The Lunchbox (2013)

Beautiful, moving film.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

When a neglected housewife figures out that her lunchbox is not being delivered to her husband she sends the man eating it a note which starts a communication through which they connect and even feel love.The movie may seem to slow for some. But this is actually what adds to it's charm. While it seems like a routine where they read notes from each other, each note adds more to their connection. We see them opening more to each other and starting to feel more hope and happiness in their lives.It doesn't have a happy ending. Or maybe it does to some point, just not a typical happy ending which we know from mainstream movies. The main characters never meet. When then time comes for it Saajan Fernandez feels too old for the woman who wrote to him (this actually doesn't seem correct as the actors are not that far apart in age, but the reality is not what he was feeling). And when she tries to come to his work to meet him he has already left. Yet there is still some happiness in it since she leaves her husband and goes to the place where she expects to be happy. And he remains in the neighborhood and seems to have found a new outlook for life which is shown in him connecting better to the children there. Who knows, maybe one day a wrong train will take the two again to a right station and they meet. And if not we know they influenced each other lives in a very positive way.Great acting. And there are many scenes that show it to us. How for example when finding out about a woman jumping from a high building with her daughter Saajan is worried it is Ila and checks right away on his lunchbox. Shaikh is also a great addition to the movie and we see through his relationship with Saajan how things are changing.A nice movie that is a pleasure to watch and to think after.

A fun look at quotidian life in India. The writers carry it though--I was afraid after the plot is revealed in the first 15 minutes that the remaining hour would be tiresome. I mean the whole plot is a romantic comedy that fortunately becomes serious. The weak part of the plot are when the Fernandes covers for his incompetent new assistant Shaeik--it rang very false. Also Ila's mother didn't work either...but the rest was good very good. RECOMMEND

The Lunchbox ★★★★★★★★★★ How does one start writing about a movie that has been spoken and written about so much already...?!! I have rarely had writer's block but today morning this is my third attempt. So instead of writing what I should, I am just going to plainly write about an experience that was entirely mine...The Lunchbox is actually not just a movie. Well not for me, at least.It is a complex mirror to many of the questions that we all have in our hearts, forced to hide or forget them in the mundane routines of our daily lives.Some are questions that we never dare ask in the open... or aloud.Let me add that what I witnessed on the night of watching this movie was probably the greatest acting ensemble I have had the good fortune of witnessing from Indian cinema.You are not just watching Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nimrat Kaur, Lillet Dubey...You are watching the tired, broken, lonely Mr Fernandes (his first name is a wonderful revelation) played so wonderfully by Irrfan that you will see all this in his face like it was being read to you. This performance is way up there...! And writing this brings tears to my eyes, if you really love the art of cinema as deeply as some of us do... I could write much more but that would take away from the brilliance of his performance.Shaikh played by Nawaz, the orphan who has made it in life on his own, who is to replace the soon to be retired Fernandes in his office, and who will move you to tears with his smiles and his eyes. His outlook at life, his loyalty for Fernandes will move you. Nawaz was always a great actor. But with The Lunchbox he actually goes beyond just acting. There is this line he says, "Meri maa kaha karti thi..."... When it hits you, you will only say to yourself - AMAZING...!! and Ila... the woman who wants only to be recognized by her husband. No one else. Her entire life is her husband and her child. And how she has been driven by an unappreciative cheating husband into becoming a nobody, just another face in this city of millions... Her life forces her to ask the question, "Does a woman, married with a child, unloved, deserve a second chance?" Nimrat, if this is her first movie I don't know what she will do by her 10th...Somewhere Ila's mother comes in for a few minutes (Lillete Dubey, you surprise me each time...!) and says things that will shock you with their harsh truth. But said so simply that you will realize that this is how most relations end up eventually....There is Mrs Deshpande, who you will never see. But you will hear her words, saying so much so simply.There are the Dabbawalas of Mumbai, studied by Harvard, appreciated by the 'England Ka Raja' (Prince Charles would be mighty pleased...) who are probably the most complex and almost flawless delivery system in the world working without any modern technology. Their simple lives and routines will touch your soul if you have ever been to Mumbai and witnessed their magic...There is the City of Mumbai. With its teeming millions, its trains and buses and its autos, an island city bursting at the seams. With its bustling life, its office-goers and workers filled with daily routine, beautiful old bunglows, its roads at night that never sleep, its narrow streets filled with life, its veins with ambition. It is indeed the City of Mumbai that holds the movie together. If you have been to Mumbai, you will feel all these emotions and more...And there is Life itself and second chances. The Lunchbox is all about second chances.There are two kinds of people who will walk out of the theater. One who will yawn and say nice things movie about the movie without really grasping the true essence of this masterpiece. They will post a new status on whats app, face-book or twitter. But not really peek into the heart of the characters and feel...And then there are those few who believe that there is still more to life...Those who will want to believe that the Dabbawalas of Mumbai worked their magic once again...That life is indeed about second chances. And that the Art of Cinema has risen to levels like never before with this masterpiece.They will feel what I felt.

