The Lunchbox (2013)

Finally got around to another movie from India, albeit not the kind that comes to mind when I think of Bollywood. This one caught my interest because it relies on a real-life premise I'd never heard of before: a service that delivers lunches to office workers' desks, whether from a restaurant or their own homes. Not sure how many places outside of India offer this. Also, the "box" consists of five stacked cans held together by a wire mechanism, each can containing a different food, but that's not important.

Homemaker Ila tries a new recipe to rekindle her marital romance. The lunchbox comes home completely empty, which gives her hope; but when husband Rajeev reacts incongruously, she determines that the heretofore stellar modern Mumbai system finally mixed up the deliveries. Rightly anticipating indefinite repetition of the error, she includes a letter of gratitude to the accidental recipient the next day. He is Saajan, a government accountant planning to retire in a month. Thus begins an unusual pen-pal relationship.

You may wonder what the two of them could have to talk about, especially after the awkwardness of their early exchanges. Well, they're both lonely. Rajeev is unpardonably distant, spending suspicious amounts of time allegedly at work, and Ila rarely talks to anyone else besides her mother, "Auntie" in an upstairs apartment (who teaches her recipes), and occasionally her grade school daughter. Saajan is a curt, possibly cranky widower with a reputation for unfriendliness; he puts off training his eager workforce replacement, Shaikh, as long as he can. As many of us online know, it can be easy to talk about personal problems with someone faceless.

While IMDb lists romance among the genres and I have included it in my tags, you'd better believe that Ila and Saajan would not make a great couple, for reasons beyond the generational difference and Ila's sense of obligation (however waning) to Rajeev. Nevertheless, they do provide a poignant avenue of release for each other. Saajan probably benefits a little more, judging from how he opens up, most conspicuously by accepting Shaikh's invitations into his home life.

Even supporting characters are notably lonely, which may explain how they appeal to Ila and Saajan. Shaikh, being a lifelong orphan, desires a friendship bordering on familial. Auntie has a catatonic husband whom she struggles to keep alive. Ila's mother has her own bedridden husband, but their marriage had been less than happy already. Maybe the biggest message of the film is that for all the hustle and bustle of a big city like Mumbai, people there aren't as connected as they'd like to be.

If you were hoping for an Eat Drink Man Woman-like foodie extravaganza, you'd be disappointed. We rarely get a good look at the reportedly delicious Indian lunches. Still, you may want to wait until you've eaten recently before tuning in.

I won't tell you how it ends, but I assure you that despite the nearly comedic initial setup, TL retains a high level of credibility the whole way through. It's a bit sad without veering into depressing. I recommend it to those who like a mild drama and don't mind that peculiar blend of subtitled English and Hindi that pervades so many Indian flicks.