The Lunchbox (Dabba), directed by Ritesh Batra, is a charming love story about two people who interact through letters in an effort to overcome their loneliness.
Before providing more information about the film, I would like to note that very few people prefer these films over the high-grossing entertainers running on the opposite corner of a multiplex theatre.
In a multiplex in Hyderabad, I watched the film much later, but there were only 6 other people in the spacious theatre. The Lunchbox may not be well received in this region of India, which is better known for its masala-mix regional films, or it may already have seen some success at the box office in the last few weeks.
The Lunchbox, meanwhile, is more of an art-house movie with a strong narrative and storyline. The presence of stars like Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in this film will undoubtedly appeal to those who enjoy films like Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat.
The story is about a man (Irrfan Khan as Mr. Fernandez), who is lonely since his wife died and mulling taking early retirement from his accounting job, and a woman who is desperately seeking her husband’s attention and using her cooking skills to rekindle their relationship.
The woman Ila (Nimrat Kaur) makes an effort to gain her husband’s affection by preparing delectable meals, and she would have been successful if Mumbai’s well-known “dabbawalas” hadn’t derailed her scheme by giving the lunch box to Mr. Fernandez instead of her intended recipient. Then, on the day that she recognizes her error, she writes a brief message, followed by a string of letters, which develop into a really strange but lovely lunchbox dialogue.
Where to watch The Lunchbox (2013)
