lunch box movie review and rating

The Lunchbox: Old School Anonymity Softens New World Discontent

Only a few times in my life have I wanted to re-watch a movie right away. Ritesh Batra ’s first feature, “The Lunchbox” (2013) hooked me within the first act. Imagine the life you live, when a short note of a few lines becomes your daily thrill. Here, we follow the quiet lives of disconnected people reaching across the urban noise of Mumbai, reaching for anyone who would listen. Centering around food, its is a seamless fusion of Satyajit Ray and Nora Ephron , with hints of Akira Kurosawa . Overall, it reminds me that as our cities get more crowded, we get more lonely.

Ila ( Nimrat Kaur ) cooks lunch for her mostly absent husband ( Nakul Vaid ). An aunty ( Bharati Achrekar ) mentors her on cooking from the apartment above. Through cooking, she mentors her on life, always ready with the perfect recipe for every situation. Ila packs the daily lunch, and hands it over to a delivery man who takes it to a brigade of trains and bicyclists, to her husband’s desk. One day, however, the lunch reaches a stranger.

Saajan ( Irrfan Khan ) sits at a large desk in a large firm, processing claims with that mechanical, abrasive coldness of Kenji Watanabe (from “ Ikiru ”). Set for retirement, he must train the new-hire, the obsequious Shaikh ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ), who keeps barging into his personal space. Saajan has his noon meal delivered through a local service, but today he receives Ila’s box, as he does tomorrow, and the next day.

Through these lunchboxes, Ila sends short letters to Saajan, first commenting that the lunches are for her husband, not him. He responds, first commenting on her cooking, which is one day tasty, and another too salty.  In these short correspondences, they share reflections, then secrets, then hopes, looking forward to the daily note hiding in the tin, rather than considering the food itself. Those two minutes become the highlight of the day for them, freeing them from the mundane routines.

The big city speaks through the mix of human chatter and motor vehicles. Beneath the sounds, it relies on stability through bureaucracy, which itself relies on the enforcement of routine. Day after day. Week after week. Fiscal year after fiscal year. Two generations ago, in Ray’s “Mahanagar” (1963) families sought to join the industrial machine. To become part of the system is to have income, which yields a good life. Now, as the same machine compresses people together, allowing them to get lost as anonymous voyeurs, lost in experiments in disloyalty (including emotional and physical affairs), this current generation seeks to escape to something fulfilling, perhaps in the world of old.

Iñárritu explored such urban loneliness in “ Babel ” (2006), connecting disparate peoples across the world through the passing and use of a rifle. In that film, the characters were unable to communicate, resulting in a crowded world full of language barriers and silences. In Mendes’ “ Revolutionary Road ” (2008), we watch a couple fantasize about the American Dream, first as a way to find direction, then as a way to avoid reality. In Bahrani’s “Man Push Cart” (2005) we watch New Yorkers meeting for bagels and coffee, meeting for drinks, while maintaining a distance from each other. In Ephron’s movies, we follow couples who meet via distant relationships before letting fate bring them together. Here, we watch one man who grieves through Bollywood reruns, a woman who longs for a smile from the husband who seems to drown himself in work, an orphan who hustles his way through his projects and marriage, and exhausted dutiful women who stay by their ill husbands’ bedsides. In all of these cases, we see yearning; unquenched thirst for something as simple as a hug. We witness so many relationships, so many smiles, yet so much loneliness.

Part of the joy in this film is the wholesome goodness of almost all the characters. I like watching them because—even the ones with sharp edges in their dispositions—they lack malice. Rather, they are contending with a system far, far greater than them, be it the impositions of city life, or something even greater, like mortality. 

Further, a few points in Batra’s work really stand out. He directs eyes so well, as each of the characters think and process. Kaur pauses. Her eyes glance from side to side as she reflects. Khan’s eyes have a fixed, reserved expression in every moment. Siddiqui stares, grinning. His script bounces so well across time within scenes adding dimensions to moments already emotive. The characters relish in flourishes, in the way they might chew words before speaking, or fold their legs as they sit, or even close a window. Those extra steps give this film a life that in other movies might be distracting. Here, the film takes its time to unfold each scene slowly, in an environment always reliant on speed. 

And that slow, deliberate unfolding recalls the film’s implicit lesson: take a moment to give or receive a favor, enjoying the taste in every morsel. Better than that, cultivate your relations, with old school care and compassion.  Otherwise, as we race against time, we always lose.

Omer M. Mozaffar

Omer M. Mozaffar teaches at Loyola University Chicago, where he is the Muslim Chaplain, teaching courses in Theology and Literature. He has given thousands of talks on Islam since 9/11. He is also a Hollywood Technical Consultant for productions on matters related to Islam, Arabs, South Asians. 

