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| Irfan Khan in The Lunch Box |
Debutant film maker, Ritesh Batra, has made a fantastic start, with his first. Pegging the film on two elements – the Bombay Dabbawalas, who have become an international case study at
management schools, and the evergreen recipe called love, he has made a
profoundly meaningful, touching film, with only one very well-known actor, that
being Irfan Khan, as cast and other lesser known names like, Nimrat Kaur,
Nawazuddin Siddiqui. A story so beautifully woven, with so much sensitivity,
really did not need a super engaging cast, to carry the film to a box office
hit.
Saajan (Irfan Khan), is about to retire in a month after 35
years of work life. He is a lonely widower, with nothing else except his job as
crutch.
Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife with a daughter and a
husband she suspects is having an affair outside their marriage.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is the young man all set to take over
the job from Irfan, after he retires in a month or two. He is eager to learn
from Irfan, but the latter is a reluctant teacher for his insecurity of a life
of retirement, is only too close and looking him in the face.
At that moment, by a turn of fate, there is an interchange
of dabbas (Lunchbox) and the one he
receives is not the one, meant for him. But the food is home cooked, and ever since
the death of his wife, Irfan has been eating from the canteen, which only
provided, potatoes on a daily basis. Irfan takes the liberty to send a chit in
the box complaining, complimenting, telling stories, inside the box. Ila, who
receives these letters, is a bit baffled at the beginning, but begins to enjoy
and anticipate the letters. Her drab life, with a cheating husband, which she
tells Irfan about, finds a patient listener. The letters fill the emptiness of
each of their lives. They plan to meet.
However, at the appointed time, at the restaurant decided
before, Ila, is waiting anxiously, while Irfan, a much older man, comes to the
restaurant but does not meet her. He sits and watches her, hesitating to move
forward. Naturally Ila is unhappy at this let down, but receives a letter of
explanation from Irfan the next day, in the dabba,
of course. Along with her daughter, she visits his Office, only to find, he has
retired and left. She herself decides to leave for Bhutan, leaving her husband
behind.
What is the actual message of the film? At no point do the
two protagonists, Ila and Irfan, ever meet and yet, the audience is left with
this feeling that they will meet, sometime. Perhaps in Bhutan where they plan
to go together, but each has gone his own way!
The whole movie is a brilliant depiction of our need as humans to communicate. The
key message is - given any situation where
two people are alone and have no one to talk to, they will create a bridge of
communication, between them, even if they do not know, or have not seen or met
each other. For Irfan, Ila filled the vacancy of this life, just by
reading/listening to what he was writing; for Ila, Irfan was that person, she
did not know, but could share her deepest fears or insecurities. Yet, when challenged
to meet, personally came, Irfan prefers to maintain status quo. Indeed, he is
aware that this bubble would burst if they were to meet personally, face to
face.
At another level, even the aunty, living above Ila, whose
voice the audience hears but whose face it never sees, is another example of
communication between two humans living close to each other. There is exchange thoughts and queries, and
there is a basket hanging on ropes which again becomes a loop to hang another
form of communication, where, tid-bits shared between two kitchen, one on top
and the other below, becomes a tool that gives a loud and clear message – There
is a voice that binds the two and there is a connection too, between the two. Again,
they are communicating, whatever be the objects shared between the two.
Brilliant as it were, the film talks about a very basic need
– the need to be heard and the need to communicate in any form, because, as
someone said, no man is an island. We are all part of the milieu, we call life.
We are complete, only when there is the other, in whatever form it may choose
to be there for us.
The film is clean of all other quick fix modern day
communications that shake the hall with belly dancers, romantic run-around
trees or making out at sea bed. Also, there are no Smartphones, Facebook,
Twitter or gmail even.
Such a break from the mundane! Such a beautiful film!
Read also why The Lunchbox should have been the film for the Oscar nomination.
