We see them hard at work, delivering lunchboxes from the thousands of wives and mothers, to the offices of the hard working men of Mumbai on a daily basis. Between 175,000 and 200,000 lunch boxes are moved by 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas, all with an extremely small fee and with utmost punctuality. It is a known fact that dabbawalas make less than one mistake in every six million deliveries. But what happens when that one mistake is made? We get an epic film about a love story that emerges between a wife trying to rekindle the romance with her husband through her cooking, and a lonely stranger who is about to retire.
In ‘The Lunchbox’, Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a lonely man on the verge of retirement, receives a lunch box that is supposed to be sent to Ila’s (Nimrat Kaur) husband, Rajiv (Nakul Vaid). Soon after she realizes the mistake, Ila sends a note along with the next day’s lunchbox explaining that the lunchboxes may have been interchanged during delivery. This leads to a friendly conersation between two people who haven’t even met in person. They share their experiences and thoughts on a daily basis through this lunchbox-letter system. Through their conversations, he gets to know that she is upset as her husband seems to have lost interest in her. We can see how Saajan starts to develop feelings for Ila, when he hears of a woman’s suicide from a tall tower and fears it to be Ila. As the movie progresses along, their bond grows stronger and you’ll need to watch it to find out more!
The film was written and directed by Ritesh Batra and jointly produced by Dharma Productions in collaboration with other production houses. We are very proud of the outcome as ‘The Lunchbox’ was screened at the International Critics’ week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and also won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award! It was also shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and also did outstanding at the box office.
Today on its one year Anniversary, we want to remember those savory moments in the film, and we would also like to thank all the production teams and people who made this film such an outstanding success. Do join in our one year celebration and let us know your favourite moments in the comments below.
