The Lunchbox (2013) tells the story of a housewife who is an excellent cook and tries to win her husband's heart by following the route via his stomach. But the indifferent husband is making her soul die gradually but definitely through his apathy - apathy towards herself, her whole existence and everything done by her for him. Life has become quite dull and hopeless for her. The only reason for her to live is her little daughter plus her aged mother looking after her ailing father.
This housewife living in Mumbai is Ila (Simrat Kaur) who everyday prepares the lunchbox for her husband and send to him through the tiffin delivery service carried out by the famous Dabbawaalas of Mumbai. She keeps on trying newer recipes for her husband's lunch by seeking the advice of an elderly lady in her neighbourhood whom she calls 'aunty'. And one day the aunty's recipe works but the outcome does not affect Ila's husband - Rajeev (Nakul Vaid) whom the tiffin was originally sent to. Due to a rare error made by the Dabbawaala, the lunchbox reaches a stranger named as Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan) working in a government owned insurance company. He is an elderly widower and willing for early retirement from his job to shift to Nasik.
Now the lunch which was never eaten completely by Rajeev, is liked so much by Saajan that he licks the lunchbox empty. And when the lunchbox emptied this way, reaches back to Ila in the evening, it's a pleasant surprise for her. However the pleasantness of surprise gets diluted when she comes to know that it's not her husband who had eaten that lunch but someone else. However even this indirectly conveyed appreciation of her cooking brings some cheers to her heart. She sends a 'Thank You' note in the lunchbox the next day hoping that the lunchbox will reach the same person again.
And yes, it reaches Saajan only again. And again. And again. Her note and the subsequent such notes start fetching Saajan's replies too. She writes in Hindi but Saajan replies in English. However the language of sentiments is unique and is not dependent on the medium. Hence a bridge is built through these letters between the hearts of the twosome. Like Ila, Saajan is also completely lonely and his loneliness has adversely affected his personality. But now the lunchbox has become something like a postman for both these lonely and suffocated souls to open up and pour own heart out because now each of them has found a listener in the form of the other.
Letters keep on coming and going. Now they wait for the lunchbox - Saajan in the day time and Ila in the evening - just to get the letter of the other one and know what he / she has said from his / her side and when there is a mutual liking between the communicating persons, there's never any dearth of the topics. The result ? Elementary Sir ! The result is love. The love which knows no bounds of age, looks, class, marital position, family etc. etc. etc.They have fallen in love - from Ila's side without even seeing Saajan but the apprehensions are also there. It requires a lot of courage to take risks to move from what we are in to what we long for which is absent at least in Saajan. Well, then should we conclude that the love story has ended ? No ! Whether the lovers get united or not, the love story continues. because love does not cease to exist.
It's not a movie about the lunch or its quality or its consumption and subsequent appreciation for the lunch-maker. It's about opening up of two persons to each other through letters through which the characters of this movie who come to know of each other and then move from liking each other to loving other. But !
But what would have happened had the lunchbox sent by the lady been wrongly delivered to some female instead of a male ? Then this love story would have not come into existence even if that lunch-consuming stranger lady had been appreciative of the food and understanding and empathetic by nature. Why ? Because a love story has to be between a male and a female only. Even when the concerned male and the female never come face-to-face or even see each other's photograph or even hear each other's voice, the feeling that the interacting person belongs to opposite sex itself is able to stir the heart of the individual. Opposite charges attract each other and like charges repel each other. It is true in the case of human-beings too. Especially we, the Indians, tend to foster an unexpressed desire in our hearts to interact with a person of opposite sex and allow our hidden romantic feelings to exhibit themselves because our social set-up does not allow us even today to go ahead in a love-affair and male-female interaction without a marital bond between them is still looked upon with contempt by the society. Hence any opportunity to taste that forbidden fruit is grabbed with enthusiasm. Hence even without any sexual orientation of the (real or deemed) relationship, a feeling of getting involved with a person of opposite sex is found soothing for the heart. The same appears to have happened to Saajan Fernandes and Ila also. The lunchbox originally contained food for the appetite of the body but once it became the medium of communication between the individuals at the two ends of its daily journey, it started carrying the stuff to satiate the appetite of soul of the twosome.
