THE LUNCHBOX (Dabba) B-
India France Germany
USA (104 mi) 2013
‘Scope d: Ritesh Batra Official
Site [United States]
During the hustle and bustle of massive commuter traffic
getting to and from work in Mumbai, India, where workers must negotiate the
many jampacked bus and trainlines involved, there’s also the predictable
routine of the empty jobs themselves, many of which offer little variety to the
dreary and monotonous day-to-day existence, where individuals are pitted
against the harsh and impersonal conditions of surviving in the city. With this backdrop, it’s easy to see how so
many people’s lives can get distracted or lose their way in the sheer mayhem of
survival, as few have time any more for the personal attention of lending a
helping hand, where the exhausting toll of the accumulating pressures from getting
through one day to the next can be overwhelming. In the collective disorder of a daily massive
traffic jam, this film takes a look at the 120-year old practice of Mumbai’s
Dabbawallahs, a community of about 5000 dabba (lunchbox) deliverymen who deliver
home-cooked meals from housewives or selected food services to busy husbands at
work, then returning the empty boxes afterwards. Most of those involved in the business are
illiterate, yet they perfectly weave their way through a labyrinth of streets and
addresses where a Harvard University study has concluded that they rarely if
ever deliver the lunchboxes to a wrong address.
While this film was originally conceived as a documentary about Mumbai’s
Dabbawallahs, the director’s original screenplay was developed with the help of
the Sundance Writer’s Workshop, turning this into an intricate character study
that wants to be an old-fashioned romantic comedy.
Seen through the eyes of two individuals, Ila (Nimrat Kaur)
is a beautiful young and neglected housewife who lovingly prepares elaborate
dishes to attract her husband’s attention, continually seen calling to her Auntie
living upstairs caring for her infirmed husband, who always has a magical cure
for missing ingredients, dropping them in a basket lowered by a rope. The two of them conspire to get Ila’s husband
back from the job he’s apparently married to, as he’s largely absent from the
home, which includes a young daughter, and when he is there, he’s completely
disinterested. While Ila’s life exists
between the four walls of her apartment where she’s seemingly confined, she’s
devoted to her daughter and playfully communicates with her Auntie all day
long, turning into a running gag, as the Auntie is never seen but only heard,
but she easily has some of the most comical lines in the whole film. When she takes special care to prepare a
culinary delight that is her husband’s favorite, he barely notices when he gets
home, but from his rather standard reaction she realizes her lunchbox was sent
to someone else. So she places a note in
the next day’s meal which is received by Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a government
accountant working in a nondescript and impersonalized working environment, a
man who spends a good part of his day simply getting to and from work, so by
the time he’s back to his home, a small dwelling where he lives alone, he
smokes off a ledge after preparing his own small meal and peers into the
delicious-looking family style meal being devoured by a family across the
way. Saajan has worked the same job for
35 years and is nearing retirement, but his future is uncertain after his wife
died years ago. Somehow, by some
supposedly impossible error, these two lonely souls connect and share thoughts
about their lives through a series of notes passed to each other.
This sudden departure from the normal routine has a way of
jumpstarting new energy into their lives, where each day holds an element of
anticipation. No sooner does Saajan
become enthralled at what awaits him from his mystery woman but he’s continually
interrupted by the new person hired to take his place after retirement, the
overeager Shaaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), whose loud, unbridled enthusiasm
contrasts with Saajan’s more quietly reserved style, as he prefers to savor
these moments alone, conjuring up his own imaginary world, but is instead
continually hounded by the new guy. When
Shaaikh explains that he’s an orphan who taught himself everything, having
spent his life moving from place to place, he draws the expected sympathy from
Saajan who finally acknowledges him and even invites him to share his treasured
meals, as all many Indian workers have for lunch is just two bananas, where
Shaaikh upgrades his lunch to include two apples, which he gladly shares. While the movie conveniently leaves Shaaikh
out of the picture while Saajan reads his notes, the intimacy between the two
strangers has grown to actually considering a future together, as Saajan is
unsure of his plans post-retirement, but develops an imaginary scenario that
includes Ila. While the story itself is
decidedly light and is something of a choreography of missed direction, the
narrative is developed around the preparation of savory meals, where attention
to detail is the film’s appeal, where the two leads are fully developed
characters, becoming the intimate focus of the film, much more than the comic
relief of the secondary roles. While
this is a perfectly enjoyable film, among the festival favorites, there’s
little lasting effects afterwards, as it’s fairly mainstream arthouse
entertainment, where what’s unusual is the meticulous detail drawn by immersing
the film in the rare and distinct atmosphere of the Mumbai Dabbawallahs, where
hot and steamy overpopulation is seen in all its glory.