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The Lunchbox Reviews

... While it doesn't bring anything new to the genre, it enticingly describes the flavor of life. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 27, 2023

A fantastic fusion of the culinary and epistolary, The Lunchbox is a reminder to us that love assumes many forms, and can be expressed in many ways.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2023

The Lunchbox is seemingly simple yet as complex as all human beings are. It’s sad yet throws up humour when you are least expecting it. It’s not larger than life, it’s just as large as life always is. This film is truly sensational.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 15, 2023

A tale of love, loss and longing – simply beautiful.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2022

“The Lunch Box” encourages us to love and to allow ourselves to be loved. To not be swallowed up by the emptiness of our circumstances, but to open ourselves up to the possibilities still in front of us.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 23, 2022

Could have used a little more spice.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 27, 2021

Ritesh Batra's debut feature reinvents the charms of old-fashioned romantic cinema for adults.

Full Review | Jun 10, 2020

A bittersweet story of moving on, of memory and nostalgia, and of familiar songs, smells and sensations that ground us, and remind us of who we once were.

Full Review | Dec 19, 2019

It is a fairly progressive idea for a film about romance, one where kindness can serve as a catalyst for self-discovery rather than impel us towards the idea that togetherness is the only option.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.2/5 | Nov 22, 2019

It's a terrific metaphor for Mumbai. After all, the city like its inhabitants, is never satiated.

Full Review | Sep 24, 2019

A gentle, understated romantic drama that finds a delicious level of anxiety in the wait for a final answer.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 5, 2019

The Lunchbox has a wonderful sense of place and real life going on - the city, the trains, the tedious offices, the suburban flat. It's full of humor and humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 7, 2019

Subtle is also the best way to describe Batra's treatment of the characters' emotions in the film, and this is ferried onscreen by the astonishing performances of the lead actors.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2019

Those hoping for a Hollywood-style resolution will be disappointed, but by keeping the ultimate feel-good moment just out of our reach, Batra makes The Lunchbox a more resonant, alluring piece of romantic storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Apr 3, 2019

The Lunchbox is the very assured debut of writer/director Ritesh Batra, who has written a story that is deceptively simple, yet truly profound.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2019

Delivers a poignancy that has its edge taken off with a largely understated humour, and a smart edit that plays with sound to laugh-out-loud effect.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2019

This may sound like unpromising sitcom material, but The Lunchbox digs deeper...

Full Review | Sep 10, 2018

Highly-satisfying...family secrets make excellent fodder for movies.

The Lunchbox is a simmering multi-layered tiffin box of emotions set in modern day Mumbai that should be watched and feasted upon.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2018

Batra brings out the humdrum of his characters' lives with little deft touches.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2017

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Movie Reviews

A meet-cute romance with a delicious twist.

Bob Mondello

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a Mumbai housewife who accidentally begins a correspondence with another man when the lunch she packs for her own husband goes astray. Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

The Lunchbox

• Directors: Ritesh Batra
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Running time: 104 minutes

Rated PG for thematic material and smoking

With Irrfan Khan , Nimrat Kaur , Nawazuddin Siddiqui

In Hindi with subtitles

When people talk about Bollywood movies, they usually mean Indian romances with extravagant musical numbers. But there are smaller Indian films, too, and one that has earned international acclaim at film festivals is opening tomorrow in major U.S. cities. It's called The Lunchbox .

We're in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, where a middle-aged man is about to get a very tasty surprise at work: A devoted young wife — not his — has packed her husband's daily lunchbox with an amazing-looking Indian meal, and sent it to him by way of an only-conceivable-in-India delivery service.

The opening sequence shows Ila (Nimrat Kaur) packing a home-cooked meal into a tower of metal containers called a tiffin, then putting this "lunchbox" into an insulated cloth bag. The idea is to get it to her husband's office hot, and he's already at work.

Watch The Trailer

So she hands it to a bike messenger, who ties it to the dozen lunchboxes he's already carrying and pedals it to a train, where it joins dozens more lunchboxes on their way to a truck, which zips them to a cart, where they're sorted so they can be raced through downtown traffic to a big office building, where Ila's lunchbox and a lot of others are carried by hand to individual desks.

Not the right desk, in this case: Ila's lunchbox lands on the desk of Sajaan, an accountant. And as soon as you see the wonderful actor Irrfan Khan reacting to the aroma, you realize this guy is not Ila's husband.

When the tiffin comes back empty, but her own spouse doesn't say a word about the meal, Ila realizes he never got it. So she sends a note with the next lunch, thanking whoever did receive it for paying her the great compliment of sending it back empty, and telling him she enjoyed believing for a few short hours that the way to her husband's heart really was through his stomach.

