Let’s get a few ‘NOTs’ out of the way. The Lunchbox is NOT a Bollywood film. It is a romantic-comedy, but there is no dancing and no singing. It is Indian, but its story and themes are universal. Lots of the dialogue is even in English, for the subtitle-averse.
The Lunchbox is NOT politically correct. At least not by western standards, as it is based on the premise that a housewife’s role is to make lunch for her husband who is hard at work in the office. It is, however, critical of the stereotypical role this casts both genders into and undermines the status quo beautifully.
The Lunchbox is NOT complicated. Rather it is elegant in its simplicity. In Mumbai, each day, the Dabbawalas (a famous lunchbox courier service) deliver millions of lunches across the city so swiftly and efficiently that everyone from Harvard University to Top Gear have looked into it. In The Lunchbox, one lunchbox is incorrectly diverted. This film is that lunch’s tale.
The Lunchbox IS delightful, original and the sort of film that will leave you with a spring in your step and a rumbling in your belly. Watching the burgeoning relationship between Saajan, a lonely widower close to retirement, and Ila, an unhappy housewife, carried out through handwritten notes carried back and forth by the Dabbawalas, is an utter joy.
This is the perfect date film, guaranteed. In fact if you don’t love the film and find it prompting great conversation over a meal immediately afterwards, please return your ticket stub via Dabbawala for a complete refund by the author.
