The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox, the first full length feature film from writer/director Ritesh Batra is a movie that sheds light on a somewhat unknown aspect of Indian culture, the complicated lunch delivery system. It's a heartwarming tale surrounded by that system and how every now and then, getting the wrong lunch can be a good thing. I enjoyed The Lunchbox and I feel it's earned three buckets of Killer Korn.











First off I have to ask, is every woman in India beautiful? I know they all aren't but the ones in the film and television industry are absolutely stunning and the female lead in The Lunchbox is no exception. Nimrat Kaur plays the lonely housewife Ila, whose marriage is going nowhere fast, so on the advice of her auntie voice from the apartment above, she decides to spice up her husbands lunch. Doing so in the hopes that the food reignites his passion for her. Her husband returns home to his wife and daughter and doesn't even look at her, yet the tiffin box that held his lunch came back completely empty. She has no idea that her food was delivered to the wrong address and eaten by a widower on the verge of retirement. Saajan Fernandes, played by one of my favorite actors Irrfan Kahn is a man that seems content to just fade into the background and let life pass him by, until he eats Ila's food.

Mistaking it for the food that comes from the restaurant that he places his order with, he congratulates the restaurant, who's food is actually going to Ila's husband. When Ila realizes her husband is not getting her food she includes a small note in the lunch and the correspondence between the two lonely souls begins. Ila now has someone she can confide in other than her hilarious auntie from up above, and Saajan can dispense the wisdom he has acquired in life to someone who actually appreciates it. The humor in The Lunchbox comes from Saajan's eventual replacement, Shaikh who is played exuberantly by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Shaikh is so appreciative to be training under Saajan that he begins to annoy the older gentleman, but through his correspondence with Ila, Saajan begins to open up to Shaikh and even begins to share his delicious lunches with him.

The Lunchbox is a wonderfully charming film filled with longing, loss, and love. The performances are exceptional and while you may hope for a better ending on screen, in your imagination you can conjure up the ending you want, which I thought was brilliant. There's not much in the way of being impressed by the look of the film. Crowded, cluttered, and cramped are the adjectives that come to mind, but it's that that makes you wonder how more mistakes by the Dabbawalas, the lunch delivery men don't occur, or do they? There is a very funny scene where one of the Dabbawalas is arguing with Ila about their delivery system and he states a man from Harvard came and said their system is perfect so they couldn't have delivered the lunch to the wrong person, because Harvard and the King both vouch for them. The music by Max Richter is subtle which is the perfect touch for this film, a film that practically needs no music. I highly recommend The Lunchbox, it is worth seeing, just make sure you see it on a full stomach and I'll see you at the theater.

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