s like that “Mario Brothers” game on my old Samurai TV Video Console -- if the “power booster flower-pot” scrolls beyond the left edge of your screen, there’s no way you can retrieve it. BUT there will always be more “flower-pots” along the way, more CHOICES in life.

In fact, another interesting aspect I realized about life, from the movie Garam Masala, which wasn’t there in “Mario Brothers”, was that while you cannot retrace your steps and go back through a door that has already closed behind you, you CAN, SOMETIMES, take four left turns to get back to where you started from!

And if/when this happens, you also end up having some more interesting "experiences", “adventures” and “learnings” along this longer detour – stuff that you might narrate to your grand children one day, sitting on your favorite rocking chair, with the toddlers on your lap, hanging on to every “wise word” uttered from your mouth, with wide open eyes and gaping mouths…

Incidentally, it may also happen that you get tempted into ANOTHER different “DOOR” along this detour, and decide that you don't even want to go back to your original starting point anymore. You still get to share your stories with your grand kids one day though. Or maybe somebody else's grand kids. Or even just with your blog readers, for that matter!

So, these were my key takeaways on life, from the movie Garam Masala (2005) -- some important life-lessons that were kind of reiterated in my mind, through this otherwise no-brainer of a movie.

Do you also get such flashes of insights from the media you consume?
If yes, then what were your learnings from this movie?
By the way, you can watch Garam Masala (2005) Full Movie on YouTube.

Here's more in MySpotlight...

Let me know you visited me. Leave a comment!