Dabbawalas are people who send home cooked food to the people who work in offices so that their spouses don't have to worry about travelling and handing the lunchboxes on their own, to their spouses. She sends him a lunchbox everyday through the intricate system of traditional food delivery in Mumbai which is taken care by the "Dabbawalas". So, Ila tries to seek his attention and romance him by sending him very special and tasty food to spice up their relationship. While Ila, a hindu, a young housewife, totally different from Saajan is going through a bland relationship with her husband, Rajeev who doesn't really converse with her when he returns home after work.
#The lunchbox 2013 tv#
Saajan's wife had died a few years back so he just drinks glasses of alcohol and watches a show on TV but there is not even a single glimmer of happiness in him. Doesn't talk to people, doesn't socialise and lives a solitary life. A film that is truly unique and the acting is really lovely.A man named Saajan Fernandez, a Christian who works as an accountant in a govt. And, worth seeing as long as you don't mind reading subtitles. Worth seeing as long as you don't demand formula. It makes for a nice change of pace even if the ending will be vaguely unsatisfying to many viewers. Instead following convention, the film is all about realism. As such, it lacks the usual song and dance numbers you find in most Indian films and is only a little over an hour and a half (most Indian films are considerably longer-often twice as long or longer). While it was directed and written by an Indian, Ritesh Batra, and stars Indian actors (Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur), it is also a French/German co-production. And, as far as realism goes, this Indian film is not typical of a Bollywood flick either. Plus, a 'Hollywoodized' ending would have been far less realistic. This might upset some viewers, but it shouldn't-it's still a very good movie.
#The lunchbox 2013 movie#
Now I am NOT complaining-but Hollywood films seem to have an implicit understanding that everything must be resolved perfectly before a movie can end.
There is a lot of sadness and longing and the film leaves you with this, as it's not afraid to leave the audience slightly dissatisfied. Part of it, too, is that the film does NOT have a perfect happy ending and it doesn't follow a typical formula.
Part of it is, of course, because there is no comparable lunch system in the States. Dabba is the sort of film Hollywood could never make. All during this long exchange of letters, the woman CONTINUES sending lunches to this stranger and they forge an odd friendship! There's far more to the film than this-see it yourself and you'll see what I mean. Later, they become much more complicated, as by now the wife has realized that her husband has been cheating-and this total stranger becomes her confidante. At first, they are quite simple and formal. At first, the man doesn't realize he's eating another man's lunch-he just thinks the restaurant that delivers his lunch box has suddenly improved! However, once the wife realizes her mistake, she sends the next meal along with a note explaining the mix-up-and soon the pair begin exchanging letters. Despite this being a logistical nightmare, the meals get delivered to the right person all the time with very, very few mistakes-carried by hand and on bicycles and scooters by mostly illiterate men! With the movie Dabba, a mistake amazingly happens and a wife's meal arrives for a total stranger instead of her husband. Then, after lunch, they collect all the empty lunch pails and deliver them to the wives. Their job is to arrive at the homes of Indian workers to get homemade lunches from the wives and transport them all over the city so that the men can have hot, home-cooked meals every day. In Mumbai (formerly 'Bombay'), India, there is a very complex network of 5000 Dabbawallahs.