Sajaan replies: "Dear Ila, your husband sounds like a busy man." And soon the notes between them turn into a conversation of sorts. First about food, then about old TV shows, and after a while, talk about daily life that starts to seem like something more.

"When my wife died, she got a horizontal burial plot," Sajaan writes. "I tried to buy a burial plot for myself the other day, and what they offered me was a vertical one. I spend my whole life standing in trains and buses, and now I'll have to stand even when I'm dead. Why don't you have another child? Sometimes having a child can help a marriage."

The Lunchbox is a first feature for director Ritesh Batra, but it nicely captures the almost overwhelming crush and noise of contemporary India, and it plays cleverly and delicately with the tension of whether its two correspondents might eventually meet. Theirs is one "virtual" romance that has nothing to do with social media.

In fact, it's hard to imagine a less high-tech way of keeping in touch than through Mumbai's dabbawallahs — an army of white-capped lunchbox deliverymen who, with little or no paperwork to back them up, somehow manage, every weekday, rain or shine, to match up thousands of workers with the meals their loved ones have prepared. A Harvard management study says almost no lunchboxes ever go astray. Audiences are going to be very happy that this one did.

The Lunchbox (2013)

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What it's about

"Sometimes even the wrong train takes you to the right destination". In this thoughtful feature film debut by Ritesh Batra, we follow a lonely Indian housewife, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), as she tries to come to terms with a cheating husband, a stale relationship, and a dying father, while seeking love, attention, and appreciation through her cooking. One day, she sends out a special lunch to her husband, but her delivery goes to the wrong address. Spicy food is complemented with a spicy note and thus begins an unlikely and unique romance through the letters she packs in the lunchbox day after day. The man on the receiving end is Saajan, a middle-aged office worker, played by Bollywood star Irrfan Khan. With its delightful characters and beautiful acting, this was a huge success in India, but there is no reason to believe that this bittersweet, Mumbai-based story couldn't be a hit anywhere in the world.

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Reagan review: dennis quaid is a standout in this borderline impeachable biopic, how accurate is the movie reagan to the president’s real life.

(Reviewer's Note: The film was screened at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles)

Every year, when the AFI Fest comes around, I try my best to carve out a schedule that allows me to see as many films as possible, some of which are on my radar, some which are not. The Lunchbox was only mildly on my radar, after Sony Pictures Classics picked it up out of Cannes for a 2014 release, but, despite all of its acclaim, I wasn't sure if this would be up my alley or not. Thankfully, I gave this a shot last weekend, and was rather impressed by this endearing premise and superb performances by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur.

I'll just put it out there: I'm not a huge fan of big-screen romances, because most follow the same sort of intrinsic playbook that brings us to the same conclusion as every other rom-com or rom-dram. While The Lunchbox is rooted in the same sort of sentimentality that has made Nicholas Sparks adaptations so big on this side of the pond, it is fueled by a terrifically unique conceit, centered on the amazingly efficient lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai, India, and the one mistake that brings two people together.

The film actually opens by showing the rather amazing process of how this delivery system works, as we follow the green lunchbox prepared by Ila (Nimrat Kaur), who hopes the special meal she made for her husband (Nakul Vaid) might actually cause him to notice her at home. However, the lunchbox ends up on the desk of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Kahn), a dour, solitary man who has worked at an insurance agency for the past 35 years. When Ila realizes that her meal went to the wrong person, she writes a note to this mystery man, as they both begin to share their life stories through hand-written notes over lunch.

While the story gets a bit muddled in the third act, Ritesh Batra delivers in an incredibly impressive feature debut, showing the poise and confidence in his no-frills plot in the same way that made American filmmakers like Alexander Payne and Tom McCarthy so beloved by indie cinefiles. In fact, the film shares a lot of similiarities with Payne's fantastic 2002 drama About Schmidt, which starred Jack Nicholson as a man unsure of how to spend the rest of his life, after his wife passes away. Irrfan Kahn's Saajan Fernandes is very much in a similar situation, as we watch his routine and rather uneventful life unfold from day to day, without anyone to share it with after his wife's passing. However, much like Schmidt's wife's passing was a catalyst to jump-start his life again, the notes Saajan shares with Ila causes him to break out of his hardened shell a bit, as he opens up to the bubbly accountant Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) he is training before retirement.

Also, much like the films of Alexander Payne and Tom McCarthy, Batra gives us healthy portions of humor along the way as well, particularly from Ila's never-seen and often-heard upstairs neighbor Mrs. Deshpande (Bharati Achrekar), who doles out hilarious advice and wisdom to Ila, while passing ingredients for her lunches through a basket. We also get plenty of humor in the initially-icy relationship between Saajan and the eternally-optimistic Shaikh.

