‘The Lunchbox’ Review: Love — As pure and real as it gets…

I have always felt that the primary differentiator between English cinema and Indian cinema has been the makers’ approach to the portrayal of emotions. Whereas English cinema prefers to keep them subdued and implied, Indian cinema prefers a more in-your-face, melodramatic approach. Director Ritesh Batra chooses to opt for the former in ‘The Lunchbox’. TL makes you notice the subtle nuances and the small changes in mannerisms of the characters as it takes you along a beautiful journey about the rediscovery of two sad, morose lives that cross each others paths unintentionally.

Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) is a widower whose life is spent in a local train, an LIC office and his eventless home. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) tries hard to rekindle the romance in her marriage but her husband is too busy having an affair leaving Ila to worry about their daughter and chatting with the friendly neighbour living on the floor above. Ila’s attempts at wooing her husband result in her sending a delicious tiffin box through the Dabbawalas of Bombay to his workplace. Her tiffin mistakenly goes to Saajan and from then on begins a pure relationship with cathartic communication between Ila and Saajan through notes left in their tiffin box.

The beautiful tale of how two suffocating lives attain liberation and discover love through just being heard, even by a total stranger, TL is un-indian and far from being contemporary. In the age of Instant messaging and social media, such patience and depth in relationships is very rare. Many chuckles could be heard in the cinema hall at scenes that were not intended to be funny at all. Also, there are so many identical frames that keep going back to the same locations, still managing to never appear repetitive or boring. Even the end is raw and real, you yearn for Saajan and Ila to unite and it is left at that. A truly open end, it is intended to be just the way conclusions in real life are.

Irrfan Khan is exceptional once again as the lonely Saajan. Words cannot describe the superlative talent of this fabulous actor. His transition from loneliness to happiness and freedom can be felt by the viewer, despite not being too obvious. Debutante Nimrat Kaur has been seen in Shreya Ghoshal’s ‘Le jaa le jaa re’ and Dairy Milk commercials earlier but in her first film, she manages to blend in with complete confidence and ease, into a deglam look. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is in top form yet again as the pesky yet endearing office colleague. Bharati Achrekar as the neighbour Mrs. Deshpande manages to pull the viewer in with just her voice. This film has another lesser noticed cast member and that is the city of Bombay. Fast, unforgiving yet endearing, Bombay and its remarkable Dabbawalas are the unsung heroes of this film. The closeups of the many varieties of food too tickle the viewer and test your endurance to not rush to the closest food outlet immediately after. Despite there not being a single song, no ‘stars’, hardly any publicity in the form of TV ads or reality show appearances, there wasn’t a single empty seat in the cinema hall. And that is the biggest achievement of this film. Director Ritesh Batra and the expansive team of Producers who are backing this film, including Karah Johar and Anurag Kashyap deserve kudos for having the intention and motivation of creating and backing a film such as this.

If you enjoy depth in cinema and are ready to be a little patient, do not miss ‘The Lunchbox’

4/5