The Lunchbox’ is a journey of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) and Ila (Nimrat Kaur) who are living a spice-less existence. Saajan is a widowed government employee on the verge of retirement after serving his company faithfully for 35 years. Ila, on the other hand, is a duty-bound young housewife, who lives to serve her husband Rajeev and nurse her daughter Yashvi. To rev-up her marriage, Illa decides to cook a delish meal for her indifferent (and infidel) hubby and get it delivered by the impeccable hands of dabbawallahs. As fate would have it, the dabba lands up at Saajan’s desk leading to a series of written notes being passed on from one end to another. Ila gets an anchor that was missing in her life and love brings a breath of fresh air in the autumn of Saajan’s life. What pulls the strings of the audience’s heart the most is the way ‘love’ cooks up between the pair sans any form of new age communication. To add zing to this love story, there is Aslam Sheikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who has been hired as Saajan’s post retirement replacement. Nawazuddin as Aslam is unintentionally funny and he has got his comic timing right. His interesting conversations with Saajan make the film more engaging and original. Ditto for Bharati Achrekar (Mrs Deshpande) who plays Ila’s neighbour in the film. It is her voice that can be heard from upstairs whenever Ila engages in conversation with her.
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