The Lunchbox ***
Beyond Bollywood, something
notable is happening in Indian cinema, much of it organised around the prolific
Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur):
he’s produced this quietist, Mumbai-set tale for debutant writer-director
Ritesh Batra, but his nuanced approach to plot and character is evident
throughout. A widowed office clerk (Lifeof Pi’s Irrfan Khan) enters into written correspondence with the bored
housewife who’s been readying his hot lunches (Nimrat Kaur); as these two
lonely souls try to nudge one another out of their individual ruts, the
skilfully self-contained leads scatter just enough titbits of mutual
understanding to set us rooting for some future dinner date. It remains
resolutely undemonstrative, Batra’s camera mirroring the characters’ cautious
restraint. Yet by its final act, pressing home the most un-Bollywood message
that life’s often more complicated than the movies, it’s assumed the feel and
weight of a well-observed short story. Rabindranath Tagore, for one, would be
proud.
The Lunchbox is now playing in selected cinemas.
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