If Ritesh Batra's debut feature, The Lunchbox, is any indication of what his future work will be like, I have strong hopes for this filmmaker. A delightful story which fully engages you in the everyday life of Mumbai, The Lunchbox recalls themes from the like of You've Got Mail, plus lunch services and minus the actual physical interactions between characters.
Nimrat Kaur plays Ila, a lonely housewife who can feel her husband slipping away from her, and Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake, Life of Pi) plays Saajan a man on the verge of retirement at his desk job, with nothing much to look forward to and an attitude that rivals that of Ebenezer Scrooge. Ila and Saajan's paths cross when, one day, Ila prepares an especially delicious lunch to send to her husband through Mumbai's famous lunchbox system, hoping to reach his heart through his stomach. However, despite declarations that the lunchbox couriers never deliver to the wrong address, Saajan ends up with Ila's lunch. When Ila discovers that a mistake has been made, but also realizes that the stranger she fed actually ate ALL of the food (something that apparently her husband never had the decency to do), she sends another delicious meal with a note thanking him for returning the lunchbox empty. So begins a daily correspondence between the two.
At first they write about simple things, like their day, or about friends they have (the film closely follows Saajan's relationship with the man who he is meant to train to replace him once he retires, and Ila's upstairs neighbor makes her vocal presence known throughout the movie). But, as is usual with relationships in which the majority of their identity is still hidden, they are able to get deep and confide in each other fairly quickly, and their fantasies about a better life begin to get the best of them.
Batra craftfully builds the tension of whether our two main characters will ever meet, peppering scenes with both quiet and laugh-out-loud comic relief, and boiling the whole concoction together with tender insights into melancholy. And though Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur barely share any screen time, their chemistry resonates throughout the entire film. Ila's earnest hopefulness and Saajan's reserved demeanor seem to blend wonderfully as they pour their hearts into their letters. The film ends at a beginning, circumventing the typical "happily ever after" cliche in a way that leaves you wondering what happens next and yet is still satisfactory.
This will be a film you do not want to miss... come see The Lunchbox this week at the Midtown Cinema!
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