Starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Written and directed by Ritesh Batra
India 2013
105 mins
In April of this year the distinguished Indian actor Irrfan Khan died at the age of only 53. His career spanned Bollywood and Hollywood - he starred in The Warrior and Life Of Pi as well as Slumdog Millionaire, The Namesake and Paan Singh Tomar.
Khan was a philosophical man and a devout Muslim. When he learned that he was gravely ill he tweeted, quoting Gone With the Wind novelist Margaret Mitchell:
'Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect.'
Later on he said:
'God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.'
In The Lunchbox he plays a world-weary widower on the verge of retirement who becomes engaged in an exchange of letters with an unhappily married woman when a lunchbox she has prepared comes to him by mistake. Their correspondence leads to a change in his attitude to life as well as a gentle romance between them.
This charming and uplifting film was the debut feature of Ritesh Batra and has distinct echoes of Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road. It is set in the vibrant bustle of Mumbai with its famous and complex system of Dabbawallas who pick up and deliver lunches to those at work.
The Lunchbox is a fitting tribute to a gifted performer who will be sadly missed.
