Gifted : Thought provoking movie
Recently, my cousin stayed for a couple of weeks at our rented home in Banglore. He is only 12 years old. He came back from boarding school due to ongoing school lockdown and was taking his online classes. My uncle thought that by staying in our home in Banglore, he would learn to use computers (whatever that means). I myself was engrossed with my ongoing work and did not get to spend a lot of time understanding his school work. But the little I saw, I found that he was a bright kid. Neither the school work needed guidance nor it was engrossing enough for him to keep him away from mobile games. He has a little sister, 18 months younger to him. In a phone call with me, my uncle wished for her to be a civil servant for Indian government, reasons for which I may not quite agree with. Being around with a kid for sometime (and all on the noise on Whitehat Jr.), brought me back some thoughts on parenting I had when I watched Gifted movie. Movie deals with choices of raising a gifted kid. The protagonist is uncle of a gifted girl, whose mother took her own life, the reason for which one can only infer.
Movie starts with the display of environment the uncle(Chris Evans as Frank), chooses to raise this precocious kid(Mckenna Grace as Mary)until Mary starts going to kindergarten, where her abilities are discovered by a math teacher. School principal suggests Frank private schooling for Mary in order to fast track her learning. An argument ensues where Frank expresses his desire for the kid to have a normal childhood like others and learn to appreciate it. The enraged school principal digs to into the kid’s background and finds out the family tree. Then, we are given to understand Frank’s desire evolved from his sister’s lack of social skills to make genuine human bonds. She birthed the kid over a drunken night with someone she did not any intentions of having a long term relationship. Shortly after birthing the kid, she took her own life.
Kid’s grandmother Evelyn becomes aware of the kid and her whereabouts. She gives a visit to the town and starts claiming custody of the kid. The conversations between Frank and Evelyn are one of the most engrossing ones during the movie. We also learn that both Chris and Evelyn are highly intelligent and share hate-love relationship due to conflicting views. Mary is lured to spend few days with her grandmother. She is taken to a university in Boston and shown the millennium problems and the exact one which her mother was working on. Grandmother expresses her desire one day, her family’s name could be on there. A custody case ensues when the Evelyn’s attorney relies on proving the environment is unsafe and not conducive for a genius. The arguments against Frank depicts how society views a conducive parenting style and how the child adoption policies can be based on materialistic views
The movie ends with Evelyn settling for solution of millenium problem solved by his sister in exchange of Grace’s custody with a foster care close to Frank. The scene where Frank offers Rene Descartes’ “ Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth” book to Grace is an epitome of his parenting choice.
Our parents only wish the best for us. Their intentions are most pure. I cannot help but think that there is a bit of Evelyn in each one of them. The tutorships, online classes, race to learn coding at early stages are thought of setting one’s kids ahead in the race of success. But do the kids know which race they want to be in or even want to be in a race?
I met an old Australian stockbroker on a trip, who had the following words to say to me:
Life is about moments of joy. Evaluate why you do something. If it does not bring you or your loved ones any joy, walk away
What gives us joy? Purpose? Exploration? Achievement? Should one try to maximise their potential and help the world? or find their own their bundle of joy in progress? Will material growth considered by most countries a good measure of progress?
These questions are hard for me to answer and need a lot of self exploration and unlearning.
