An Amazing Lunchbox: Another Dimension Of Love !
EXPECTATION: 'Can you fall in love with someone you haven't met ?'
Surely, the tagline of UTV Motion Pictures, Dharma Productions, Dar Motion Pictures, Sikhya Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and NFDC’s 'The Lunchbox' hits the right chords of logical thinking & unreasonableness...After being successfully screened at 2013 Cannes Film Festival (later winning the 'Critics Week Viewers Choice Award') and 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was largely expected to be good to watch..So lets find out, whether 'The Lunchbox' is a filmic delight or not !!
STORY: Set in the backdrop of Mumbai, the story aesthetically reflects a different dimension of love & hope !!
Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife with a daughter..She always craves the attention of her husband (Nakul Vaid), cooks delicious dishes for him & sends them in a lunchbox through dabbawala network..One day, by mistake that lunchbox gets misplaced into another office, in the table of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan)..Saajan is a widower & on the verge of retirement..Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is about to take the official responsibility after him..Now, after realizing that the tiffin carrier got mixed up with another one, Ila sends a hand written note with the lunchbox the very next day, clarifying that the food was actually cooked for her husband...Saajan reads the letter & replies to the same..The letter-writing continues through the lunchbox, thus opens a new door of optimism for both Ila & Saajan...
Do they ever meet ? Is love independent of physical distance ? Do age differences really matter ?
Let all of these questions be answered inside the theater, in the silver screen, during those 104 minutes (Running time).
'LIKE's: Music by Max Richter is soulful..Sequences where a Bhutani song was played, in the train where 'Pardesi' song from 'Raja Hindusdtani' was used & Ila was listening to 'Mera Dil bhi kitna pagal hain' from 'Saajan' were extremely well fabricated..
Crisp Editing by John Lyons, nice Cinematography by Michael Simmonds, thoughtful dialogues written by Wasan Bala, Nimrat Kaur and Ritesh Batra are strong points of this film..Kudos to Ritesh Batra for his splendid direction..Acting by all the leading actors are extraordinary, with a special reference to Bharti Achrekar for her believable depiction as a voice character !!
'DISLIKE's: Slow pace & open-ended climax of the movie are it's negative sides..As the movie ends, a lady sitting in front of my row said, with slight irritation: "How the movie ends here, so abruptly ? Its not clear, what happened finally.." Had the climax been better written, the story would look more appreciable..
SCENIC DISCUSSION: Some scenes need a special mention, such as,
1) Where Shaikh was introduced to Fernandes for the first time: There, Shaikh (chattering type) was trying his best to start a conversation with almost untalkative type Fernandes..After asking so many questions like, "Will you miss the office after retirement?"/"Your colleagues will surely miss you"/ "how did you find working here for such a long time?" when Shaikh was looking literally perplexed about 'what to ask next', Fernandes replied in one word 'Fantastic'...The conversation obviously ended there..The way Irrfan put the expression in the scene with this one word is simply fascinating !!
2) While reading the letter written by Fernandes, Ila stopped for a while, where he wrote, "People tend to forget things, if they have no one to tell them to"...Ila looked at her daughter, sitting at another room & playing with her doll...She went to that room, asked her daughter to let her show how she used to play with dolls during her childhood..A small scene, with ordinary conversation, still, the moment upholds the sweetness required here..
3) During marriage ceremony of Shaikh, when the photographer was asking the brides's relatives (too many) to stand at one side & bridegroom's relatives (just one person) to stand at another side, there due to extreme disparity between numbers, the way camera had to shift the focus from central point to extremely right, that movement itself evoked a lot of laughter among the sudience..One of the hilarious scene of the movie !!
FINAL WORDS: Long back, in a women's magazine, I came across an interview of a psychologist..The topic was on marriage, where, at one point, she said, "Compliment your wife for any of her qualities...Be it her beauty/cooking skill/room decoration/office work or any of her ability.This one thing can increase her confidence much more than expensive face creams or cosmetics." Today, while watching this movie, I could very well relate to her words...'The Lunchbox' won't appeal to masala film lovers..But, will surely attract those, who love serious & meaningful movies...
Absolutely Recommended !!
