The Lunchbox (2013)

• Year: 2013
• Released: 20 Sep 2013
• Country: India, France, Germany, United States, Canada
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award28 wins & 43 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2350496/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lunchbox
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lunchbox
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Hindi
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 104 min
• Writer: Ritesh Batra, Vasan Bala
• Director: Ritesh Batra
• Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
• Keywords: housewife, mumbai (bombay), india, tiffin, gastronomia,

	7.8/10
	76/100
	97% – Critics
	87% – Audience

The Lunchbox Storyline

A man named Saajan Fernandez, a Christian who works as an accountant in a govt. office is about to retire from his job. He is a very reserved person. Doesn’t talk to people, doesn’t socialise and lives a solitary life. Saajan’s wife had died a few years back so he just drinks glasses of alcohol and watches a show on TV but there is not even a single glimmer of happiness in him. While Ila, a hindu, a young housewife, totally different from Saajan is going through a bland relationship with her husband, Rajeev who doesn’t really converse with her when he returns home after work. So, Ila tries to seek his attention and romance him by sending him very special and tasty food to spice up their relationship. She sends him a lunchbox everyday through the intricate system of traditional food delivery in Mumbai which is taken care by the “Dabbawalas”. Dabbawalas are people who send home cooked food to the people who work in offices so that their spouses don’t have to worry about travelling and handing the lunchboxes on their own, to their spouses. And mind you, these dabbawalas virtually never mess up, by giving a lunchbox to the wrong person. It always goes to the right person. Ila used to send food to her husband but one day, Ila’s lunchbox made for Rajeev mistakenly went to Saajan’s desk. Saajan is visibly surprised because he has no one to give him food like this as he eats his food from the office canteen or from outside. Ila eventually realises her mistake through her husband who when he returned said that he ate something else only and through the dabbawala who said the address to which it went and she knew that that wasn’t the right address, also scolding him a bit. Ila thinks what to do. The very next day, she tells her neighbour who is an elderly lady about the incident. After taking advice from her neighbour, Ila sends a letter to Saajan, talking about the mix up along with the lunchbox which contains food. (her husband’s favourite meal, might I add.) She also tells her dabbawala to send the lunchbox to the same address like yesterday. Saajan again receives the same box and reads the letter and tries to only taste the food but it’s so good that he ends up eating all of it. He writes back to her saying that the food was simply delicious and Ila loves it and this kicks off their innocent conversations through paper, through letters and in those letters, talking about each other lives. – While at work, Saajan is introduced to Shaikh a muslim who is new to the office and is set to replace Saajan as the accountant. Saajan is tasked to train him before he leaves the job completely. Shaikh’s incompetence initially annoys Saajan who tries to distance himself from him and also tells lies in conversations when Sheikh asks questions about his daily life. But Saajan and Shaikh gradually strike a close bond and friendship with each other. One time, Saajan covered up Shaikh’s mistakes at the office thus saving him and his job and becoming the right man for him at his wedding with Mehrunissa as Shaikh never had any parents, he was an orphan. At Ila’s home, Ila finds out that Rajeev is having an affair with another woman and is cheating on her. She doesn’t fume or anger up but she loses hope towards her marriage with Rajeev. In her next lunchbox letter to Saajan, she suggests moving to Bhutan where there is way lower cost of living than in India. In the very next one, Ila offers Saajan to meet her in person at a popular, local restaurant somewhere in the city before she leaves for Bhutan. Saajan agrees but he is not able to reach the place at the right time while Ila waited, waited and waited but a little later, was compelled to leave the restaurant. The following day, Saajan receives an empty lunchbox which makes him write back to Ila and in that vey letter, he apologises to a dejected Ila but says that he did turn up and saw her from a distance. Saajan said that he just couldn’t gain the courage to approach her, who was sitting at the table. He expresses that she looked young and very beautiful but tells her that he is too old for her and advises her to carry on with her life. A few days later, Ila’s father, battling lung cancer, died with her mother, grieving over his passing. But after her mother actually confessed to Ila, how unhappy her marriage was with her father. Ila starts searching for Saajan but learns from Shaikh that he has already retired and is headed to Nashik. Ila writes a farewell message to Saajan, stating that she has decided to leave her husband and would move to Bhutan with her young daughter. When Saajan sees this, he changes his mind while en route to Nashik and returns to Mumbai and goes in search of Ila. Ila is last seen waiting for her daughter to return home from school as Saajan gets help from the same dabbawala who regularly picked and delivered that very. – Lunchbox.

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The Lunchbox Movie Reviews

Mixes food and romance in a very appealing combination

An old saying repeated in Ritesh Batra’s charming The Lunchbox is that sometimes the wrong train will bring you to the right station. In this case, however, the train turns out to be a dabba (lunchbox), wrongly delivered by a dabbawala to a middle-aged government claims adjuster on the brink of retirement. It works out well even though, in reality, with about 5,000 dabbawalas in the city of Mumbai who deliver more than 130,000 lunch boxes each day, they rarely make a mistake. Written by Stefan Tomke in the mode of You Got Mail, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young housewife dutifully prepares a lunch for her emotionally distant husband every day and has it sent to him via the courier.

