Review of The Lunchbox / द लंच बॉक्स, directed by Ritesh Batra

I often say one of my many talents is saying I am going to watch a certain movie, and then not actually watching it until three years after the fact. Sometimes this happens simply because of lack of access, especially when it comes to movies from abroad that aren’t specifically released in the USA quickly enough.

Other times it’s because I simply am procrastinating and forget about the movie after a while, then remember years later. You’re probably realizing where this thread of thought is going to lead. Yes, I was telling myself years ago that I was going to watch The Lunchbox.

To date when that was, it was before Irrfan Khan had died. Like a year or two before, and I’m only just getting around to watching this movie upon the time of typing this. That said, I also did end up watching this because I was on a flight and saw it was one of the available options.

But hey, at least I watched it? I had a great time watching it, that’s for sure.

Let’s get into the review before I ramble too much.

A misplaced lunch box delivery leaves two souls connecting over notes.

One of our main characters in this movie is Ila, who is trying to find ways to revive her marriage with Rajeev. They’re both young, and she wants something more compared to the current situation she finds herself in. They live in Mumbai, so she decides to try and spruce up his lunches.

She uses a food delivery system (for our Americans; for our Desi friends, it’s the dabbawalas) where lunch boxes, or tiffins, are delivered to the recipient at their meal time. She prepares the tiffin, then sends it off. However, it ends up with Saajan, a widowed man preparing to retire from his job as an accountant.

After talking to Rajeev, Ila realizes what’s going on and that the lunchbox isn’t ending up with her husband. She asks her neighbor for advice on what to do, and then decides to write a letter and stick it in the tiffin for Saajan to read.

He gets the message the next mealtime, and decides to write back to her. Thus begins a sequence where the two begin communicating through notes about their lives and what’s going on in them, sparking a strange kind of friendship. In Sajaan’s workplace, he now needs to train his replacement.

Turns out Saajan was messed up greatly by his wife’s death, and doesn’t cope well with other people. Eventually he does open up to the other guy though, especially when he learns his replacement is an orphan who taught himself accounting. At one point, he covers for the guy, saving his job, and even becomes a part of his wedding.

In Ila’s life, she discovers her husband is cheating on her and decides that she needs to give up hope on what she thought their marriage could be. She continues to tell Saajan about what is happening through their notes, and even decides on potentially moving to Bhutan because it is cheaper.

Saajan says they should move there together, and Ila decides to ask him to meet her at a restaurant. He does not appear, and she’s upset by the fact. But when she gets the next letter, he admits he saw her from a distance, and realized how young she was. He tells her to move on, as he’s older.

Time passes, and Ila’s father passes away. When talking to her mother, her mother discloses how unhappy she was with the marriage. Ila decides to find out where Saajan is, only to discover that he has left town for Nashik. She then writes him a message saying she is moving to Bhutan with her daughter.

Saajan comes back to Mumbai, and in the final scene, we see Ila going to pick up her daughter for school as Saajan heads to her home.

Overall Thoughts

I enjoyed this movie a lot overall! I think it does an excellent job in depicting loneliness and various problems in India, and it taking place in Mumbai adds an extra level of complexity.

It feels like a uniquely Indian and Desi movie, but there’s such a universal factor to films like these. They show we’re all human with the same emotions at the end of the day, no matter where we’re from or what we look like.

It’s also been a while since I saw an Irrfan Khan movie, and it was like seeing a ghost. Film is fascinating to me in how it can capture those no longer alive, document a moment, and this is an example of that.

I’m glad I finally got around to watching this. Go watch it if you have not already yourself!

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