The Lunchbox
Director: Ritesh Batra
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
104 mins; Class PG; Eden Cinema
Every day, the streets of Mumbai are travelled by the dabbawallahs, a community of 5,000 dabba (lunchbox) delivery men.
Every morning the dabbawallahs deliver home-cooked meals from women’s kitchens to their husbands at work.
The empty lunchboxes are then returned in the afternoon. It is a tradition that is over 120 years old, and Harvard University recently analysed their system and concluded that only one in four million lunchboxes is ever delivered to the wrong address. The Lunchbox is the story of one such glitch.
The tone is sweet and sentimental, yet never cloying and the characters grounded and real
Said lunchbox is destined for the indifferent Rajeev (Nakul Vaid), made with especial care by his wife Ila (Nimrat Kaur), who is trying to spice up their marriage.
Due to that one-in-four-million blip, however, it lands on the desk of Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a widowed insurance claims broker on the cusp of retirement.
Saajan’s palate is immediately stimulated by the mouth-watering food therein; so much so, that evening he makes sure to praise the meal delivery service he thinks it came from.
Meanwhile, back home, Ila is upset by the non-committal “it was good” from Rajeev… but when he comments on the cauliflower, which was not one of the ingredients, she realises something is up.
The next day, she slips a note in the lunchbox – and once it is read by Saajan he immediately replies, sparking off a series of correspondence between them.
It is said that the key to the heart is through the stomach, and no wonder.
The dishes on display here, prepared with such affection by Ila and captured so invitingly by cinematographer Michael Simmonds, should open floodgates to love.
Nevertheless, the relationship unfolds at the simmering pace of a slow-cooked meal, as Ila and Saajan start off with brief and formal exchanges which become more detailed and intimate as they share snippets of their lives, their regrets and desires.
This story of two lost souls boasts pinches of poignancy – Rajeev’s casual indifference to Ila is rather hurtful.
It is clear, as the story unfolds, that they are both coming out of their shells. As Ila pours her heart into her cooking, she finds the spice to life she needed, egged on by her (unseen) auntie in the flat upstairs who throws down morsels of advice of the culinary and romantic sort.
In the meantime, at the other end of the correspondence, Saajan’s stoic demeanour begins to crack. He rediscovers a speck of the happiness that has eluded him since his wife died, and surprises everyone around him by striking up an unlikely friendship with Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), the overeager and rather annoying man who is set to replace him.
Both Khan and Kaur deliver understated and emotional performances that go straight to the heart.
Khan is a veteran of Bollywood and international cinema, and he portrays Saajan with quiet and sad dignity. It is a joy to be-hold him perking up a little with this exchange of letters with this total stranger.
Kaur, featured mainly in scenes while at her cooker, deftly captures the emotions of this unhappy woman, the casualty of a stagnant marriage, torn between loyalty to her husband, and the stimulation caused by this unorthodox friendship.
The Lunchbox is the very assured debut of writer/director Ritesh Batra, who has written a story that is deceptively simple, yet truly profound.
He keeps the pace slow, yet never tedious.
The tone is sweet and sentimental, yet never cloying and the characters grounded and real, while perfectly capturing Ila and Saajan’s intimate stories in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Bombay.
The city looms in the background, but never gets in the way of the narrative.