Starcast : Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddhiqui, Nakul Vaid, Bharti Achrekar

Director: Ritesh Batra

Rating : ***1/2

Now that's what I call something out of the box or rather "Lunchbox." In the current age of Indian cinema where Gen-X kind of love stories are the spice of the season, "The Lunchbox" seems to be a story with a difference, which can definitely leave you under the mesmerizing spell of awe. And why I am calling ,"The Lunchbox", a story with a difference, because in the era where emails, instant messaging and numerous other social media platforms are considered to be the backbone of romanticism, the author, Ritiesh Batra has tried his hands on something entirely unimaginable, "a lunchbox", where scribble notes placed in the the lunchbox emerge as a mean of communication between two strangers who just have three things in common, "desolation, loneliness and a need for love".

To some of the gen-next cine buffs the idea may seem something outdated and stodgy, but it's this simplicity of the movie which envelops your "heart and brain" within no time. "The Lunchbox" is a placid yet spellbinding narration of a relationship which dawns by the wrong delivery of a lunchbox and subsequently unfurls the various shades of human life and desires.


"The Lunchbox" showcases the life of a neglected housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) who in order to make her her love life happening and to defeat the gloominess prevailing in her life, due to the neglectful attitude of her husband (Nakul Vaid), goes by the advice of neighborhood aunt (Bharti Achrekar) of pleasing her husband by her culinary skills.

But the destiny had something different in its womb for, Ila and her Lunchbox of affection lands up on the desk of grouchy widower accountant, Saajan Fernandes, who is on the verge of his retirement. Soon after having a rendezvous with what has happened as her husband returns in the evening, Ila tucks in a note in the lunch box the following day, to which Saajan responds and from there takes-off a pen-friend sort of a charming relationship, where two strangers start sharing their memories, dreams and agonies of their solitary lives.


As said earlier the plot may look stodgy to a few but believe me the premise of "The Lunchbox" is literally something belonging to the genre of "never seen before" kind of cine flicks. With such a simple yet poignant story-line it's the warmth of this heart-touching tale which mesmerizes you till the core of your conscious. And as far as writing dexterity of of its author, Ritesh Batra, is concerned then surely the man has picked a very innovative and tender theme to adorn an intriguing cine saga around it.

Be it any perspective pertaining to narration of "The Lunchbox" everything seems to be so much in accordance with the spirit of the movie, that you never feel like pausing your attention from dabbling into the onscreen proceedings.


Even in the direction department, Ritesh has never looked like a debutant, be it it sentiments, warmth of a relationship, latent agonies of the protagonists, human factor or milieu of a metropolis, Ritiesh has painted everything on the celluloid with so much of finesse, that you literally fall in love with this warm and soothing sensory experience. So special kudos for him.

Well as far as performances are concerned then, probably it's very hard to put the performances of all the characters of "The Lunchbox" in words. As usual Irrfan is once again seems to be in his best form. After "Paan Singh Tomar" this is another path breaking performances by this powerhouse of talent. Besides Irrfan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is another accomplished performer of the movie who had been flawless throughout.

At last but not the least it's Nimrat who despite the presence of two of the most talented actors in the movie, never gets overshadowed and quite conveniently succeeds in making her presence feel. While portraying Ila, Nimrat looks completely effortless in bringing alive the latent feelings of a lonely housewife and up-till great extent succeeds in making her character a believable one.


There are certain movie which are made to thrash the existing BO collection benchmarks, but "The Lunchbox" is certainly not one of them. It seems to be something "made from heart and made for heart", so probably the BO collection of "The Lunchbox" may not touch some astonishing figure but in-spite of that it has got all the ingredients to make people fall for it.


To sum up, the movies like "The Lunchbox" are not the ones which can be gauged on the rating gauge, because what they offer to their audience is something like "once in a life time experience" and besides that they confer you with an altogether new outlook towards life. So with huge bunch of accolades for the entire "The Lunchbox" team for such a praiseworthy effort, all I can say is "The Lunchbox" is savory and a must have cine delight for cine buffs.