The Lunchbox to compete at the London Film Festival

Director Ritesh Batra's debut film The Lunchbox (Dabba), starring Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, will compete in the official competition section of this year's London Film Festival. The film, that earlier won the Critics week viewer’s Choice Award at the 66th Cannes film festival, is the only Indian film to make it to the 13-film shortlist. The film, set in Mumbai, revolves around a mistaken delivery in dabbawala (lunchbox service) of Mumbai that leads to a relationship between an about to retire Sudeep, a lonely widower and an unhappy housewife Ila as they start exchanging notes through their daily lunchbox. The film will face tough international competition from Jonathan Glazer's Under The Skin that stars Scarlett Johansson as a man-eating alien; Parkland, Peter Landesman's film about events in Dallas, Texas on the day former US President John F Kennedy was assassinated and Starred Up from British director David Mackenzie. Some of the other Indian entries in this year's line-up of 234 feature films from across 74 countries include Rituparno Ghosh's last complete feature Jeevan Smriti. The London Film Festival will host 16 international premieres and 29 European premieres. There will also be screenings of 134 live action and animated shorts.