The Lunch Box - An attempt to review

I believe someone somewhere said,

"Movies that really make you think are rare, but movies that really make you feel are almost unheard of...."

As with any great film, its pointless to compare "The Lunch Box" with any other film.

But the film really makes you sit back and wonder how you have been watching films lately. I myself felt that we are perhaps becoming too critical or too casual about our films. Its not about good or bad films being made, its about our approach towards them. Most of us tend to sum up a movie over a cup of coffee in a line or two. Others go in with wolfhound alertness, to find out flaws with the plot and believeability. Its as if every director is trying to fool us into believing a gibberish plot, and we're always one up to befuddle them.

Probably, we believe watching all the "parallel" cinema coming out makes us movie critiques, just like we believe buying a DSLR and watermarking our names through photoshop makes us photographers.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not against this. This is quite healthy and emerging from these discussions do we get good film critiques.

But the thing about this film is that it hits the notion of a 'good film' at the very core.

I prefer not to discuss the story of the film in detail in a review, unless its absolutely essential.

So, here's a sketchy outline.

Ila is estranged from her husband. She tries to repair it, but in vain. Suddenly, one fateful day, the dabba (lunch box) prepared by her for her husband was delivered to a lonely widower by mistake of the "dabbawala" and....the plot unfolds.

The foremost aspect of the treatment that absolutely bowled me over, was the restraint.

The simplicity of the film is ingrained in the pace. It never aims for a resolution. The pathos, the thrill and even the suspense of the film is woven into the characters,  not the story. You care for Ila not because the story tells you to, but because you see her everyday, - in your family, in your neighbourhood, among your friends. You want to sit beside her, hold her hand and share the silence.

Director Ritesh Batra has truly given the audience what they have been shouting they deserve.
Respect.

The film doesn't tell you to believe or accept anything. It just trusts you to understand.

In a way, Ritesh has done something very difficult. He left his characters at your mercy. The direction and editing is so masterly that you forget the story is being told. You feel it rising from within yourself.

The second aspect of the film that makes it the film it is, is the music. Or rather, the background scores.

The rain during the credits, the old film songs by beggar children on the train, the chorus of dabbawalas in the vendor compartment.....Max Richter seems to have gone out with a net on a rainy day in Mumbai and picked up the music from the pavements. It weaves the gloom, tickles the thrill and lights a fire in a chilly evening for the romance.

Now coming to the part that we commonly mistake as everything to discuss about the film.

The on screen performances.

The film has 3 principal characters. Ila, Saajan Fernandez and Shaikh played respectively by Nimrat Kaur, Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

For the second and third part....well, Irrfan is already something of a cult himself and Nawaz has already shown the potential to become the next Naseeruddin Shah.

But, even without going into that debate, their performances were dazzling, as usual.

The absence of dialogues and body acting for the characters make them so bloody difficult to play, that the brilliance of the performances are all the more visible.
The twitching of the lip and twinkle in the eyes by Irrfan while reading Ila's notes touches something very raw in us, something elementally romantic.

On the other hand, Nawaaz's perplexity, over confidence and tagging behind the leisurly Irrfan lends a sweetness to the character you would have felt almost impossible.
Also, there should be a special mention for both their comic timing. Most of the comic sequences of the film are situational, but the players are so effortlessly witty, that it enhances these to a whole new level.

And now about Nimrat Kaur. My god! She is one great discovery of the film. The Cadbury's Silk Ad made her face known to us, and I went in expecting a sweet, clumsy housewife. But the way she has donned the role, without any makeup, with just a touch of dreaminess and the pauses while she talks, - expands the character in places it didn't know it had places. In all the crucial moments of the film, be it her efforts to rekindle the romance with her husband, or discovering his affair, or waiting for Saajan in the cafe.....she is absolutely flawless. It is anyway a nightmare for a new girl to be acting in her first film along side Irrfan and Nawaz, and in such a deglamourized role at that. But she has really lived up to it. She doesn't act how you expect her to. She shows you how its done, and you catch yourself smiling.

Nevertheless, in spite of the masterly treatment, there seemed to be two major loopholes in the storyline.

First of all, why suddenly one day, the dabbawala makes a mistake in the delivery and continues to do so, remains a mystery.

Also, it keeps a question lingering as to how come Ila's husband does not get a feel of this mistake for so long. After a few initial reactions, the film completely shuns him from the plot.

Anyway, it was not a deal breaker for me.

As I said, watching the film left me wondering what watching a film is all about. And, if you really want your films to solve like an equation and at the end have the L.H.S = R.H.S...(Hence Proved), I guess you won't like the film anyway.

But, its really heartwarming to see Producers like UTV or Dharma taking interests in such films and Karan Johar launching it. I guess Karan's efforts to step out of the "typical Karan Johar" shell, which started with the unsuccessful attempt in Bombay Talkies, is having some fruitful results after all.

What!!! You're still here? Trust me, if this stupid blog made you interested in the film even a bit, its because of its own brilliance. 

Another great thing about the film is that it doesn't leave you where it ends. If you feel it the way I did, you shall hear the dabbawalas' chorus and feel the evening mumbai streaming past the train window, till long after you left the theater.