An outstanding movie it is !
This housewife living in Mumbai is Ila (Simrat Kaur) who everyday prepares the lunchbox for her husband and send to him through the tiffin delivery service carried out by the famous Dabbawaalas of Mumbai. She keeps on trying newer recipes for her husband's lunch by seeking the advice of an elderly lady in her neighbourhood whom she calls 'aunty'. And one day the aunty's recipe works but the outcome does not affect Ila's husband - Rajeev (Nakul Vaid) whom the tiffin was originally sent to. Due to a rare error made by the Dabbawaala, the lunchbox reaches a stranger named as Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan) working in a government owned insurance company. He is an elderly widower and willing for early retirement from his job to shift to Nasik.
Now the lunch which was never eaten completely by Rajeev, is liked so much by Saajan that he licks the lunchbox empty. And when the lunchbox emptied this way, reaches back to Ila in the evening, it's a pleasant surprise for her. However the pleasantness of surprise gets diluted when she comes to know that it's not her husband who had eaten that lunch but someone else. However even this indirectly conveyed appreciation of her cooking brings some cheers to her heart. She sends a 'Thank You' note in the lunchbox the next day hoping that the lunchbox will reach the same person again.
And yes, it reaches Saajan only again. And again. And again. Her note and the subsequent such notes start fetching Saajan's replies too. She writes in Hindi but Saajan replies in English. However the language of sentiments is unique and is not dependent on the medium. Hence a bridge is built through these letters between the hearts of the twosome. Like Ila, Saajan is also completely lonely and his loneliness has adversely affected his personality. But now the lunchbox has become something like a postman for both these lonely and suffocated souls to open up and pour own heart out because now each of them has found a listener in the form of the other.
Letters keep on coming and going. Now they wait for the lunchbox - Saajan in the day time and Ila in the evening - just to get the letter of the other one and know what he / she has said from his / her side and when there is a mutual liking between the communicating persons, there's never any dearth of the topics. The result ? Elementary Sir ! The result is love. The love which knows no bounds of age, looks, class, marital position, family etc. etc. etc.They have fallen in love - from Ila's side without even seeing Saajan but the apprehensions are also there. It requires a lot of courage to take risks to move from what we are in to what we long for which is absent at least in Saajan. Well, then should we conclude that the love story has ended ? No ! Whether the lovers get united or not, the love story continues. because love does not cease to exist.
It's not a movie about the lunch or its quality or its consumption and subsequent appreciation for the lunch-maker. It's about opening up of two persons to each other through letters through which the characters of this movie who come to know of each other and then move from liking each other to loving other. But !
But what would have happened had the lunchbox sent by the lady been wrongly delivered to some female instead of a male ? Then this love story would have not come into existence even if that lunch-consuming stranger lady had been appreciative of the food and understanding and empathetic by nature. Why ? Because a love story has to be between a male and a female only. Even when the concerned male and the female never come face-to-face or even see each other's photograph or even hear each other's voice, the feeling that the interacting person belongs to opposite sex itself is able to stir the heart of the individual. Opposite charges attract each other and like charges repel each other. It is true in the case of human-beings too. Especially we, the Indians, tend to foster an unexpressed desire in our hearts to interact with a person of opposite sex and allow our hidden romantic feelings to exhibit themselves because our social set-up does not allow us even today to go ahead in a love-affair and male-female interaction without a marital bond between them is still looked upon with contempt by the society. Hence any opportunity to taste that forbidden fruit is grabbed with enthusiasm. Hence even without any sexual orientation of the (real or deemed) relationship, a feeling of getting involved with a person of opposite sex is found soothing for the heart. The same appears to have happened to Saajan Fernandes and Ila also. The lunchbox originally contained food for the appetite of the body but once it became the medium of communication between the individuals at the two ends of its daily journey, it started carrying the stuff to satiate the appetite of soul of the twosome.
An outstanding movie it is !