Two of the most pleasant surprises I've had at the Paramount classic film series over the years have been films from India. Last year it was "RRR", a rousing action film that got the audience shouting out encouragement laughing uproariously, and generally rooting for the heroes. This week a film with a very different tone joins my list of films from India that I have enjoyed greatly, "The Lunchbox" from 2013.
I wish I could say I knew the actors in this film well, but as far as I can tell I've only seen the lead actor in a couple of movies before, Irrfan Khan was in "Jurassic World", "The Life of Pi" and "Slumdog Millionaire". They were all terrific. Khan plays the lead, a man nearing retirement, somewhat unwillingly. He doesn't seem like he would be a romantic leading man but that's how deceptive looks can be. The real heart of romance lies in the ability to understand and relate to another human being, and this character, Saajan Fernandes, manages to do that, although very tentatively.
For those of you not familiar with the story, which I assume is most everybody reading this site, "The Lunchbox" concerns the developing relationship between two strangers through a series of notes that are delivered via a lunch box delivery service, which is noted for its accuracy. The twist in this film, of course, is that the service is not infallible. The lunch box order of our widowed soon to be retiree is mixed up with the lunch sent by a woman to her husband. She is attempting to keep her marriage together by preparing meals with love and care and the right amount of ingredients. She succeeds in her meals with the advice of an older woman who we never see, but who shouts advice from an apartment upstairs, and sends spices and special ingredients via a hanging basket to the leading lady's kitchen. I don't know how typical this is in India, but it makes it feel like a pretty friendly place.
At the workplace of the soon to be retired accountant, we see that he is a circumspect man, who doesn't exude much outward warmth and appears to have closed himself up after the death of his wife. A young man, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui is supposed to replace him, and the older man is expected to train him in the job but he is clearly reluctant to do so. It looks at first like the younger man will be annoying and a character that we will look down on. The joy and clever script writing, comes when characters are revealed to us slowly and in interesting ways, and the young apprentice accountant certainly turns out to be more interesting and more appealing than initially thought to be.
The woman in the story, lla, played by Nimrat Kaur, is a loving mother, and a wife who wants to make her husband's life better, but who seems to be ignored by an indifferent spouse. As the lunches travel back and forth, she finds the older man an outlet where she can share her thoughts in a way that is a little bit more honest than she is able to manage with her upstairs neighbor. He also begins to reach out a little more and it is his tentative connection with her that allows him to create a stronger connection with his younger coworker. Of course there are complications, and some dramatic turns in the story, but they are all reasonable and set up with plenty of legitimacy.
This is an unexpected love Story, with a fantastic premise, in a world and culture that I know little about but could appreciate from the distance that I have from it. The characters all have good arcs to make us interested in following them, and there is a great deal of humor as the story plays out. This is the kind of charming foreign language film that I have fallen for over the years. I would compare it to a film like "Eat, Dink, Man, Woman", or "Shall We Dance?", two films from the '90s that I still count among my favorite romances. It's nice to add another film to that list, and one that comes from a different culture it helps give me a little insight into the rest of the world.
