"The Lunchbox" is one of these films that are so great that it's almost impossible to put into words why they are that good. You just have to experience them. I'll give it a try though. The film centers around a lonely widower who, thanks to coincidence, has two strangers enter and enrich his life that may or may not have an impact on him in the future. The factor of coincidence is a very crucial one here as these happenings depict perfectly how one random thing happening can change your life forever. Often you can't even force it, you just have to hope for it to happen. The lunchbox simply could have gotten addressed correctly or the new employee could have tried his luck at another company and nothing from the action we were so lucky to see would have happened.
But back to the film: It's Ritesh Batra's first directorial effort for a full feature after a few short films, which makes the final result even more impressive. I was shocked to hear that India decided to submit another movie as the entry to the Foreign Language category at next year's Academy Awards. I haven't seen that one (yet) though, so no further elaboration on it, except I'd be quite surprised if I end up liking their choice as much as "The Lunchbox". Indian cinema is one of not too many areas that I'm not too familiar with. I've seen "Slumdog Millionaire" of course and "Gandhi", but that's pretty much all I can say. Anyway, if the level of "The Lunchbox" is the one several Indian films deliver these days, I can't wait to get more into the matter. I especially liked Irrfan Khan (with "Life of Pi" and Slumdog Millionaire" recently under his belt probably the biggest star from his country right now internationally) as a lonesome widower who did so much with so little and should easily be a contender for Best Actor of the Year at the next Oscars, but obviously he won't be. In Khan's shadow, Nimrat Kaur, who's surprisingly new to the film industry, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a likable pain in the neck shine as well.
The other great strength of the movie besides its lead actor is the writing. The film is packed from start to finish with dialog that so fits the tone and situation and a large number of symbolisms that will impossibly leave you cold. At least that's what I can tell for me and most of the audience sitting in my viewing. You don't have to have lost your wife as well to feel the lead character's bitterness and despair early on in the film, to feel his loneliness in one of the most populated cities on Earth. But the film is far from being emotional torture porn. It's sometimes genuinely funny, namely in those parts where both lead characters communicate with their most important person (the colleague, the upstairs neighbor) and even if these obviously have a great deal of problems as well, including loneliness or taking care of a very sick partner for 15 years, these interactions result in very entertaining situations. The scene with the chili in the basket was hilarious and brought some great comic relief that moment.
And that was only one of many smart scenes that perfectly display the characters' emotions or state of minds. You can also mention the children in the yard and how they interact with Khan's character, the ventilator metaphor (with the people below them and their similarities, coma patient and office worker) which may very well be the greatest symbolism I've seen in theaters all year. Another great scene is the moment in which his new colleague invite Khan's character and he rejects the invitation for the same evening as he's so deep down in his shell he needs preparation time for such a seemingly normal event. Very authentic display and that is exactly the way it is. Then there's the scene where he asks him to be his best man, scenes in which he watches the old shows his wife loved or a scene in which he makes a joke and you can see the impact of loneliness on his ability to make jokes or the empty lunchbox after the unsuccessful meeting, the aging without realizing... And there's many more scenes I didn't mention that made the movie the most wonderful experience for me. "The Lunchbox" is one of the saddest films of the year and, at the same time, one of the best, probably my number 2 of 2013 at this point.
I'm not sure if there's a movie where I would say that if you liked this, you'll have a great time watching "The Lunchbox" as well. The closest I can think of is "Lost in Translation", which has some parallels, even if, compared to the Coppola movie, all the interaction here happens merely in written form. The ending is pretty good too. It was not entirely happy the way I hoped it would be, no big emotional bang like for "Lost in Translation", but still it was in a way uplifting and maybe more realistic and puts a smile on your lips. And you can speculate nicely how things will go from there.