Rarely an Indian film without its trademark dancing-and-singing routines, director/writer Ritesh Batra's feature debut marvellously utilises the exotic "dabbawalas" system of Mumbai, which is an intricate lunch delivery service to people at work from their their homes or restaurants and is remarkable for its accuracy, but Batra fictionalises a little mix- up of the system and links two strangers into an epistolary communication, and from there, their penfriend-ship will further sublimate into something more genuine and profound.Saajan Fernandes (Khan) is a middled-aged widower on the brink of early retirement as a senior accountant, he is withdrawn, cynical and tries to dodge the responsibility to train his new replacement Sheikh (Siddiqui). One day his colourless life is revitalised by a mis- delivered lunch-box which he vastly enjoys. The lunch-box is made by Ila (Kaur), a housewife who attempts to win the her husband's heart through her cuisine. When Ila realises the delivery blunder, instead of righting the mistake, she starts to leave a note to this stranger in the lunch-box and Saajan writes back too, steadily, they exchange their own stories and life philosophy, which becomes the enzyme of a blossoming romance since both find a conduit and a confidant to change their disappointing status quo. Like YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998, 7/10), THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940), the two protagonists are destined to meet sine they are not like Helene Hanff and Frank P. Doel in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (1987) who are divided by the Atlantic ocean and deferred by a difficult economy situation. It is quite easy for them to meet when all the romantic buildup reaches its threshold, Ila finds out her husband is cheating on her whereas Saajan gets close with the orphan Sheikh, takes him as his protégé, and is ready to turn a new chapter of his life. But Batra refuses to hold out such an easy pass for their significant first meeting, for the sake of narrative twist, he wields the "sudden" epiphany of age difference as the obstacle to morally righteously curb the passion from Saajan's side. And from then on, the film descends into a limbo of indecision, through Saajan's capricious determinations, it actually reflects Batra's insecurity of how to consummate the story in an unconventional way, as his first feature, his endeavour fails to achieve that goal with the over-contrived open ending.Performances are uniformly pleasant to watch, Khan's goggled eyes alone can patently exhume his deepest inner feelings to an affecting effect. Kaur, also downplays the default setting of an under-appreciated wife and evinces her steely resolution of a woman doesn't yield to an unhealthy marriage. Siddiqui's Sheikh. comes around often as comic relief with an inherent optimistic spirit, registers a well-developed balance of humour and earnestness.The film's retro flair in rediscovering the magic power of authentic writings is naturalistic-ally endearing to endorse, and "sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right station", is the motto conspicuously referred three times along the whole movie, THE LUNCHBOX is a rarity among the usual Bollywood products, its message can reach unanimously to every soul who is inspired to find its rightful purpose, and its art-house appeal can lure those who are disinterested in Indian cinema (like myself) into its poetic embodiment of an unusual encounter.