I loved 'Monsoon Wedding' and 'Lunchbox' because they had 'real'

In the words of Garth Davis, we hear the longing of a storyteller for truth over spectacle. He speaks of his love for films such as “Monsoon Wedding” and “Lunchbox”, praising them for their real stories—tales rooted in human experience, tender, flawed, and authentic. He laments that such films are rare and wishes for more to be made, revealing a timeless truth: that art finds its highest purpose not in fantasy alone, but in its ability to mirror life as it is truly lived.

The ancients knew well the power of real stories. In the epics of Homer, though gods walked among men, it was the grief of Priam kissing the hand of Achilles for his son’s body that carried the greatest weight. For even amid myth and grandeur, it was the raw humanity that pierced the heart. So too do films like Monsoon Wedding and Lunchbox move us—not because they dazzle with spectacle, but because they whisper to us of family, love, longing, and the fragile connections that shape our lives.

Davis’s words remind us that truth is often more beautiful than ornament. A real story—whether of a wedding alive with family chaos, or of two souls connected by shared lunches—becomes immortal because it carries the essence of humanity. In such stories, we recognize ourselves. They assure us that our struggles, our joys, our loneliness, and our hopes are not unique, but part of the shared fabric of life.

History gives us a mirror in the plays of Anton Chekhov, who rejected melodrama and grandeur to tell simple tales of ordinary people—their quiet disappointments, their fleeting hopes. Though some mocked him for lack of action, his stories endure, for they are real. They reveal the human heart as it beats, unadorned and unshielded. Just as Chekhov shaped drama with honesty, so do films like Lunchbox and Monsoon Wedding shape cinema with authenticity.

Therefore, let this teaching endure: the truest art is that which reflects life itself. While spectacle may dazzle for a season, it is real stories that echo through generations, for they touch what is eternal in us. Garth Davis’s words call upon future creators: seek the real, honor the ordinary, and remember that in the smallest gestures of life—the passing of a meal, the gathering of family at a wedding—there lies the greatest drama of all.