I'm running a bit late with this: we screened The Lunchbox nearly a fortnight ago.
I'd been looking forward to it very much and realy enjoyed it: the Indian scenes were extremely atmospheric but the story itself is timeless: all I hope is that if there is an American remake then they do not give it a great big happy ending.
Here are my notes:
The lunchbox that a young wife has prepared for her husband to bring romance back into their marriage is delivered by mistake to the wrong man, an elderly widower who is facing retirement. The wife realises her mistake and sends the man a note to which he replies, and then they begin a regular correspondence through this unorthodox means of communication.
I'd been looking forward to it very much and realy enjoyed it: the Indian scenes were extremely atmospheric but the story itself is timeless: all I hope is that if there is an American remake then they do not give it a great big happy ending.
Here are my notes:
The
Lunchbox (Dabba)
India 2014 104
minutes
Director: Ritesh
Batra
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur
and Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Awards
and Nominations
- Won
Golden Rail (Critics Week Viewers Choice) at 2013 Cannes Film Festival,
plus nominations for Golden Camera and Critics Week Grand Prize
- Nominated
for Best Film at 2013 London Film Festival
- A
further 21 wins and 30 nominations
“The Lunchbox is perfectly handled and beautifully acted; a quiet
storm of banked emotions.”
Xan
Brooks, The Guardian
The lunchbox that a young wife has prepared for her husband to bring romance back into their marriage is delivered by mistake to the wrong man, an elderly widower who is facing retirement. The wife realises her mistake and sends the man a note to which he replies, and then they begin a regular correspondence through this unorthodox means of communication.
Ritesh Batra had started
his career by writing and directing a series of short films, but in 2007 began
to research the dabbawal,
the famous Mumbai lunch delivery men, with the intention of making a
documentary about them. However the stories
that they told him about their customers gave him the idea for this film and he
started to write the script.
The film was first
screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 where it received a standing
ovation and won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award. After this Sony Pictures Classics picked up
all North American rights for distribution, where it became 2014's highest
grossing foreign film. In India it was
released on more than 400 screens and received widespread critical and
commercial acclaim (and received many nominations and awards at Asian Film
Festivals), but it unexpectedly failed to receive the Indian nomination for the
Best Foreign Language Film for the 2014 Oscars.
Here's the trailer:
