I wanted to but couldn't!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

When a neglected housewife figures out that her lunchbox is not being delivered to her husband she sends the man eating it a note which starts a communication through which they connect and even feel love.The movie may seem to slow for some. But this is actually what adds to it's charm. While it seems like a routine where they read notes from each other, each note adds more to their connection. We see them opening more to each other and starting to feel more hope and happiness in their lives.It doesn't have a happy ending. Or maybe it does to some point, just not a typical happy ending which we know from mainstream movies. The main characters never meet. When then time comes for it Saajan Fernandez feels too old for the woman who wrote to him (this actually doesn't seem correct as the actors are not that far apart in age, but the reality is not what he was feeling). And when she tries to come to his work to meet him he has already left. Yet there is still some happiness in it since she leaves her husband and goes to the place where she expects to be happy. And he remains in the neighborhood and seems to have found a new outlook for life which is shown in him connecting better to the children there. Who knows, maybe one day a wrong train will take the two again to a right station and they meet. And if not we know they influenced each other lives in a very positive way.Great acting. And there are many scenes that show it to us. How for example when finding out about a woman jumping from a high building with her daughter Saajan is worried it is Ila and checks right away on his lunchbox. Shaikh is also a great addition to the movie and we see through his relationship with Saajan how things are changing.A nice movie that is a pleasure to watch and to think after.

The Lunchbox, is a wonderful new film which is a reworking of sorts of 1998's American romantic comedy, You've Got Mail, which starred Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. In this version it takes place in India, and involves a food delivery service which drops off lunches to people in the various businesses around the area. After a meal that was meant to be delivered to her husband instead ends up on the desk of office worker Saajan, he takes one taste of the food delivered to him, thinking that this is just the usual restaurant chain that is supposed to be bringing him his meal, but instead he notices that the food is a lot better than usual and also inside the food tins used to store the lunch is a note to her husband Rajeev, from the cook of the meal and Rajeev's wife, Ila. What happens next is most interesting as Saajan doesn't just apologize and make Ila aware that the food is not going to her husband, but instead writes a note back to her in the same food container, telling her of his great love of her cooking. Ila then decides to continue to send food back and forth to Saajan and with it each day is a little letter that she has written and through the gift of her cooking as well as Saajan and Ila both being lonely people, they end up starting a pen pal relationship where they correspond to one another with letters and in Saajan's case, he also ends up getting a delicious meal out of it. The premise as I watched the film, immediately reminded me of You've Got Mail, which for an American romantic comedy is definitely among the better of them, but thankfully The Lunchbox takes it's own road with this story and definitely makes it something all of it's own instead of a direct remake, or a foreign language copy of You've Got Mail. There is plenty here to definitely please fans of romantic comedies and there is also enough here that will appeal to foreign film fans as well as those who are connoisseurs of Indian films. I myself have really become quite smitten with the East Indian culture within the past ten years or so, after being introduced to some wonderful restaurants in the downtown core of my city, as well as discovering great Indian films such as Sholay and the wonderful works by Satyajit Ray, such as Charulata, or The Big City among his very impressive work, which I think ranks right up there with some of the world's best filmmaking auteurs. As far as literature goes, you also can not beat a good Salman Rushdie novel either. As for The Lunchbox, this is a film that not only fascinates you with a dash of culture from another side of the world, but you also grow with these characters and while their lives may seem so very different from our own in some ways, you can not shake off the feeling and sense that so very much of what they go through and deal with on an everyday basis is the same as if you are in America, Canada, or any other part of the world, so no matter where you may be living and putting the cultural differences aside, you will definitely be able both to relate and have empathy for the characters on the screen in front of you. There is also so much wonderful humour and lighthearted moments to be had here as well. The humour at most times is quite quiet and small, but definitely more than once I was looking up at the screen with a big smile on my face and truly enjoying what I was watching and at times getting great amusement and joy out of the film. There is a certain element of warmth not only to these characters, but to the film itself, not just with it's wonderful yet subtle sense of humour, but there are moments in this film that I found had true beauty in them. A great example would be the mellowing out of Saajan towards a new fellow coworker and how he becomes in many ways a kinder and gentler person because of these wonderful meals and letters that he is receiving. This is a film of not only great character study, but it also has a great sense of humanity and an in depth look and feeling of true human emotions and spirit which really makes this film quite touching at times, but also reflective to those watching it and at times a film of great warmth, beauty and dare I say, love. The acting is wonderfully expressive even when it is at it's most subtle and the screenplay truly captures the human spirit, but also allows the viewer to have much fun with the film in the process. This is one of the best films of the last several years and definitely not one to be missed. A true modern day masterpiece.