This is one of those films where, the more I think about it, the more I like it. There is just so much to enjoy here, from the outstanding performances by Irrfan Kahn, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, to Ritesh Batra's multi-layered storytelling, and so much in between.

There's a moment in the film when Ila confronts the delivery man, saying that her lunchbox is going to the wrong place. Her accusation is met with hilarious disdain, with the delivery man citing a Harvard study that only one lunchbox in 1 million goes astray, as he refuses to admit that a mistake has been made. That one in a million mistake brings two vastly different lives together in a refreshing way, without all the syrupy bullsh*t and heavy-handed scores used to hammer home the romance in 999,999 out of 1 million other films.

The Lunchbox is as authentic as they come, marking the debut of an immensely talented filmmaker that we'll all have to keep our eyes on in the years to come.

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Metacritic reviews

The lunchbox.

• 88 McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore It’s an intimate, quiet and slow-paced romance, a simple, richly rewarding movie in the classic style of India’s greatest filmmaker, the late Satyajit Ray.
• 80 Variety Jay Weissberg Variety Jay Weissberg Batra adeptly plays on the tension of will they or won’t they meet, making good decisions based on character and situation rather than the need to uplift an audience.
• 80 The Dissolve Noel Murray The Dissolve Noel Murray Going strictly by plot description, Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox sounds a little like an Indian knock-off of a Nicholas Sparks movie, but it plays out more like Brief Encounter.
• 75 The Playlist Kevin Jagernauth The Playlist Kevin Jagernauth Batra's film is ultimately less about love than about the vulnerability relationships place us in emotionally, and courage required to move past pain, and experience life again after we've been hurt.
• 75 Slant Magazine Nick McCarthy Slant Magazine Nick McCarthy The patience in mercurially presenting the characters' backstories and desires is matched by the film's genuine curiosity about the healing power of sharing stories.
• 70 The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young The Hollywood Reporter Deborah Young What is most endearing is the delicacy with which writer-director Ritesh Batra reveals the hopes, sorrows, regrets and fears of everyday people without any sign of condescension or narrative trickery.
• 70 Village Voice Jon Frosch Village Voice Jon Frosch Batra isn't ambitious with the visuals, but he creates an effective, unfussy sense of urban space, both indoor (cramped apartments, crowded buses) and outdoor (even leafy residential streets seem to be swarming with playing children).
• 68 Film.com William Goss Film.com William Goss This long-distance love story is comfort food in any language, perfectly agreeable and unlikely to surprise.
• 67 The A.V. Club Ben Kenigsberg The A.V. Club Ben Kenigsberg The Lunchbox ultimately registers as a too-hesitant portrayal of hesitancy, and its pleasures are largely incidental.
• 63 New York Post Kyle Smith New York Post Kyle Smith A clever setup that harkens back to “You’ve Got Mail” and “The Shop Around the Corner” doesn’t quite pay off in India’s warm-hearted comedy-drama The Lunchbox.
• See all 28 reviews on Metacritic.com
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The Lunchbox Parent Guide

Food for the soul..

A lonely wife (Nimrat Kaur) and a man tired of the world (Irrfan Khan) make an unexpected connection with each other when a mix up is made with the delivery of a lunchbox. Set in Mumbai, this film is in English and Hindi with English subtitles.

Run Time: 105 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

The way to a man’s heart may be through his stomach—but that’s more challenging if his heart is already roaming. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) knows things aren’t going well in her marriage so she decides to spice it up by preparing her husband’s favorite foods for lunch. She puts the items in a multi-tiered metal lunch kit and hands it over to the Mumbai Dabbawala lunchbox delivery service. Unexpectedly, the meal is mistakenly dropped off at the wrong address.

Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a widowed accountant nearing retirement, can’t believe how good his lunch tastes. Since the death of his wife he has ordered his midday meal from a nearby restaurant that also uses the lunchbox delivery service. The day after the delicious food, Saajan finds a note from Ila in the tiffin. She explains the meal was meant for her husband. Saajan responds by telling her how good it was. So rather than correct the mistake, Ila continues to prepare food that is delivered to Saajan. And along with the lunch, the pair begins exchanging messages.

As their relationship grows, the two finally decide to meet. But on the designated day, Saajan fails to show up.

