Indie Gems: The Lunchbox
Special delivery.
Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) is a lonely man living in Mumbai on the brink of retirement. When he's not dodging training in his replacement, the very excited Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) he's going through the motions. Meanwhile elsewhere in Mumbai, Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is also going through the motions. She's a lonely housewife with a husband who is too busy to pay attention to her or her daughter. She decides she's going to make his lunch as part of a company's lunchbox delivery service, only Saajan ends up getting her box instead. Impressed with her cooking, they write notes back and forth to each other delivered each day in the lunchbox.
I'm having a fair bit of deja vu here. I swore I wrote and published this review already, but apparently that wasn't the case. Maybe like Ila and Saajan, I fantasized about writing it. It's been a while since I've rooted for a couple as much as I did these two. Not even to be romantic, but just to be friends. They needed it. It falls under that grey area of "should I be rooting for a married person to leave their spouse?" which has happened before in movies such as Little Children. Regardless, I loved these two and wanted them to meet so badly.
I sometimes forget how satisfying PG rated movies can be. Most of the films I watch end up being rated R, but this one is so sweet and well acted. I loved every minute of watching it. This film is also a testament to how wonderful Wandering Through The Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks blogathon is, as that's where I first heard of this film.
Grade: A
Watched on: Netflix DVD
Memorable Quote: "Salt was okay today." - Saajan. (Irrfan Khan)
This sounds lovely. I might have to track it down before I forget it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up!
It really is. I hope you like it if you find it.
DeleteI've heard about this film for a very long time as I really want to see it. I was aware it was on TV but it came and went so quickly.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't seem like it got much of a theatrical release over here. I only heard about it because someone had it during Thursday Movie Picks.
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it. I watched it months ago and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a sweet film. I'm glad I saw it.
DeleteA student wrote a review of this movie a couple of years ago and, since then, it's been on my list. I need to watch this soon.
ReplyDeleteYes you do!
DeleteIt's on my list now, so I'm glad you hadn't posted it before. Now I can discover it too.
ReplyDeleteYay! One good thing comes from that, I swear I did. I hope you like it.
DeleteUGH I LOVE THIS MOVIE. So glad you liked it, too!
ReplyDelete