Chatur is what the system forces us to become like. You do not require genius to be like him. Just constant, unquestioning, uncompromising hard-work. He is a linear thinker. But he is sort of enslaved.

Rancho is a complete rebellion against the system. You require a lot of genius and a fair amount of luck to be like him. He is an out of the box thinker. He is free but if it wasn’t for his genius, he would not be where he is shown to be at the end of the movie.

The ideal is probably someone in between. Who can use the system for his/her benefit but not become a part of the system/ not become like a machine.

Being able to work the system in such a manner that it does not make you an unquestioning slave – that’s being smart. Its possible to do so, but requires a lot of patience, observation and realistic optimism.

At the end of the day, in the corporate world, unless you are an owner (or partner), you are usually dispensible/ expendable, no matter how high up you are. Chatur is dispensible (being an employee), Rancho is not (being somewhat of an entrepreneur by virtue of having patents to his name). The quicker you can get to financial freedom, the better it is. Chatur seems not to have achieved financial freedom (otherwise why would he be so worried about his job?). Rancho seems to have (somehow, though its not clear how).

Its not about money and neither is it about passion or doing your own thing. Its about achieving financial freedom, so that one can live without worries/ without being a slave.