Most of the Indian films shown in the UK are the all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood extravaganzas. However, the country does have a thriving film industry beyond that glitz and glamour and this low key film is an example of that.
In India, companies run lunchbox services which involve a spouse making a hot lunch after their partner has gone to work. It’s put into tiffin boxes which are collected and delivered to the workplace in time for lunch. In the Lunchbox Nimrat Kaur plays Ila, a housewife, who is being neglected by her husband.
In order to win back her husband’s affections she tries making improved lunches for him. With the first one, using new recipes, she slips a note into one of the boxes. Unfortunately, there is a mix up and the lunch is instead delivered to an older widower, Saajan (Irfan Khan).
The same mix-up continues to occur over the coming days and the pair start corresponding by notes left in the tiffin boxes. Ila enjoys the attention paid to her and Saajan looks forward to the notes as he lives a pretty lonely existence, with little to fill his days other than his work.
What follows is a very restrained and low key ‘will they / won’t they’ tentative romance. I can easily see this getting an American remake, but I am sure all of the subtleties would be lost, and the poignant ending would be changed. Recalling films such as Brief Encounter and 84 Charing Cross Road, this is a lovely satisfying film bolstered by fine lead performances.
Life in an old fashioned office where Saajan works, with its piles of paper files and antiquated filing room is well portrayed, and his keen new trainee, Sheikh, will be familiar to any of you who have been working with Indian companies over the last few years. The high point of the film is a great scene between Ila and her Mother that depicts grief very realistically after a loved ones death.
On the minus side, Kaur is probably too attractive for role she is playing and the shouted conversations between her and the “Auntie” character were a bit grating. Also with its restraint and ambiguous ending, some may find it slight and frustrating. I, though, was thoroughly engaged by it.
Rating 7 out of 10