Light, Romantic and Delectable: The Lunchbox (2013)

In this and my previous post, I review a couple of interesting movies, available streaming and/or on DVD, that you might find worthwhile for an evening at home.  The Lunchbox (aka Dabba) is from India, The Intouchables  from France. Both are attempts at sweet, heartwarming comedy-drama. Of the two, The Lunchbox operates at a more leisurely pace,  feels more thoughtful and meditative, and is more romantic. Both pictures feature terrific acting and a touching story about lonely, isolated (albeit very different) people; and both are likely to stay with you for a while.

The Lunchbox is an epistolary romance of sorts between two strangers, a lonely housewife and a lonely older man who works in the bookkeeping department of a large enterprise in downtown Mumbai.

In Mumbai, it has been customary since the late 19^th century for wives to make hot lunches for their husbands, which are delivered via a highly elaborate and famously efficient lunchbox (“dabba”) delivery system.  Something like 150,000 lunches are delivered every day by around 5000 dabbawallas. The dabbawallas later pick up the dabbas, and reliably return them to the wives in the afternoon.  The Lunchbox is about one that got away.

Ila (Mimrat Kaur), in consultation with her upstairs neighbor, the unseen but obligingly opinionated “Auntie”, has determined that the way to her inattentive husband’s heart is through his stomach. She starts making him spectacular lunches, but instead of getting delivered to her man, they wind up on the desk of Saajan (the great Irrfan Khan), a complete stranger. He knows that this is a mistake, but so relishes the meals that he can’t complain. He sends appreciative notes to the unknown housewife, and to her surprise she writes back. Saajan  is a widower and a loner, just playing out the string in his boring, unappreciated job, soon to retire, to …  nothing much, but this correspondence with the unknown woman is intriguing, and stirs him in a manner he’d almost forgotten. Ila is similarly isolated in her role as a homemaker. She is lovely, competent and devoted, yet is wholly ignored by her spouse. The daily dabba delivery comes to be greeted with increasing anticipation by both Saajan and Ila,  as both increasingly open up to one another, sharing their inner lives, and sight unseen, falling in some kind of love.

 

This sort of thing has been done before, of course, in films such as The Shop Around the Corner  (1940), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987, and You’ve Got Mail (1998).  Centering the tale in Mumbai and using the dabbawallas as the postal system, however, gives The Lunchbox a different, um, flavor.

Writer/director  Ritesh Batra treats this affair warmly, rather than mawkishly, and with real affection for his characters. He is aided by sensitive, touching performances by Khan and Kaur. Comic relief is provided by the Auntie dialogues at Ila’s home, and by another character, Shaikh (Nawazuuddin Siddique) an ambitious but poorly educated and socially inept young striver who seeks mentoring from a reluctant Saajan. There may also be some caste stuff going on with these two, but if so that bit was lost on me. Of interest though, for those of us in the West,  is the film’s carefully and satirically observed business environment in which Sajan labors,  as well as  the claustrophobic world of the housewife – it’s a view of a different culture rarely seen in western films.

The Lunchbox is slow paced, but it’s a lovely picture that will reward your patience. And the ending will surprise you.

The Lunchbox is available for streaming on Amazon instant video,  Xfinity OnDemand ATT U-verse Movies and elsewhere; and on dvd or blu-ray from Netflix. In Hindi with English subtitles (but please don’t let that deter you.)