Rarely an Indian film without its trademark dancing-and-singing routines, director/writer Ritesh Batra's feature debut marvellously utilises the exotic "dabbawalas" system of Mumbai, which is an intricate lunch delivery service to people at work from their their homes or restaurants and is remarkable for its accuracy, but Batra fictionalises a little mix- up of the system and links two strangers into an epistolary communication, and from there, their penfriend-ship will further sublimate into something more genuine and profound.Saajan Fernandes (Khan) is a middled-aged widower on the brink of early retirement as a senior accountant, he is withdrawn, cynical and tries to dodge the responsibility to train his new replacement Sheikh (Siddiqui). One day his colourless life is revitalised by a mis- delivered lunch-box which he vastly enjoys. The lunch-box is made by Ila (Kaur), a housewife who attempts to win the her husband's heart through her cuisine. When Ila realises the delivery blunder, instead of righting the mistake, she starts to leave a note to this stranger in the lunch-box and Saajan writes back too, steadily, they exchange their own stories and life philosophy, which becomes the enzyme of a blossoming romance since both find a conduit and a confidant to change their disappointing status quo. Like YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998, 7/10), THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940), the two protagonists are destined to meet sine they are not like Helene Hanff and Frank P. Doel in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (1987) who are divided by the Atlantic ocean and deferred by a difficult economy situation. It is quite easy for them to meet when all the romantic buildup reaches its threshold, Ila finds out her husband is cheating on her whereas Saajan gets close with the orphan Sheikh, takes him as his protégé, and is ready to turn a new chapter of his life. But Batra refuses to hold out such an easy pass for their significant first meeting, for the sake of narrative twist, he wields the "sudden" epiphany of age difference as the obstacle to morally righteously curb the passion from Saajan's side. And from then on, the film descends into a limbo of indecision, through Saajan's capricious determinations, it actually reflects Batra's insecurity of how to consummate the story in an unconventional way, as his first feature, his endeavour fails to achieve that goal with the over-contrived open ending.Performances are uniformly pleasant to watch, Khan's goggled eyes alone can patently exhume his deepest inner feelings to an affecting effect. Kaur, also downplays the default setting of an under-appreciated wife and evinces her steely resolution of a woman doesn't yield to an unhealthy marriage. Siddiqui's Sheikh. comes around often as comic relief with an inherent optimistic spirit, registers a well-developed balance of humour and earnestness.The film's retro flair in rediscovering the magic power of authentic writings is naturalistic-ally endearing to endorse, and "sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right station", is the motto conspicuously referred three times along the whole movie, THE LUNCHBOX is a rarity among the usual Bollywood products, its message can reach unanimously to every soul who is inspired to find its rightful purpose, and its art-house appeal can lure those who are disinterested in Indian cinema (like myself) into its poetic embodiment of an unusual encounter.

Saw this DVD 7/26/15. Rather than repeat a synopsis, some random thoughts after a first viewing (and there will be more): 1. The setup is a little like "Pillow Talk" (1959). The movie starts out with the makings of a "cute meet." But it becomes clear early on that Ila is not Doris Day, and Fernandes is not going to be anything like Rock Hudson.2. There is considerable suspense: Will Fernandes ever smile? And will Ila meet him? 3. Suspense grows as we await the thawing of Fernandes' heart. But anticipation of a meeting between dabba correspondents gradually gives way to something deeper, as "Lunchbox" comes into its own not as love story or romantic comedy, but as a parable of adult life, which only begins once a person has lived long enough and through enough to ask, "Is this all there is?" Bhutan beckons. It seems to be all these two people have left. Bhutan, with its measure of Gross Domestic Happiness, borders Lenny's "fat of the land" in "Of Mice and Men" (e.g.,1939), or Candide's El Dorado. There have been "lonely crowd" movies before, but Mumbai's populace is quite a crowd, and Ila and Fernandes such a lonely pair. 4. The cinematic apparatus (shot duration and selection, cutting, lighting) works effectively but does not intrude. I only minded the occasional single-note piano cue signaling moments of character introspection. Unnecessary, but I guess that's show business. 5. I saw Irrfan Khan in "Life of Pi" (2012). I could see he was a superior actor but found that the character scripted for him did not let him show what he could do and be on screen. Fernandes, at once someone unforgettable, someone we all have known somewhere sometime, and also someone we fear to become, is a demonstration of his skill. This is my first film with Nimrat Kaur in the cast. Her performance reminded me of Madhabi Mukherjee's title character in "Charulata" (1964) or the same actress as Arati in "Mahanagar" (1963). She makes a perfect lunchbox correspondent for Khan's Fernandes. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Shaikh works well with Khan. He sold more than just Shaikh. He gave reality to Fernandes through the relationship between the two characters, demonstrating that acting is interacting. 6. Aside from "Pillow Talk", the movie brought to mind movies such as "Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud" (1995), "The Crowd" (1928), and "Chungking Express" (1994) as well as obvious intersections marked by Satyajit Ray's "Mahanagar", "Charulata", and "Nayak, the Hero" (1966). Also to be found on the same page is "Chachaji, My Poor Relation: A Memoir by Ved Mehta"(1978). Many others.7. In a world of on demand movie viewing, whether online, DVD, cable, or whatever, every viewer is a motion picture academy of one. I keep my own list of best pictures. "Dabba" is on it.