The Lunch Box

The Movie: The Lunch Box

Caption: Pait bharaa nahi (Didn’t fill the stomach)

Savvy’s Rating: 3.25/5

Zephyr: Theme, Story, Cinematography, Nimrat Kaur (female protagonist) and Irrfan Khan (male protagonist).

Brush off:
• Confused/misleading climax
• Story would have been different and ended positively if they both considered as friends instead of lovers. If Mr. Fernandez feels he’s too old, can’t he be a good friend?
• Nawaz Siddiqui’s, as Mr. Fernandez’s replacement at work, character was not etched correctly; some of his onscreen entries were annoying
• Ila’s mom episode is so out of picture in the movie
• Ila’s husband’s role didn’t do much other than wearing white shirts, watching TV with lost mind and going to work

Savvy’s Rede:
The best thing in life is the moment you try to get comfortable with it, it gives you a surprise.

Story in a nutshell:
1) Ila – A vulnerable, confused, restless house wife. She’s trying her best to impress her husband and rekindle the love. Small family lost in a real concrete world where lives move much faster than air. As a home maker her daily job is to cook (yummy lunch box for her husband) and take care of kid (sending her to school, helping in home work etc.). But who in that house really wants to hear what she wants? All she has is an invisible neighbor to talk to. Loneliness and Attention Deficiency are the silent killers; if they are sparkled at the wrong time, decisions misfire and life will take a new turn. Like every wife, she wants to win her hubby by cooking the best recipes for his office lunch box (why not for dinner??? #Miss1#)
2) Mr. Fernandez – A male widow, a dedicated Govt. servant, if ain’t broke don’t fix it attitude, very predictable life style and all in all no love life.

Story revolves around these two main characters. Did you ever receive a wrong text (of course a romantic one), or a wrong phone call where you ended up bonding with the stranger?? While you are on flash back mode, let me move ahead. The story is an epistolatory conversation between two strangers who came to know about each other due to the mistake of Dabbawalahs. (for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala). Coming back to the story, instead of delivering the lunch box to Ila’s husband’s office address, it goes to Mr. Fernandez. When he realizes that the food was so yummy and is not from the regular mess, he leaves a thank you letter in the box. That’s how both starts conversing. Best part of humans is attachment; they get attached to anything within no time. Ila already not happy with her life and on top when “assumes” that her husband is having an affair she becomes more vulnerable and depressed. Ila tells about her life thru letters delivered to Mr. Fernandez along with yummy food and starts getting virtually close to him. Pretty soon, Mr. Fernandez too talks about his life events and about his upcoming retirement and starts liking her/and her food.

Ila wants to run away from the house to Bhutan as she cannot handle the situations anymore. It’s when Mr. Fernandez says, “He will go with her to Bhutan”. As the conversations grew more thru letters, trust builds in. Ila wants to meet Mr. Fernandez in person. Well, Mr. Fernandez wants too as they both “feel” they are in love. Atleast, the way they long for the letters and making time to read thoroughly and respond back and in between Ila asking her neighbor to put Saajan song (Jeeye tho Jiye kaise Bin aap ke {What kinda life this is to live if you are not around..}), you will figure out that the “spark” has tickled. 😉

The D-day comes for the meet up. Ila waits for Mr. Fernandez but he won’t show up. Ila is very disappointed and her heart breaks. She reciprocates by sending the empty box with no letter the next day. Then he breaks the silence saying that day he did turn up on the meeting spot however could not meet her as he felt he’s too old. He wishes her all the best and stops all conversations with her. Ila gets shocked with this incident and goes to Mr. Fernandez’s office to see her by checking the address with Dabbawalahs. Unfortunately, by that time, Mr. Fernandez was retired and she comes to know that he’s off to Nasik forever. She returns home dejected.

In the end, Mr. Fernandez cancels his Nasik plans, and goes to Dabbawalahs to know the address of Ila. On the other end, Ila writes final letter to Mr. Fernandez of she leaving to Bhutan and retaining the letter to herself as she cannot deliver it anymore. (This is my understanding at least)

Director’s Punch:
1. One dialogue that caught my attention was, “No one wants to buy yesterday’s lottery”. Mr. Fernandez says to Ila when he realizes that he’s too old for her
2. Cinematography was good
3. Director was successful in showing typical Mumbai middle class family, houses, conversations between neighbors, home maker’s challenges etc.
4. If climax was different, movie’s reciprocation would have been much different #trustme#

Savvy’s Punch:
Many questions on my mind, wonder who can answer.
1) First day Dabba (the lunch box) goes to a wrong address and comes back to Ila with a letter, then she forgets about her attempts to revive her love life with husband and gets hooked to a stranger?
2) When two strangers get to know mysteriously, why Director wanted to end it as love and have them depart from each others life? Why can’t they be friends and stay in touch?
3) When a stranger wants to go Bhutan, especially a woman, does it always a standard dialogue from a man that he wants to accompany her? (forget about the age, I don’t want to restrict this only to teenagers)
4) Wonder what Mr. Fernandez was checking with Dabbawalahs by canceling his Nasik trip. I thought to meet Ila. When he already told that he’s too old for Ila, why he wants to meet her again?
5) Ila wanted to run away from her house; she always wanted to irrespective of Mr. Fernandez coming into her life or not. With Mr. Fernandez coming into picture and she being in love with him, did she cancel her plans and waits for him?
6) Very bad Climax leaving audience to imagine 100 different ways of ending 

I heard Bollywood had proposed this movie for Oscars. I am very happy with the Selection Committee for not including it in the list. We saved our faces, baby, trust me!

Sometimes it’s good to watch off-beat movies. You can try it once but don’t blame me if you end up with new questions.

Savvy’s Hearts:
– Cinematography, Story
– Direction, Nimrat Kaur, Irrfan Khan
– Climax