The best movie on leadership I have seen | Iqbal

Singhi Advisors’ Mahesh Singhi says the film has left a lasting impression on him for portraying how focused, spirited work can take a person to the target.

A movie that truly inspired Mahesh Singhi, managing director of investment banking firm Singhi Advisors, was Iqbal, a 2005 Hindi film directed by Nagesh Kukunoor.

The movie is about a deaf and mute cricket-obsessed boy from a village who dreams of playing for the Indian team.

Singhi, who leads mergers and acquisitions at his firm, says Iqbal has left a lasting impression on him for portraying how focused and spirited work can take a person to the target. “Leadership to me is about leading from the front, withstanding the pressures and all odds on the way to the goal. What the protagonist did to be a player of the Indian cricket team by harnessing his strengths and defeating his own individual fears, made me respect the character,” he says.

Iqbal helped Singhi to rediscover his inner soul, even while chasing the dream. “It taught me to reaffirm faith in myself. I landed in the deal street without formal courses or experience in the financial sector. It was all the way a learning process for me, just like the player evolved himself in the movie. The movie also shows a coach who inspires the ward just like the leader of a firm should do,” Singhi says.

Singhi’s firm boasts closing over 100 transactions in the last five years, valued over $4.2 billion. In the movie, Iqbal takes the help of even his buffaloes while training and in the end, he is shown donning the Indian cricketing colours. “I also learnt the art of taking everyone along while building up the organization. Moreover, the film is a depiction of enduring passion that guided the protagonist to the goal against all the odds,” says Singhi. “A passion also drove me to the deals world and kept me tied here to grow as an investment banker.”

-By P.R. Sanjai

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