King’s Speech and Jodha Akbar

These two movies had one thing in common as I see it. King’s speech has Lionel the friend who enables unravel the knots in the heart of Berty to liberate him from his stammer and Jodha gave herself up completely to Akbar only when he creates his own niche in her heart. She teaches him to connect to the pulse of his empire - the hearts of his people.

Essentially as i I see it if one explores deeply that the root cause of what the head thought and acted upon rested with the heart. There were the best physicians at Berty’s disposal who made him do everything possible to exercise his muscles etc etc but as Lionel says “ the root lies much, much deeper” and then this friend traces it to King’s childhood. Berty is hesitant to let this doctor get into his personal space but then is courageous enough to allow him in after some resistance. Akbar too being the most powerful ruler had to learn simple lessons from Jodha to peep into the hearts of his people and as soon as he does it new doors open. His reign scales a new peak, a new level.

Nuances of the heart can only be understood by the heart they have no logic. Most often people who are brainy try controlling their world of emotions. We all do it. Assuming brain/intellect power to be the ultimate power which got us where we are, we trust it better than our heart. Maybe because brain/ head gets us tangible results – the wealth we accumulate, the degrees we earned. But understanding and wisdom I think comes out of a fine balance of when to switch off the intellect and switch on the heart and vica versa.

Lionel had no degrees, he had experience of understanding the nuances of human behavior and confidence to be able to reach other human beings and touch their hearts – listen to them, participate in their pain. The King with world’s wealth at his disposal stammered he was in a given situation  Life/ God/ Fate wanted him to be in. Each had his own challenges. To me the challenges the King faced were more daunting because given the fact that Lionel finally becomes rich completes his circle, the King has a long way to go. Though he made good progress in trusting his heart, a friend who was not a certified doctor, his gut feeling that this friend will get him out of this situation. But when compared to Lionel his understanding of matters of the heart was as good as a student’s. Lionel was a teacher, he had mastered it.

I think emotional growth is much slower than the intellectual growth. Its like we grow physically the fastest, then comes intellect which can be partially genetic but emotional growth is completely self driven genetics has no play there evolution of the soul has maybe some play. Our accumulated emotional growth over lifetimes has some difference to make, may be.