"Man's feeling of alienation has been intensified in the midst of a bureaucratised, impersonal mass society. He is now trebly alienated: a stranger to God, to nature, and to the gigantic social apparatus that supplies his material wants. In a society that requires of man only that he perform competently his own particular social function, man becomes identified with this function, and the rest of his being is allowed to subsist as best it can - usually to be dropped below the surface of consciousness and forgotten." - William Barrett
Ritesh Batra writes and directs "The Lunchbox". The film stars Irrfan Khan as Saajan Fernandes, a lonely accountant who works in urban India. Saajan receives a daily meal prepared by the "dabbawalas", a network of men and women who transport home-cooked meals to city workers. Saajan's meals are prepared by Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
On its most superficial level, "The Lunchbox" works well as a romantic crowd-pleaser. Saajan and Ila, who never physically meet, use their lunch-boxes to ferry secretly written letters between themselves. As both Saajan and Ila are lonely, depressed and locked in thankless routines, each unfurled letter brings with it excitement, entertainment and the promise of romance. Along the lines of a romantic drama, Batra's film is engrossing, subtle and largely devoid of clichés.
On another level, "The Lunchbox" works as a kind of anthropological study of urban India. This is a world in which every character is trapped in their own private lunch-boxes, the film's homes, streets, trains, buses and offices all tightly packed and colourfully impersonal. Ila and Saajan's jobs are themselves alienating, their customers invisible and the fruits of their daily toils seemingly evaporating before their eyes. To the duo, something as concrete as human touch seems distant and alien.
Whilst Batra captures well the beauty of India, its places, communities, cuisines and people, he also taps into something darker. The last vestiges of traditional gender roles remain, men and women wrestle with existential questions, and urban life is portrayed as something sad and vaguely oppressive, hints of suicide, malaise and poverty fluttering faintly along the film's outer margins. Unsurprisingly, our heroes dream of the kingdom of Bhutan, where Gross National Happiness indices hold precedence (allegedly) over Gross Domestic Product.
8.5/10 – See "Syndromes and a Century" and "The Giant Mechanical Man".
Ritesh Batra writes and directs "The Lunchbox". The film stars Irrfan Khan as Saajan Fernandes, a lonely accountant who works in urban India. Saajan receives a daily meal prepared by the "dabbawalas", a network of men and women who transport home-cooked meals to city workers. Saajan's meals are prepared by Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
On its most superficial level, "The Lunchbox" works well as a romantic crowd-pleaser. Saajan and Ila, who never physically meet, use their lunch-boxes to ferry secretly written letters between themselves. As both Saajan and Ila are lonely, depressed and locked in thankless routines, each unfurled letter brings with it excitement, entertainment and the promise of romance. Along the lines of a romantic drama, Batra's film is engrossing, subtle and largely devoid of clichés.
On another level, "The Lunchbox" works as a kind of anthropological study of urban India. This is a world in which every character is trapped in their own private lunch-boxes, the film's homes, streets, trains, buses and offices all tightly packed and colourfully impersonal. Ila and Saajan's jobs are themselves alienating, their customers invisible and the fruits of their daily toils seemingly evaporating before their eyes. To the duo, something as concrete as human touch seems distant and alien.
Whilst Batra captures well the beauty of India, its places, communities, cuisines and people, he also taps into something darker. The last vestiges of traditional gender roles remain, men and women wrestle with existential questions, and urban life is portrayed as something sad and vaguely oppressive, hints of suicide, malaise and poverty fluttering faintly along the film's outer margins. Unsurprisingly, our heroes dream of the kingdom of Bhutan, where Gross National Happiness indices hold precedence (allegedly) over Gross Domestic Product.
8.5/10 – See "Syndromes and a Century" and "The Giant Mechanical Man".