If Real Life Had Film Themes
May 29, 2026
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If real life had film background scores, most of us would finally understand the scenes we are living through.
The Malayali engineer refreshing his inbox for the sixth time that morning. The first-generation founder in Kochi explaining his startup to relatives at a wedding. The nurse boarding a flight to the Gulf with two suitcases and a family's worth of hope packed inside.
Every one of them deserves a BGM. But real life does not come with one.
Kerala is one of the most educated states in the country, producing close to one lakh engineering graduates every year. Yet the average fresh graduate spends six to twelve months searching for their first job. No dramatic entry. No swelling orchestra. Just a quiet, uncertain wait.
Over 2.1 million Keralites live and work in the Gulf today. Remittances account for nearly 36% of the state's income. Behind that number are decades of ordinary people making extraordinary decisions, most of them made in silence, without applause or fanfare.
The startup ecosystem here is growing too. Kerala Startup Mission has over 4,000+ registered startups. But the founders building them rarely get a hero moment. They get doubt, iteration, and the occasional family member asking when they are going back to a "real job."
Here is what film gets right though. The background score was never meant to tell the hero that they are winning. It was there to remind the audience that something important is happening, even when the character cannot see it yet.
Most of us are in the middle of a scene we do not fully understand. The meaning comes later, in hindsight.
Whatever you are building, wherever you are in the story, the scene is still being written.
That is worth something.