Movie Review: The Lunchbox

Starring – Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur Directed by Ritesh Batra Rating - * * * There is something incredibly romantic about love letters. Be it the never-ending wait for the letter to arrive, the eagerness to open it in the confines of your privacy, or the unfathomable rise of your heartbeat while opening the multiple folds of the letter; love letters have always been special. And that is what makes The Lunchbox, a sweet and special love story. It instantly harks you back to the golden era when hand-written words on a piece of paper were enough to express one’s true love to someone. Sajan Fernandes (Irrfan) is a hardworking government servant who has only a month left to retire after 35 years of long service. Being a widower, he leads a home-to-office and office- to -home existence which in other words means that he is completely lonely. Illa (Nimrat) is the ubiquitous Indian housewife who is torn between her household duties and the waning interest of her husband in her. To woo her husband back, Illa on the advice of her neighbor aunty, cooks up a sumptuous lunch and packs it in a lunchbox which is to be delivered to her husband by the famous Dabbawallas of Mumbai. Her lunchbox (fortunately) mistakenly gets exchanged with that of Sajan’s (whose lunch arrives from a canteen near to his residence). Ignorant of the gaffe, Sajan relishes the lunch prepared by Illa, perhaps for the first time after his wife’s death. He devours the entire food and sends back the lunchbox sparkling clean indicating that not a single grain of food was wasted. Illa, on receiving the clean lunchbox, feels pleased and waits for her husband to return and congratulate her only to discover later to her dismay that the intended lunchbox never reached her husband. Understanding that her lunchbox is being delivered to the wrong person, the next day Illa slips in a note along with the chapattis asking Sajan his opinion on the previous day’s lunch. Sajan replies back with a curt ‘The food was a bit salty.’ This kick starts a series of letters from both parties. What starts as a conversation revolving around the day’s delicacies soon moves a step ahead and both Sajan and Illa start exchanging notes from each other’s lives and subsequently their sacrosanct feelings. In the meanwhile, Sajan encounters the irritating Aslam (Nawazuddin Siddique) who is recruited to replace Sajan after his retirement. From handling his pestering presence which later turns into an endearing one, to his secret exchanges with Illa, the film keeps you engrossed throughout. Meanwhile, Illa too discovers her husband’s cheating ways and tries coming to terms with it. Finally, after a long series of letter exchanges, both plan to meet so as to decide on the next course for their combined future. Will they meet? And what happens next? Well, we can’t let the cat slip out of the bag and spoil your fun. Irrfan Khan as Sajan, effortlessly portrays the picture of a retiring widowed government servant bogged down by the wear and tear of a lonely life. Nimrat, for whom this is the first big outing, looks very convincing and portrays the role of a troubled housewife with considerable panache. Nawazuddin plays the role of the new recruit Aslam to the hilt and impresses with his impeccable comic timing. There are scenes in the movie that will hold your attention for their brilliant innovative presentation. For instance, Illa’s neighbor aunty (Bharati Achrekar) whose physical presence is never revealed on-screen. It’s just her booming voice that one gets to hear all the time. Credit for all this goes to the director of the movie, Ritesh Batra. From displaying subtle undercurrents of love through the letters to interweaving two totally unconnected individuals’ lives with each other again through the same letters, Batra has successfully shown how love can survive even without the overbearing presence of mobiles and emails. For all those aficionados looking out for meaningful cinema, The Lunchbox is a delicious treat that will leave you with a satisfied grin after savouring it.