The Lunchbox (2013)

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.

Director:

Ritesh Batra

Writers:

Ritesh Batra (screenplay), Vasan Bala (hindi dialogue consultant)

Stars:

Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Top Rated Indian Movies #153 | Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 28 wins & 37 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Irrfan Khan	...	Saajan Fernandes
Nimrat Kaur	...	Ila
Nawazuddin Siddiqui	...	Shaikh
Lillete Dubey	...	Ila's Mother
Nakul Vaid	...	Rajeev
Bharti Achrekar	...	Auntie
Yashvi Puneet Nagar	...	Yashvi
Denzil Smith	...	Mr. Shroff
Shruti Bapna	...	Mehrunnisa
Nasirr Khan	...	Ila's Father (as Nasir Khan)
Lokesh Raj	...	Duke's Owner
Sadashiv Kondaji Pokarkar	...	Dabbawallah at Ila's House
Aarti Rathod	...	Saajan's Neighbor
Krishna Bai	...	Toothless Woman
Raj Rishi More	...	Ila's Brother

Storyline

The film, set in Mumbai, revolves around a mistaken delivery by the Dabbawalas (lunchbox service) of Mumbai, which leads to a relationship between Saajan, a lonely widower close to retirement, and Ila, an unhappy housewife, as they start exchanging notes through the daily lunchbox.

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Plot Keywords:

lunchbox | retirement | unconventional romance | open ended | delivery to wrong address | 

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Taglines:

All she wanted was her husband's love. All he wanted was to be left alone. A lunchbox delivered to the wrong man changes everything.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic material and smoking

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was jointly produced by various studios including DAR motion pictures, UTV Motion Pictures, Dharma Productions, Sikhya Entertainment, NFDC (India), ROH Films (Germany), ASAP Films (France), and the Cine Mosaic (United States).

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Goofs

At one point, Shaikh tells Saajan about his father-in-law that "the last time he smiled was at the 1984 World Cup". There were no major world cups that year. The FIFA world cup was held in 1982 & then in 1986; and the ICC cricket world cup was held in 1983.

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Quotes

Saajan Fernandes: Nobody buys a lottery ticket expired, Ila.

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Connections

Referenced in 73 Questions: 73 Questions with Lupita Nyong'o (2015)

User Reviews

A Lunchbox to fill you craving for a good Bollywood movie

Lunchbox review: Note: Don't open this Dabba if you don't like slow paced movies!!

After a long time i have watched a Bollywood movie where in the movie makes you think about your life and how it can buzz past you before you realize it and that if you don't start to enjoy the small things like the bendi ki sabji, you will be made to eat Aloo Gobi every day (Just kidding) As they say in the movie "Sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right destination" ie Every cloud has a silver lining!!

The story revolves around a misplaced dabba (Trivia: Dabbawala's supposedly have a low error ratio, i.e "one mistake in 8 million deliveries."!!) Irrfan Khan has done a tremendous job both in acting and narrating the story. Nimrat Kaur(the Dairy Milk Silk girl!! ) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui fit their characters perfectly and have done a wonderful job portraying their roles. The only downside is that the pace of the movie is bit slow. But if they had edited it further it would have been a 1hr episode!

The Gujarati film "The Good Road" must have been really good to beat this to be the India's entry into the Oscars.

Rating: I will go with ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ /★★★★★ for this wonderful film.

Details

Official Sites:

Cine Mosaic Official Site

Country:

India France Germany USA Canada

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

20 September 2013 (India)

Also Known As:

The Lunchbox

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$44,542, 2 March 2014

Gross USA:

$4,235,151

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,621,777

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sikhya Entertainment, DAR Motion Pictures, National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1