This sub-titled film contains depictions of smoking and relatively minor amounts of sexual content. (It is implied a man is groped on a crowded bus and that another is involved in an affair.) However, the theme of the screenplay centers on unhappy unions, not only Ila’s but also many others that suffer through loveless relationships while caring for sick husbands or choosing suicide as an escape. The only happy couple portrayed in the movie is a young pair who is living together. Laying out the joyless plight of her life, the script carefully justifies Ila’s decision to become involved with another man—even if it is only through the written word. Unfortunately it also makes it seem that most wedded women in India are sorrowful.

Still, The Lunchbox is beautifully made romance, which depicts fresh faces and landscapes. It ingeniously uses letters rather than lots of dialogue to tell the story. As well, it gives North American audiences a look into the everyday dynamics of a different culture and its exotic foods.

About author

Kerry Bennett

The lunchbox rating & content info.

Why is The Lunchbox rated PG? The Lunchbox is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic material and smoking.

Violence: There is talk about a woman who committed suicide by jumping from a tall building with her child. A man appears to be stealing supplies from the office.

Sexual Content: It is implied that an old woman is groping a man on a crowded train. A woman discovers her husband is involved in an affair. A couple lives together because her father will not give his blessing for their marriage. They are later married.

Language: None noted.

Alcohol / Drug Use :The main character smokes on numerous occasions, although he tries at one point to stop smoking. A man suffers and dies from lung cancer.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

The Lunchbox Parents' Guide

The dabbawala lunchbox delivery service employs hundreds of people and delivers millions of lunches every day.

What are portrayed as Ila’s options in this movie? Why do you think so many unhappy marriages are depicted? Is there any indication that a new relationship would be any happier in the future?

What kind of relationship does Ila share with her upstairs neighbor? How might divorce laws be different in India? What challenges might be facing a woman who wants to leave her marriage?

The most recent home video release of The Lunchbox movie is July 1, 2014. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: The Lunchbox

Release Date: 8 July 2014

The Lunchbox releases to home video in a Combo Pack (Blu-ray and DVD), with the following extras:

- Commentary track with writer/director Ritesh Batra.

Related home video titles:

Anonymous friendships also develop for the characters in The Shop Around The Corner and You’ve Got Mail . A neglected husband finds a sympathetic ear in his housekeeper in Spanglish .

Movie Review: ‘The Lunchbox’

“The Lunchbox” revolves around something we are all familiar with from our childhood — a literal lunchbox — and creates a complex and powerful message behind this simple object. Refreshingly subtle and profound, this Indian romance film, directed by Ritesh Batra, provides an entertaining contrast to predictable movies by not following the plot that a typical audience might be used to.

Irrfan Khan, who also starred in “Life of Pi” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” plays the main male character, Sajan Fernandez. Nimrat Kaur takes on the role of Ila, a wife stuck in a failing marriage that she is desperately trying to save. These two characters cross paths when Ila’s lunchboxes are mistakenly delivered to Sajan instead of her husband.

Still in a state of grief over his late wife, Sajan has found that little in his life brings him any excitement or joy. He goes through the mundane routine of his life without any exuberance or even a smile. Ila also has found that she rarely laughs or smiles anymore.

In an attempt to salvage her love-less marriage, Ila decides that the way back into her husband’s heart is through food. With the help of “auntie,” an elderly woman who lives upstairs from her, Ila sweats all morning in the kitchen to prepare her husband a lunch feast. The only problem is that her lunches are going to Sajan. Even after realizing this mistake, Ila cannot bring herself to tell the deliveryman to fix it because of her newfound relationship with the receiver of her lunchboxes. Initially writing a note to Sajan thanking him for finishing all her food (as it is a sign that her cooking was delicious), Ila discovers that this mistake was a blessed one. Passing notes to each other in the lunchbox, Sajan and Ila quickly find that the best part of their days is reading each other’s letters.

Batra does an excellent job building and escalating their relationship through these lunchbox exchanges, despite the fact that Ila and Sajan have never met before. We see that each character has deep sources of dissatisfaction with their current state of life, which are remedied by being able to express them through these lunchbox letters. The fact that this love story may not be as sexually charged or passionate as many other love stories like “The Notebook” or “Endless Love” makes their relationship even more meaningful and profound. In each other, Ila and Sajan find consolation in the midst of the hardships in their lives. The attraction isn’t of the love at first sight flavor, but is instead a result of their trust, understanding and acknowledgement of each other’s hardships.

While the audience knows about the significant age difference between Ila and Sajan from the very beginning, the characters themselves do not know to what extent this difference is. Both in very different phases of life, their relationship not only explores themes of love but also of the different stages of life. Sajan experiences a renewal in his outlook as his relationship with Ila grows. The transformation of Sajan is furthered by his newly assigned trainee. With a stubborn and eternally optimistic attitude, the new trainee Shaikh helps Sajan learn to care for someone other than himself. Played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui who has acted in many Bollywood films, Shaikh pushes Sajan to open up through his great persistence. Having many more years of life experience, Sajannot not only provides Ila with companionship, but also with valuable advice. In return, Ila provides Sajan with the ability to dream and hope for a better future.

