David Seidler

Today, I was watching the live telecast of Oscars. I always appreciate the elegance and the class with which they conduct the event. It’s simply riveting and engrossing. Last week I got a chance to watch The King’s Speech, what a master piece it is! The movie really touched me, I just hoped the movie should win the Best Picture award and finally it did!! The story is based on the real life incidents of King George V1, his stutter, Lionel Logue, his therapist.

Mr. David Seidler, currently diagnosed with throat cancer, won the academy award for the screenplay of this movie. David, when he was a kid was staying in London. Their apartment was bombed during the Blitz in World War II. After the incident, the family decided to move to US. The ship they sailed on was a member of a convoy of three ships; on the way one of these, carrying Italian prisoners-of-war from North Africa, was sunk by German U-boats. Due to all such shocking incidents Seidler developed a stammer before he celebrated his third birthday. When he was a teenager he was embarrassed about stammering and always appeared quite.

There were many therapies which he tried, but nothing worked in favor of him. One day he had a breakthrough. He decided to make his voice heard. He started working harder on it. He started using naughty and foul words to vent out the frustration, used many tongue twisters, worked on his breathing techniques. He worked harder and he was able to get out of the problem. His role model was King George V1, who also suffered from the problem of stammering. During his tenure as a king, he was supposed to make many public speeches. But unfortunately his stammering was a big problem for him. The Royal Highness worked harder and harder with the help of his therapist Lionel Logue to come out of the stammering problem. Later on King George V1 addressed the world on many occasions without stammering.

King George V1 left a strong footprint on David’s life. As he grew older he decided to write and his first work was The Adventures of a Penny about a penny's travel from hand to hand. In an interview David recalled George VI as a childhood hero, who gave him hope as he listened to his wartime speeches as a child, encouraged by his parents, "David, he was a much worse stutterer than you, and listen to him now. He's not perfect. But he can give these magnificent, stirring addresses that rallied the free world." they would say.

In 2005, Seidler was diagnosed for bone cancer. This was the time when he thought I should give back something before it’s too late. He decided to tell the world about his hero. He researched a lot both about the King and the therapist. He wrote a story initially, later modified it to stage play to focus on the essential relationship between the King and Logue. After he had completed it, he decided he quite liked it and sent it to a few people for feedback. Later it reached Tom Hooper's mother. She called Tom and said she has found a wonderful story which can become his next film. The rest is history now. Tom Hooper also received the best director award for it. The movie faced the budget problem and it was just shot in less then $14 million, but it ended up being the biggest gross earner of the year.

When I read about David, his life, his stammer and the current health status, I felt biggest spark in my heart. I have tremendous respect for him. The life is only for those people like him, who never bend down, who fight harder challenging everything. I read this somewhere though I don’t remember where “Remember don’t ever make your physical problem as weakness, instead try looking for the way to overcome it, else just make that as your strength.”.

David, you are IMPECABBLE