On the advice of her upstairs Auntie, Mrs. Deshpande (Bharati Achreka), Ila tries to have her husband notice her by putting more spice in the food. When it is wrongly delivered to Saajan (Irrfan Khan, Life of Pi), however, a series of unintended consequences unfold. What begins with a short note from Sajaan to Ila that “the food was salty today” develops into a series of exchanges passed back and forth in the lunchbox everyday in which the two open up to each other about their lives, memories, and their hopes and dreams for the future. A subplot involving Aslam Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), an aggressively upbeat successor to Sajaan, adds a touch of humor to the proceedings but also serves to draw a contrast between himself and the grumpy Saajan.

Both Aslam and Sajaan become more endearing, however, as the film progresses. While the ending may thwart expectations if you are used to having all the pieces neatly fit together, The Lunchbox mixes food and romance in a very appealing combination, removing any doubt that Ila and Sajaan have moved to a new level. Impeccably acted and beautifully realized, the film provides an honest appreciation of what it is like to live in Mumbai without exploiting its poverty for Western audiences. Though the wrong train may indeed bring you to the right station, ultimately there is no wrong train and no right station. As The Lunchbox demonstrates, there is just the train and the journey, and it’s all perfect.

The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox is gentle relationship movie between an elderly accountant on the verge of retirement and a housewife who marriage is deteriorating because of her husband’s affair.

Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) and Ila (Nimrat Kaur) get to know each other over a mix up of tiffin boxes. She has cooked for her husband which is delivered by the Mumbai dabbawalas.

They tend to have almost a 100% accuracy but Saajan receives Ila’s food and enjoys the meal. It leads to an exchange of messages between the two as they talk about their lives.

Saajan a withdrawn widower starts to look forward not only to the meals but the messages. It brings colour to his life which is noticed by Shaikh who is meant to take over his job.

For Ila whose father is dying of cancer. She considers whether to develop her relationship with Saajan and arranges to meet up with him.

Director Ritesh Batra has delivered a gentle charming non Bollywood film. It is about characters in various stages of life who see a hint of finding happiness gain.

It reminded somewhat of the film 84 Charing Cross Road that featured Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft corresponding to each other over the years.

I did think Irrfan Khan was rather young to be playing Saajan. He was only in his mid 40s when this film was made, which meant that any romance between Saajan and Ila would had been more believable.

Quite touching and sad….

In Mumbai (formerly ‘Bombay’), India, there is a very complex network of 5000 Dabbawallahs. Their job is to arrive at the homes of Indian workers to get homemade lunches from the wives and transport them all over the city so that the men can have hot, home-cooked meals every day. Then, after lunch, they collect all the empty lunch pails and deliver them to the wives. Despite this being a logistical nightmare, the meals get delivered to the right person all the time with very, very few mistakes—carried by hand and on bicycles and scooters by mostly illiterate men! With the movie Dabba, a mistake amazingly happens and a wife’s meal arrives for a total stranger instead of her husband. At first, the man doesn’t realize he’s eating another man’s lunch—he just thinks the restaurant that delivers his lunch box has suddenly improved! However, once the wife realizes her mistake, she sends the next meal along with a note explaining the mix-up—and soon the pair begin exchanging letters. At first, they are quite simple and formal. Later, they become much more complicated, as by now the wife has realized that her husband has been cheating—and this total stranger becomes her confidante. All during this long exchange of letters, the woman CONTINUES sending lunches to this stranger and they forge an odd friendship! There’s far more to the film than this—see it yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

Dabba is the sort of film Hollywood could never make. Part of it is, of course, because there is no comparable lunch system in the States. Part of it, too, is that the film does NOT have a perfect happy ending and it doesn’t follow a typical formula. There is a lot of sadness and longing and the film leaves you with this, as it’s not afraid to leave the audience slightly dissatisfied. Now I am NOT complaining—but Hollywood films seem to have an implicit understanding that everything must be resolved perfectly before a movie can end. Not so with Dabba. This might upset some viewers, but it shouldn’t—it’s still a very good movie. Plus, a ‘Hollywoodized’ ending would have been far less realistic. And, as far as realism goes, this Indian film is not typical of a Bollywood flick either. While it was directed and written by an Indian, Ritesh Batra, and stars Indian actors (Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur), it is also a French/German co-production. As such, it lacks the usual song and dance numbers you find in most Indian films and is only a little over an hour and a half (most Indian films are considerably longer—often twice as long or longer). Instead following convention, the film is all about realism. It makes for a nice change of pace even if the ending will be vaguely unsatisfying to many viewers. Worth seeing as long as you don’t demand formula. And, worth seeing as long as you don’t mind reading subtitles. A film that is truly unique and the acting is really lovely.