Any viewer can appreciate the nuances of their relationship and the overall film. The emotions conveyed are more subtle than many American-produced movies, and because of this, the film may seem less exciting or boring. The drama in the film does not come with elaborate and passionate scenes, but instead from the agony of thought that each character experiences. I was initially dissatisfied with the ending of the film as it did not follow the path that I was expecting and hoping it would follow. However, after thinking about it more, the unpredictable and maybe less desirable ending follows suit with the theme of the movie of subtlety and contemplation. “The Lunchbox” is a refreshing and thought-provoking take on the traditional love stories and encourages viewers to contemplate the nature of love and relationships in general.

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The lunchbox.

Directed by Ritesh Batra

Can You Fall In Love With Someone You Have Never Met?

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Irrfan Khan Nimrat Kaur Nawazuddin Siddiqui Lillete Dubey Nasirr Khan Bharati Achrekar Nakul Vaid Yashvi Punneet Nagar Denzil Smith Shruti Bapna Lokesh Rai Vidhya Dhar Sadashiv Kondaji Pokarkar Aarti Rathod Krishna Bai Raj Rishi More Santosh Kumar Chaurasiya Swapnil Shirirao Avijit Khanwilkar Aakash Sinha Xavier Hodges Rosemary Hodges Hubart Vossoaker Rosemary Vossoaker Flory Vossoaker Sebastian Vossoaker Quitira Vossoaker Baaburao Sankpal Chandrakantha Rajani Show All… Kancha Karki Ravindra Dubey Narendra Arora Ashwin Desai Mahesh Mahadev Salavkar Krishna Mandal Calvin Desilva Craig Narona Kyeron Kandoria Shubh Jadav

Director Director

Ritesh Batra

Producers Producers

Nina Lath Gupta Anurag Kashyap Cédomir Kolar Karsten Stöter Vivek Rangachari Sunil John Danis Tanović Guneet Monga Nittin Keni Marc Baschet Arun Rangachari Benny Drechsel Shanaab Alam Gitika Aggarwal John F. Lyons Prerna Saigal

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Seher Aly Latif

Editor Editor

John F. Lyons

Cinematography Cinematography

Michael Simmonds

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Ritesh Batra Irrfan Khan Lydia Dean Pilcher

Production Design Production Design

Shruti Gupte

Art Direction Art Direction

Snehal Phadtare

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Akshi Kapoor

Composer Composer

Max Richter

Sound Sound

Stephan Läufer Markus Krohn

Costume Design Costume Design

Niharika Bhasin

DAR Motion Pictures Asap Films Sikhya Entertainment National Film Development Corporation of India Rohfilm Cine Mosaic ARTE France Cinéma Dharma Productions Nittin Keni Creations UTV Motion Pictures

France Germany India USA

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Hindi

Releases by Date

20 sep 2013, 30 oct 2013, 29 sep 2013, 11 apr 2014, 09 aug 2014, 21 nov 2013, releases by country.

• Theatrical 0 "LUNCHBOX" (Originalfassung mit deutschen Untertiteln) (Farbfilm) Prüf-Nr.: 141 560 K
• Physical 0 "LUNCHBOX" (Farbfilm) Prüf-Nr.: 141 560 V
• Theatrical U

Switzerland

104 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Rida ★★★★ 18

There is a scene in The Lunchbox in which the protagonist peers at a display of apparently identical paintings only to realize that each painting is minutely different: the building and road is the same, but the people are always different. He even recognizes himself in one of the paintings, or thinks he does, and purchases it and hugs it to his chest during the commute home.

The Lunchbox is like one of those paintings. Mumbai is always the same: flawed, crowded, and beautiful; but the people are different, and nearly every Indian watching The Lunchbox will recognize themselves in a scene, a line of dialogue, or a character. The Lunchbox is about middle-class India, the largest class in India,…

Review by sofyan ★★★★½ 2

The wrong train can take you to the right station.

- Love it. - Love it. - And really love it.

Review by Brighid ★★★★★ 2

sometimes your heart aches so softly you stop noticing it after a while

Review by Caty Alexandre ★★★★ 7

This film was very different from what I was expecting, first of all because it's an Indian film and you know what to expect from an Indian film. Always full of bright colors, happy dance sequences (or even sad dance sequences) and of course, lot of singing. The Lunchbox is nothing like that.

