The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox is not another superficial romance that simply follows a clichéd boy-meets-girl plotline, but rather explores deeper themes that challenge us to think about our goals in life.

The film is presented through an epistolary structure and follows Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a middle-aged accountant who is plagued by loneliness, and Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young wife who is experiencing troubles with her marriage. After attempting to re-kindle her relationship with her husband by cooking delicious lunches for him, Ila discovers that the lunches are being wrongly delivered to Saajan.

 The two begin to communicate through letters left in the lunchbox, and slowly start to pour out their inner-most feelings to one-another through their pens. The film deals with isolation, infidelity, retirement and the unknown but remains positive, despite these challenging themes. The connection that Ila and Saajan have with one another, reminds the audience that we share common concerns and difficulties in our lives, but that there is always hope with a fresh start.

This is a promising debut feature for director Ritesh Batra, who wrote the script with assistance from Rutvik Oza. The performances overall are generally very good, with a powerful portrayal of the despondent Saajan coming from Khan, whose previous works include Life of Pi, The Amazing Spider-Man and Slumdog Millionaire. Kaur is also very convincing, and there’s a surprisingly authentic performance from Bharati Achrekar as Mrs. Deshpande (Auntie) who we only ever hear from her apartment above, occasionally dropping her basket down with fresh ingredients.

This follows in the footsteps of Chef as another film that you really shouldn’t watch on an empty stomach. The scenes of food preparation and Saajan’s lunchtime are shot beautifully and really do make you water at the mouth. Though this is overshadowed as the characters start to read the next note, wondering what it says as much as the audience does. During these sequences the two inhabit their own fantasy world, conveyed through the sound design with, for example, songs that they are thinking of as well as the voiceover from the note overpowering the noise from their surroundings.

This is one of those films that finds the positives in its characters and always stays upbeat despite the sad and subdued nature of their lives. It’s funny and touching and leaves you with the hope that we’ll all find what we’re looking for in the end.