Official Synopsis
A mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects Ila, a neglected housewife, to Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Through a series of exchanged notes that they pass back and forth through the lunches, Saajan and Ila find comfort in their unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self and find an anchor to hold on to in the big city of Mumbai that so often crushes hopes and dreams. Still strangers physically, Ila and Saajan become lost in their virtual relationship that could jeopardize both their realities.
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The movie is so simple in the outer construction that you can easily miss the inner complication of the message. The Lunchbox is one of the more enjoyable movies that I’ve had the pleasure of watching in some time. It takes the concept of Romeo & Juliet and shakes it up a bit, and adds a much better ending.
The movie starts out by establishing our two main protagonist, Ila (Nimrat Kaur) and Saajan (Irrfan Khan). Ila is a stay-at-home mom, who cooks food for a living and pretty much does everything for her husband, who sadly doesn’t appreciate her one bit. Her life revolves around her family, mainly her daughter, and repeats the same way every day.
Saajan on the other hand is an older man on his last leg with life. He isn’t dying or anything of that nature, but his work is his life, and the life he wanted died with his wife. His only joy is knowing that he’ll be retiring from his job soon and moving away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai. He is bitter, almost dead inside and somewhat lost.
Pretty darn tragic characters, right? Barring a sword fight in the streets of Verona or a party held by the Capulets, you would expect some kind of bump into each other sort of moment where Saajan and Ila look into each other’s eyes, fall madly in love and their lives are forever changed. That would certainly be a wonderful, and easy path to take, but writer/director Ritesh Batra decided to bring a bit of Indian culture to the big screen that leads our lost characters to each other — with a catch, of course. The catalyst of Ila and Saajan’s chance meeting is a lunch system that thrives and survives within the Indian culture. Lunch is delivered across the large city of Mumbai to specific locations for a small charge. Ila creates this type of lunch box for her husband, but a series of them end up falling onto Saajan’s desk instead.
It’s a clever way to make a connection and also a very symbolic way of showing the enormous scope of Mumbai and how easily it would be for two people to lose themselves in the big city. It’s also a neat way for two strangers to get together and change each other’s lives.
The movie starts out innocent, as Ila suspects through a series of uncaring comments made by her husband that he hasn’t been receiving her lunches. Curious about who is enjoying her meals, she puts a note in one and the ball gets rolling. The ball is soon tossed back into her court when Saajan takes a chance in returning her note with his own, and a deep friendship begins to bud through these edible transmissions.
Batra takes special care with cultivating this friendship into a romance, as he takes his time and doesn’t rush things between the two characters. These characters are badly damaged in their own lives. The notes Batra has set up in the story helps to heal and grow said characters. It’s an amazing way to develop characters into more than empty shells in a story, without having to get them together and painting a traditional love story. The change in Ila and Saajan’s life through these notes is fascinating to watch.
You get to see Saajan go from an unhappy, bitter man, who is ready to grow old and leave his life, into a man wanting to live life to its fullest again. Ila kind of goes the opposite, as she changes in a way that allows her not to be dragged down in her miserable marriage. She begins to take her own chances for happiness, and the happiness of her daughter, by leaving her husband.
I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll stop there. Just know that this movie doesn’t end the way you think it will end. It’s more of an Inception-type ending where the audience gets to judge for themselves.
I really did enjoy this film. It was a change of pace from typical western romantic flicks that end up on a high note or complete tragedy. Director/writer Ritesh Batra does a superb job with this film. It’s definitely one that you should put on your ‘must watch’ list. It has perfect pacing, excellent character development and a memorable ending.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the movie, it’s gorgeous — well, as gorgeous as an inner-city Mumbai can get. You get some fine details with the HD transfer. There are beautiful yellow, browns, greens and reds coming from the picture. The change in lighting goes with the tone of the story, which makes this movie a little bit more beautiful. On the technical end of things, you don’t get any graininess, compression issues or color banding. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment really did a great job with this transfer. The film deserved the extra love, and it certainly received it.
As for the features, you get commentary from Ritesh Batra. I would have loved to see some actor interviews or a ‘making of’ featurette, but the commentary was good enough for a small release like this.