The Lunchbox is a romantic drama about two strangers that start writing to each other because of a mistake in the delivery service of lunchbox's in Mumbai (I didn't knew about the Dabbawalas and it's an absolutely amazing system!). A young house wife is connected with an older and solitary widower, the man that receives her husband's lunchbox, and through those letters they developed a very strong…

Review by ANGELIKA ★★★★½ 16

how can such a heartwarming film bring so much heartache at its ending?

Review by Sin ✊🏿 ★★★★½ 22

All the riches in the world can't fix that unconquerable vacancy deep within your being when you're starved for human connection. People crave to be seen, heard, understood, and cherished.

The Lunchbox is a bittersweet story of yearning and regret, of nostalgic memories and romanticized futures, of tenderness, and of a mutual kindling of self-discovery and liberation.

Lonely housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is as disconnected from her neglectful, ain't-shit-husband as aloof Saajan (Irrfan Khan) is from his dead wife. Their paths serendipitously cross when Saajan's lunch orders become mixed up with Ila's husbands. Gradually, despite having never met, the two form a meaningful connection through notes exchanged during the daily mistaken lunch deliveries.

I've seen my share of "deceptively simple…

Review by Vonny Simarmata ★★★★½ 1

In my head Saajan and Ila are happily together.

Review by Michael James ★★★★

A subdued yet fascinatingly delicious tale of food and romance, that’s beautifully rooted, brilliantly directed and heartwarmingly performed. Highly Recommended.

Review by bell 🍂 ★★★★

Effortlessly makes you smile and slowly makes your heart ache. Such a lovely warm hug The Lunchbox is.

Review by Mad ★★★★½

"Sometimes the wrong train can take you to the right station."

This was so so goddamn touching and sweet I couldn't help but love it. Kind of the perfect representation of the type of movies I wanna make when I grow up: bittersweet, melancholic, realistic, humane, touching, beautifully acted and moving. Not the most dazzling technical achievement, but certainly heartwarming and reassuring.

Also, this would make a perfect double bill with In The Mood for Love.

Rest easy, Irrfan ❤️

Review by cleansing my soul of addiction🦋 ★★★★★

I don't know when I became an old man only after you spend a lifetime trying numb the pain can you realize the quiet hurts more than anything you've experienced before

Review by Sally Jane Black

My friends are generally kind. I like to cook. I'm convinced I'm not very good at it, but none of them ever complain to me when I do cook. A normal person would take this to mean that I'm at least competent, but I can't help but think that I'm terrible and no one is willing to say so. Never the less, the dream is alive. I love food, and I like to cook. The idea that someone's cooking might be so good as to revive a marriage or create a new romance is completely believable to me. I don't want to be in a relationship, but if someone loved my cooking that much, I'd reconsider a bit.

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The Lunchbox Review

11 Apr 2014

105 minutes

Lunchbox, The

A snafu by one of the 5000 couriers delivering lunchboxes across Mumbai sparks an unexpected epistolatory romance in Ritesh Batra’s delightful debut. Hoping to spice up her marriage, housewife Nimrat Kaur sends her husband a special meal. But a wayward dabawallah hands the tiffin tin to gruff, soon-to-retire accountant Irffan Khan, who is sufficiently smitten by the food and the notes Kaur keeps sending to find this chef who has stirred his soul. The slow-burning relationship is handled with wit, charm and poignancy, but Batra and cinematographer Michael Simmonds also excel at conveying loneliness in a teeming metropolis.

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“The Lunchbox” Serves A Sublime Cinematic Meal

The Lunchbox is Ritesh Batra’s feature directing debut but don’t be fooled by the resume – it’s a refreshingly mature narrative from a storyteller with a distinct (and evocative) point of view. Batra left Bombay for 14 years before shooting The Lunchbox in 2012, and it’s his years away from home which gives this well etched tale a textured mix of sentimentality and heartache.

Ila (a luminous Nimrat Kaur ) is a housewife whose neglectful husband seems to love his phone more than his spouse or daughter. It’s a family that doesn’t say much around the dinner table, and Ila attempts to woo her love back by putting her heart and soul into her cooking. Whether it’s using her grandmother’s old recipes or receiving sage culinary tips from her auntie (a hilarious Bharati Achrekar , who is not seen but heard, the story), Ila’s new dishes have a flavorful verve which should at least fill her husband’s stomach.

Due to an error in Bombay’s lunchbox delivery service, Ila’s meals are sent to Saajan ( Life of Pi’s Irrfan Khan ), a lonely accountant on the verge of retirement. Upon first glance, Saajan is a total misanthrope, as he scolds the kids who play in front of his home and blatantly ignores Shaikh ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ), a new employee who’s tasked with taking over Saajan’s position. He’s a loner through and through, and if he didn’t eat Ila’s delicious food, his life would be totally unappetizing.

