The Lunchbox is an Indian romantic film by Mumbai/New York-based director Ritesh Batra that explores the relatively ordinary daily ritual of the lunchbox delivery in Mumbai that mistakenly leads to an unusual connection between two lost souls.
Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a lonely housewife, discontented with her husband’s lack of attention and recurrent absence from the family household. She aims to win back his affections with a new recipe in his lunchbox, with the help of her interfering Aunty upstairs and her special spices.
The lunchbox is delivered with great effort by one of Mumbai’s Dabbawallahs (delivery men) who carries it by bike, train and pushcart through the chaotic city streets to the office. This day it’s mistakenly delivered to a colleague, Saajan (Irrfan Khan), an older man on the verge of retirement. When she receives no reaction from her husband about the new recipe that evening, Ila leaves a note inside the lunchbox the next day, to which Saajan responds, and so an unlikely friendship begins.
As each lunch break comes and goes, the pair’s friendship blossoms as they reveal their innermost secrets and thoughts that have been suppressed for so long. Soon the idea of meeting in the flesh is raised and their nervous excitement builds as they realise their fantasy world is about to come a reality.
Saajan, frozen with the fear of being rejected and punching above his weight with such a beautiful young woman, stands Ila up and their contact is broken. He moves to another city and Ila fears all is lost. Following the wedding of his friend Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a comedic, cheeky co-worker, Saajan realises the error of his ways and races to win her back, but it may be too late.
The Lunchbox is a delightful film full of laughter and warm, fuzzy moments between two complete strangers that makes you feel as if anything is possible, and proves that the way to a man’s heart truly is through his stomach! The insight into the world of the lunchbox delivery men, The Dabbawallahs, is also fascinating and shows a piece of Mumbai life that many people would never usually get to see.
The Lunchbox will be in cinemas from 10 July.
Helen Lear