Totally flummoxed by the housefuls of such an offbeat
festival movie…
Not sure whether the audience
taste has come of age or the “Oscar Hopeful” marketing strategy is creating
buzz or the movie is really entertaining!!! I remember Dhobi Ghat being utterly
scrapped and Ship of Theseus catching the attention of only a specific segment
of society. Then what is the stark difference between Lunchbox and other two? I
am absolutely clueless in understanding the choice of Janta and finding it very
challenging to ascertain the common factor among the number producing movies. Nevertheless,
the movie is grossing like any other commercial, star-studded extravaganza. Looks
like Karan Johar (one of the producer) has mastered the number cracking formula.
The movie is a piece of life of
three commoners, struggling with their own incompleteness. They cross each
other’s paths and try to fill the emptiness of their own life via serving other.
Illa (Nimrat Kaur) is housewife trying to re-establish the charm in her
troubled married life by winning the heart of her husband through stomach.
Sajan Fernandez (Irfaan Khan) is a typical bureaucratic babu in some government
office who is taking an early retirement to settle in a small town to catch up
with his life after his wife’s demise. He has been an impeccable worker for
past 35 years but at the time of leaving the job he is finding it painful to
part away with his valuable knowledge with the new entrant Shaikh (Nawazuddin
Siddiqui). Shaikh is an orphan trying to
settle in India to consummate his Live In relationship with his eloped
Girlfriend by marrying her. These three try to fill the void of each others
lives by being lover, guardian, Guru, friend, partner etc.
But interestingly there are
couple of side characters who are also facing emptiness in their life and the
director “Ritesh Batra” tries to establish parallel between the stories to
influence the protagonists. E.g. the upstairs Aunty’s chirpiness and positive attitude
towards life in spite of dealing with the coma of her husband encourages Illa
to relish her life by having an analogous relationship with Sajan through
letters. She gets small bursts of pleasure through the letters even though she
is being reminded of her guilt by the constant staring eyes of her daughter.
Ritesh Batra is exceptionally
fantastic in illustrating the nuances of brutality of life and contentment of love.
The actors are out of the world, undoubtedly. Irfaan has comeback after a
pathetic portrayal of Raja Bhaiya in Saheb Biwi aur Gansgter returns. Nimrat is impeccable in
capturing the emotions of a housewife who is going through a failed marriage
and stuck between the feelings of love, hatred, anger, compassion, guilt and
sense of responsibility. Nawaz is awesome but looks repetitive. He must come
out of these forlorn – powerless type of characters. I found sheikh as an extension
of Purandar of Bombay Talkies.
Story and screenplay is stunning,
perfectly narrated by the director. More than dialogues which are mostly
letters, emotions through acting are given preference and the lenses captures
every bit of it perfectly. Movie is absolutely a delight to watch.
As usual when you come out of
theater and everyone is giving their enlightened comment on the movie, I overheard
some people saying, “Ending was unpredictable but it is ok, movie was good.” And
I observed that people have made peace with such weird endings and then I remembered
the day when I was coming out of “Dil Se” and people just bashed up a flawlessly
sensible ending.
