3/29/14

The Lunchbox

Brace yourself. This gentle PG-rated drama has no gunshots, no car chases, no sweaty bodies and no blowie uppie stuff. It does, however, have several people to root for and a very clever premise.

An unappreciated wife prepares her husband's lunch each day but he never acknowledges the effort and planning she puts into it. One day, through some sort of clerical error, the lunch is delivered to a widower who thinks it is from the contractor who usually furnishes his meals. He eats every bite and she is gratified to see that her food is appreciated. Her husband however, says he liked the cauliflower, which wasn't in the lunch she sent.

We smile with:
  • Irrfan Kahn ("Life of Pi") is the widower, soon to be retired, but delighted with the food that comes daily from the wrong cook! He wants to be left alone and has a deep fear of aging.
  • Nimrat Kaur ("Peddlers") is the lovely but unappreciated wife, happy that her food is finally being enjoyed.
  • Nawazuddin Siddiqui ("Liar's Dice") is the ebullient (and VERY handsome) young man hired to replace our hero when he retires. His mother says, "Sometimes the wrong train takes you to the right station."
  • Nakul Vaid ("Stalker") is that unappreciative husband. He has many things on his plate, but his wife's cooking is not one of them!
Mumbai's byzantine lunch-box delivery system is famous for its efficiency. (You have to see it to believe it!) When our heroine tells the deliveryman her lunches are going to the wrong person, he tells her the system was approved by Harvard and they cannot make mistakes.

The actors switch seamlessly between Hindi and English, so if you don't see any captions, they are probably speaking English.
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Please take a peek at this preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2695342873/
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