The Lunchbox

Once Rabindranath Tagore says about 'short stories'...

"Simple events of life happy or sad,/ Some sad strings from the train of forgetfulness,/ Not fraught with heavy descriptions,/ Not crowded with events,/ No advice, no philosophy/ Only the feeling that the story is not yet over/ Although there is no more to read..."

'The Lunchbox' is a perfect example of a unique 'short story'. A little love story with some little events and pain... but at the end there is a new beginning.

The story is about a lonely old widower and a young neglected house wife. They connected through a lunch box and some letters, and share some emotional thought and experience of there daily life with each other. They are totally stranger to each other, but love has found out it's own way to enter.

There is a basic question about "Love"... 'Is it possible to fall in love between two strangers'? "The Lunchbox" defines it brilliantly... 'Love has no definition and it never follows any rules. So there is a possibility to fall in love with somebody whom we never meet. People loves to fall in 'Love' again and again, it may be someone we know or don't know or whom we already loved with'.

Irfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are acted very well through out the movie. Direction of Ritesh Batra is just too much perfect. After interval, the movie is a little bit slow, may be it's a situational demand. Overall it's an wonderful experience.

Lastly, the best part of the movie is 'The Ending'. "Only the feeling that the story is not yet over, although there is no more to read". There is something unspoken in this movie. It depends viewers to viewers, where they actually like to go with "Sajan & Ila".

Strongly recommend to all cine goers... please watch it...

Lunchbox review: Note: Don't open this Dabba if you don't like slow paced movies!!

After a long time i have watched a Bollywood movie where in the movie makes you think about your life and how it can buzz past you before you realize it and that if you don't start to enjoy the small things like the bendi ki sabji, you will be made to eat Aloo Gobi every day (Just kidding) As they say in the movie "Sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right destination" ie Every cloud has a silver lining!!

The story revolves around a misplaced dabba (Trivia: Dabbawala's supposedly have a low error ratio, i.e "one mistake in 8 million deliveries."!!) Irrfan Khan has done a tremendous job both in acting and narrating the story. Nimrat Kaur(the Dairy Milk Silk girl!! ) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui fit their characters perfectly and have done a wonderful job portraying their roles. The only downside is that the pace of the movie is bit slow. But if they had edited it further it would have been a 1hr episode!

The Gujarati film "The Good Road" must have been really good to beat this to be the India's entry into the Oscars.

Rating: I will go with ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ /★★★★★ for this wonderful film.

The first glimpse of the movie , promises you that it is't a 'just another regular bollywood movie', its refreshingly Fresh and New.

The beauty of the entire film lies in the subtlety, whether be it the story, the the actors, characters their mannerisms(when their lips quiver on getting excited, their long and deep searching eyes, the half smiles on the edges, when Ila first time presumes her husband to have an extra-marital affair). Again all of these things are very much there without they saying it explicitly so.

Very rarely you come across a movie that moves at a comfortable pace, not trying to either rush or stagnate itself at any point. The TG for this movie is definitely not people across all age groups as the producers claim, but it's specially for those who are happy or contented without searching for that something extra in their everyday lives. It doesn't talk about any extra ordinary accomplishments of individuals, nor does it talk about destiny, life or happiness. It just talks about very simple human behavior, when it comes to falling in love.

The end may or may not disappoint you...its very subjective(personally I was a lil), but yea you can tailor your apt end based on whether you are a optimist or a pessimist.

In Mumbai (formerly 'Bombay'), India, there is a very complex network of 5000 Dabbawallahs. Their job is to arrive at the homes of Indian workers to get homemade lunches from the wives and transport them all over the city so that the men can have hot, home-cooked meals every day. Then, after lunch, they collect all the empty lunch pails and deliver them to the wives. Despite this being a logistical nightmare, the meals get delivered to the right person all the time with very, very few mistakes—carried by hand and on bicycles and scooters by mostly illiterate men! With the movie Dabba, a mistake amazingly happens and a wife's meal arrives for a total stranger instead of her husband. At first, the man doesn't realize he's eating another man's lunch—he just thinks the restaurant that delivers his lunch box has suddenly improved! However, once the wife realizes her mistake, she sends the next meal along with a note explaining the mix-up—and soon the pair begin exchanging letters. At first, they are quite simple and formal. Later, they become much more complicated, as by now the wife has realized that her husband has been cheating—and this total stranger becomes her confidante. All during this long exchange of letters, the woman CONTINUES sending lunches to this stranger and they forge an odd friendship! There's far more to the film than this—see it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Dabba is the sort of film Hollywood could never make. Part of it is, of course, because there is no comparable lunch system in the States. Part of it, too, is that the film does NOT have a perfect happy ending and it doesn't follow a typical formula. There is a lot of sadness and longing and the film leaves you with this, as it's not afraid to leave the audience slightly dissatisfied. Now I am NOT complaining—but Hollywood films seem to have an implicit understanding that everything must be resolved perfectly before a movie can end. Not so with Dabba. This might upset some viewers, but it shouldn't—it's still a very good movie. Plus, a 'Hollywoodized' ending would have been far less realistic. And, as far as realism goes, this Indian film is not typical of a Bollywood flick either. While it was directed and written by an Indian, Ritesh Batra, and stars Indian actors (Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur), it is also a French/German co-production. As such, it lacks the usual song and dance numbers you find in most Indian films and is only a little over an hour and a half (most Indian films are considerably longer—often twice as long or longer). Instead following convention, the film is all about realism. It makes for a nice change of pace even if the ending will be vaguely unsatisfying to many viewers. Worth seeing as long as you don't demand formula. And, worth seeing as long as you don't mind reading subtitles. A film that is truly unique and the acting is really lovely.

"The Lunchbox" is the most honest love story to come out of Bollywood in ages. It is a delightful story of love blossoming slowly, one letter a day, between two most unlikely but equally despondent characters you could ever match make.

Debutant Director, Ritesh Batra, who is also done the script writing, has crafted an exquisite gem of a movie. Batra impresses because he does not set out to impress. He conveys eloquently the state of the mind of each character because he is economical with emotions and does not exaggerate. Batra makes a memorable movie with multiple layers because he is honest with himself and his craft. Ritesh Batra is simply magnificent.

The performances by the 3 leading actors, Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur are disarmingly natural, poignant and memorable. Pitted against the two stalwarts (comparatively speaking), Khan and Siddiqui, newcomer Nimrat Kaur more than holds her own. I am at a loss of words to describe her performance. Her character is nuanced, neglected, grieving and most complex yet Kaur's is the most memorable performance in the movie. Her role would be talked about for a long time to come.

While ironically, the whole serendipity bit of the film kicks off with a delivery mistake made by Bombay's Dabbawalas, world famous for their Six Sigma (99.999666% ) accuracy, Batra's movie reassures that even if the odds of finding true love in life is Six Sigma stacked against you, it is worth waiting for and taking your chances.

"The Lunchbox" is the most sumptuous and appetizing fare Bollywood has offered in ages. Just go for it