#19- Christmas Caroling Bollywood Edition | American Amy Reacts to Winter Love Stories - Bollywood Films Uncovered

Have you guys heard of Britney Brown and her research?

Hey friends, where you been? Glad to have you back.

Known for her work her research on vulnerability, courage,

shame, empathy, and leadership, Brené Brown frequently

references Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena quote.

Oh it's so good. Y'all know I'm a sucker for a

good quote. Have you heard it?

Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena quote emphasizing that

credits belongs to the person in the arena who strives and bears

greatly, rather than the critics on the sidelines.

This quote from Roosevelt's 1910 speech Citizenship in a

Republic. Was he still United States

president then? No, I don't think so.

This quote from his speech in 1910 inspired modern day Brown's

work on vulnerability, courage and daring, greatly highlighting

the importance of showing up and risking failure to live a

wholehearted life. Yeah, I'm right.

Can I share? Get your ears ready.

I hope your ears are hungry. I got you a treat with this one.

All right, here we go. It is not the critic who counts,

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where

the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives

valiantly, who airs, who comes short again and again because

there is no effort without error and shortcoming.

But who does actually strive to do the deeds?

Who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends

himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the

triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at

least fails while daring greatly?

Like, Are you there? Dang, if that doesn't hit you

right between the eyes, I don't know what will.

Boom. So what made me think of this

now? Well, what we have been talking

about, the man who was actually in the arena, striving, working,

hurting, failing, dirty, struggling, getting back up

again and again, who at best knows in the end the triumph of

high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least

fails while daring greatly. The Godfather.

Rice. Michael transforms from a

reluctant outsider to a cold on, while Rice shifts from a local

Robin Hood figure to someone whose empire causes collateral

damage. Michael Gaines absolute power

but loses his moral center and personal happiness, while raises

rise ends in betrayal and doom. Despicable by his intention to

uplift his community, ambitious men whose rise forces the choice

between success and conscience, Michael sinks into ruthless

power, Rais into tragic guilt. Michael and Rais show how love

or ideals can be twisted by power.

What about Raju from Raju Bungaya?

Gentlemen, what about Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol?

A book, a play, many films shown and performed and watched this

time of year now originally written in 1843, Where do we

begin? Well, let's think, Where do they

begin exactly? Michael from The Godfather

starts as a decent war hero who wants a normal life away from

the mafia, explicitly distancing himself from his family's

criminality. Ra'is begins as a poor, the

sharp boy in a dry state doing small smuggling jobs and

believing his work is survival that should never hurt the poor

in his area. Raju arrives in Mumbai, then

Bombay as an idealistic young engineer, hungry for success and

status but still basically honest and rooted in small town

middle class values. Scrooge, a rich, cold hearted

miser who hates Christmas, hoards money, underpays his

clerk and dismisses charity as humbug, which is pointless

trickery nonsense. Basically, Michael turns money

and power into tools to protect and dominate the family, as they

call he calls it. I can't do it quite right, but

he basically starts prioritizing control over love relationships,

Kay. His siblings become expendable,

non essential, easily sacrifice for the empire.

Rais treats money and power as ways to lift his people and

prove his worth. But his empire traps him in

deals with politicians and gangsters that ultimately hurt

the very people he wants to protect.

Raju initially seized success and elite acceptance as the sign

of having become a gentleman, then learns that chasing status

without integrity destroys trust, love, and ordinary

people's safety. Scrooge begins by valuing money

over human connection, but ends by using wealth to support the

crotches and arkancile with his nephew and help the poor,

flipping from hoarding to generous stewardship.

Let's give you some back story. A Christmas Carol tells the

story of Ebenezer Scrooge. His journey from selfishness to

empathy turns the whole story into a lesson about how people

can change what really matters in life, and why Christmas is

associated with generosity and human connection.

At the start, Scrooge is a rich but joyless businessman who

despises Christmas, mocks charity and exploits his clerk

Bob Kratt, showing total indifference to the sufferings

of others. On Christmas Eve he is visited

by the ghost of his dead partner Marley, and then by three

spirits of Christmas past, present and Yet to come, who

force him to confront his lonely childhood, his lost love, the

hardship of the Cratchit family and the bleak future that awaits

him if he does not change. Terrified by the vision of his

own unmourned death and moved by the plight of Tiny Tim, Scrooge

wakes up on Christmas morning transformed, becomes generous,

helps the scratch it's reconnects with family and is

described as keeping Christmas well for the rest of his life.

Scrooge it's not evil in a supernatural sense.

He is a man whose fear, loss and obsession with money have slowly

shut down his capacity for love and empathy.

The story suggests that deep inside he still has the capacity

for more than kindness, and that when confronted with the truth

about his past wounds, his present choices and his future

consequences, reawakens that buried humanity, showing that

moral transformation is possible at any age.

Even the worst person can change if they are willing to see

themselves honestly and feel for others.

This challenges the idea that success is measured by wealth

alone, insisting that a meaningful life is defined by

relationships, compassion and how 1 uses power or money to

help rather than harm. His three-part journey past,

present, future illustrates A psychological truth.

People can only truly change when they integrate.

They integrate where they came from, face what they are doing

now and imagine honestly where their current path will lead.

Both A Christmas Carol and Raju Bunge, a gentleman, tell the

story of a man who starts to lose himself an ambition and

material success, then is confronted with the harm he is

causing and chooses a more compassionate, community

oriented life. Ebenezer Scrooge and Raju both

begin focused on personal gain, Scrooge on hoarding money, Raju

on climbing Bombay's corporate ladder and elite social circles.

Each experience is a shock that exposes the cost of that

mindset. Scrooge through the three

spirits showing his past, peasant present and future.

Raju. Raju through the collapsed

bridge deaths and being framed in a corruption cover up.

Both stories measure true success by relationships and

community, not by money or prestige.

Scrooge and surrounded by affection rather than fear, and

Raju returns to his modest locality where he is loved and

wanted back. The point is that success

without integrity is empty, and that it is better to correct

course, even late, than to win by becoming someone you no

longer recognize. Raju's ending, where he rejects

the glamorous builder world, reunites with Reno and

symbolically returns to the community that first sheltered

him, tells the audience that real gentlemanliness is measured

by loyalty, responsibility and how you treat people, not by

money or a lien approval, as ordinary people are constantly

tempted by money and status. But empathy and conscience can

still pull us back. Here we are reminded that being

good is an ongoing choice, not a fixed label.

Raju's journey, like Scrooges, suggests it is never too late to

admit you were wrong, except the pain of consequences and rebuild

relationships on more honest ground.

Which is exactly the hopeful, redemptive spirit that A

Christmas Carol ties to Christmas in a world of

Scrooges. Be a Tiny Tim.

We will talk about Tiny Tim, someone I consider a genius hero

and A Christmas Carol often overlooked and underestimated.

Like PK, like Rudolph and so many others in film and in the

world. I can't wait to meet back here

to talk next about who in Indian cinema is 1 of several

characters that Tiny Tim can definitely remind me of someone

in Indian film similar to Tiny Tim in a way and thus is then

similar to the likes of Addison, Tesla, Leonardo Alexander,

Graham Bell, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates in several ways.

Can you guess who? Try me, do you know?

#19- Christmas Caroling Bollywood Edition | American Amy Reacts to Winter Love Stories

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