The Lunchbox Film Review

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by Ivana Sucheva (subscribe)

Published August 3rd 2015

The story of a beautiful friendship

The Lunchbox is one of those movies that you want to watch on an easy evening with a glass of red wine and a plate of curry. Especially when you feel like contemplating on the better part of life – like love, friendship and human relations, spiced by some Indian wisdom and philosophy.

The whole action takes place in colorful Mumbai, famous for its perfectly organized food delivery system which was studied and recognized by organisations like Harvard Business School.

Ila, a young housewife, is doing her best to impress her husband by preparing for him exceptional tiffin. One day, however, her dabba – the 3-leveled lunch box, reaches the wrong recipient – Saajan, an accountant who has only a couple of weeks until his retirement.

Amazed by the sudden quality improvement of the meal he gets for lunch, Saajan eats every last crumb of it. Eventually, Ila finds out about the mistake in the delivery but, flattered by the empty dabba she receives back, she decides to prepare another delicious dish and send a thank-you note along. So does the story of a beautiful and sincere friendship begin, which evolves into a more romantic and bitter-sweet relationship.

The movie, starring Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Jurassic World, and Slumdog Millionaire) as Saajan, and Nimrat Kaur (Homeland) as Ila, is an Indian- German-French production. It is also the first feature film of the young director Ritesh Batra. The movie has been nominated and awarded multiple times at festivals like Cannes Film Festival (2013), Asian Film Awards (2014) and Toronto Film Critics Association Awards (2015). This year it was also nominated as Best Film Not in the English Language at BAFTA Awards.