So to sum it all up, I really really loved "The Lunchbox". I was always curious about the next note the two would exchange and it probably could have run for at least another hour to meet the extreme length of many Indian films these days and I wouldn't have been bored a bit. It doesn't have spectacular music or dancing as you may know it from a few Indian films these days, but it does have many sequences with very tasty food. Is there something I criticize about this film? Actually there is: the fact that I missed watching it at the premiere with the cast and director around. Ten of ten.
addition 4th May 2020: Rest in peace, Irrfan Khan :-(
But back to the film: It's Ritesh Batra's first directorial effort for a full feature after a few short films, which makes the final result even more impressive. I was shocked to hear that India decided to submit another movie as the entry to the Foreign Language category at next year's Academy Awards. I haven't seen that one (yet) though, so no further elaboration on it, except I'd be quite surprised if I end up liking their choice as much as "The Lunchbox". Indian cinema is one of not too many areas that I'm not too familiar with. I've seen "Slumdog Millionaire" of course and "Gandhi", but that's pretty much all I can say. Anyway, if the level of "The Lunchbox" is the one several Indian films deliver these days, I can't wait to get more into the matter. I especially liked Irrfan Khan (with "Life of Pi" and Slumdog Millionaire" recently under his belt probably the biggest star from his country right now internationally) as a lonesome widower who did so much with so little and should easily be a contender for Best Actor of the Year at the next Oscars, but obviously he won't be. In Khan's shadow, Nimrat Kaur, who's surprisingly new to the film industry, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a likable pain in the neck shine as well.
The other great strength of the movie besides its lead actor is the writing. The film is packed from start to finish with dialog that so fits the tone and situation and a large number of symbolisms that will impossibly leave you cold. At least that's what I can tell for me and most of the audience sitting in my viewing. You don't have to have lost your wife as well to feel the lead character's bitterness and despair early on in the film, to feel his loneliness in one of the most populated cities on Earth. But the film is far from being emotional torture porn. It's sometimes genuinely funny, namely in those parts where both lead characters communicate with their most important person (the colleague, the upstairs neighbor) and even if these obviously have a great deal of problems as well, including loneliness or taking care of a very sick partner for 15 years, these interactions result in very entertaining situations. The scene with the chili in the basket was hilarious and brought some great comic relief that moment.
And that was only one of many smart scenes that perfectly display the characters' emotions or state of minds. You can also mention the children in the yard and how they interact with Khan's character, the ventilator metaphor (with the people below them and their similarities, coma patient and office worker) which may very well be the greatest symbolism I've seen in theaters all year. Another great scene is the moment in which his new colleague invite Khan's character and he rejects the invitation for the same evening as he's so deep down in his shell he needs preparation time for such a seemingly normal event. Very authentic display and that is exactly the way it is. Then there's the scene where he asks him to be his best man, scenes in which he watches the old shows his wife loved or a scene in which he makes a joke and you can see the impact of loneliness on his ability to make jokes or the empty lunchbox after the unsuccessful meeting, the aging without realizing... And there's many more scenes I didn't mention that made the movie the most wonderful experience for me. "The Lunchbox" is one of the saddest films of the year and, at the same time, one of the best, probably my number 2 of 2013 at this point.
I'm not sure if there's a movie where I would say that if you liked this, you'll have a great time watching "The Lunchbox" as well. The closest I can think of is "Lost in Translation", which has some parallels, even if, compared to the Coppola movie, all the interaction here happens merely in written form. The ending is pretty good too. It was not entirely happy the way I hoped it would be, no big emotional bang like for "Lost in Translation", but still it was in a way uplifting and maybe more realistic and puts a smile on your lips. And you can speculate nicely how things will go from there.
So to sum it all up, I really really loved "The Lunchbox". I was always curious about the next note the two would exchange and it probably could have run for at least another hour to meet the extreme length of many Indian films these days and I wouldn't have been bored a bit. It doesn't have spectacular music or dancing as you may know it from a few Indian films these days, but it does have many sequences with very tasty food. Is there something I criticize about this film? Actually there is: the fact that I missed watching it at the premiere with the cast and director around. Ten of ten.
addition 4th May 2020: Rest in peace, Irrfan Khan :-(