“Sultan”: Bollywood Movie Life Wisdom

I love watching random Indian Bollywood movies.  The colors, the singing and dancing and the random silliness. Always entertaining. “Sultan” was one of them. About a wrestler from a small farming town who becomes a gold medal winning wrestling champ named Sultan Ali Khan. And then mixed martial arts, all in the pursuit of a woman. 

It was fun. But there are many nuggets of wisdom and truth. 

There was one particular cutting scene when the girl humiliates him publicly for being an unserious and non achieving clown at a relatively older age of 30. Well deserved I might add. 

She tells him: 

“Look at you and look at me. What have we in common? I’m state champion. I have a dream, a goal, a purpose. 

Who is worthy of love? Someone you respect.  Someone who has something special that you don’t have. 

You have no purpose in life. Any ambitions?”

This sparks a drive in him to prove her wrong and show his worth. No man is worthy of a woman if he has no ambition, no accomplishments or does not work on improving himself constantly. He will never be respected by a woman. This is a fundamental rule of humankind and pretty much every society on Earth. 

As was spoken to him by his dad: 

“There’s a woman behind  every successful man. And there’s a woman behind every failure too. But no one stands by a failure.

Sometimes it’s necessary to be humiliated to win respect.”

His dad gives him advice.

“You need to work……Work very hard, then the world will respect you.”

He trains like a madman and even challenges the grand champion twice his weight. When asked why he is doing so despite the crazy risk and odds against him, he responds: 

 “No one can defeat you unless you defeat yourself.” 

This was a fight to find his stature. He has to win if he wants to get the girl. So, of course he wins. 

But in that pursuit he becomes arrogant and insufferable, which of course, causes new issues. 

He misses the birth and death of his child in pursuit of victory at the Wrestling World Championships overseas. He becomes King of the ring but it costs him his family. 

The big lesson: whatever happens in pursuit of your goal, Don’t quit. Get up when you fall. Keep going. Remember:  “No one can defeat you unless you defeat yourself.” Victory will be inevitable. 

Sultan’s Mixed Martial Arts trainer tells him: “Everyone thinks that a hero is someone who wins….but I believe a real hero is one who loses. Because he alone knows the value of victory.”

So you must also know the price of success so you can  prioritize the truly important things in life, like family. Something I feel I learned way too late. Fight for the right thing. 

And of course, stay humble and don’t let success go to your head. Pride and ego kills.