But when Saajan tastes Ila’s food, a gradual revelation occurs, as he slowly begins to creep out of his shell. Though Ila realizes the lunchbox didn’t go to her husband, she lets the error continue, as she and Saajan share notes during these lunchtime exchanges. Their friendship, a rare occurrence in a city filled with strangers, gives The Lunchbox a slight fantastical touch ( Ritesh Batra admits to sprinkling his film with magic realistic flourishes), but what grounds this film lies in its reality. We feel tragedy’s inevitable grasp take a hold on both of these lonelyhearts, and we can’t help but feel (and maybe empathize) over their respective plight.

Saajan, now in his autumnal years, merely wants to fade out of existence wherein Ila is trapped in a loveless union, wondering if life has also passed her by. Their exchange of ideas and dreams, all hidden within the guise of delicious sustenance, gives them a momentary window of hope and mutual acknowledgement.

The feature, grew out of Batra’s initial research into the Bombay lunchbox delivery service, gives viewers an insight into the city’s delirious hustle and bustle, where most denizens spend their lives on trains that take them to and from their jobs.

It’s a “lunchbox” style of existence which affects many of our lives, and we hope that Saajan and Ila break out of that mold, even if it means carving out a more fulfilling path on their own. Thankfully, the ambiguous ending (which I interpreted as extremely optimistic) lifts The Lunchbox to an even higher truth.

In life’s grand scheme, we have no idea where our train is going or when it’s going to stop. But with a bit of faith and courage, maybe we’ll end up in the right station.

Special Features: Aside from being a must see film, The Lunchbox  Blu-ray edition also features audio commentary from writer/director Ritesh Batra . Much of the commentary has Batra focusing on the technical elements on the film (sound design, cinematography, editing), so it’s a worth a listen especially if you’re either a film geek or if directing peaks your interest.

Here’s a few facts about The Lunchbox that I learned from the commentary:

• Batra wrote the film’s final voiceover (from actress Nimrat Kaur ) after shooting wrapped. It was penned during the editing process.
• The film was shot amidst the big city chaos of Bombay, so certain parts of the film’s dialogue needed a bit of ADR (looping) during the post-production process.
• Two scenes from The Lunchbox were shot on a soundstage.
• Ritesh Batra is a huge fan of the master shot (aka establishing scenes sans excessive cutting), and there’s a couple of these sequences in the film that you’ll hopefully love.

My favorite quote from the commentary has Batra detailing the difference between penning the script and going behind the camera: “When you are writing a film, the writing process (is) so much like the acting process – you are connected with your subconscious mind and you are making a lot of right decisions, because you are in the work or in that world. But when you’re directing a film, you’re concerned about everyone making the same film.”

“The Lunchbox” (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, PG, 104 minutes) comes out on Digital and as a Blu-ray Combo Pack on July 1, 2014.

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The Lunchbox Movie Review

The Lunchbox   Rating:  4.38/5( Highest Ever) From All the reviews on the web Showing 13  Reviews

Ratings :5/5   Review By:   Rajeev Masand   Site: Masand’s Verdict (CNN IBN: IBNLive)

I’m going with five out of five for ‘The Lunchbox’. The greatest love stories are the ones that make you root for the protagonists to come together, despite their destinies. This film illustrates how love transforms the unlikeliest of people; it breaks down Saajan’s walls and gives Ila the courage to fly. Treat yourself to ‘The Lunchbox’ – it’ll leave you with a craving to seek your own little happiness. The best film I’ve seen in a long time.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4/5   Review By:   Taran Adarsh   Site:Bollywood Hungama

A well-told old-fashioned romance, THE LUNCHBOX gracefully unknots the trials, tribulations, fears and hopes of everyday people sans the glamour that the city of Mumbai has become synonymous with. On the whole, THE LUNCHBOX is a standout film, a sumptuous treat that’s sure to be relished by connoisseurs of cinema. A film with a big heart, it makes you realize that you can unearth contentment and pleasure even if you board the wrong train. Easily one of the finest films to come out of India.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4/5   Review By:   Anupama Chopra   Site:Star World ( Hindustan Times)

The Lunchbox is my favorite love story of the year. Its sweet, sad and deeply aching. Debutant director Ritesh Batra captures the fragility of life, the harrowing loneliness that a metropolis like Mumbai fosters, the hope of happiness that glimmers and enables us to go on. The Lunchbox is poignant and powerful. It will make you laugh and cry. And it will also make you hungry I was dying to eat paneer kofta and bhindi when it finished. Im going with four stars and absolutely insisting that you see it.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :5/5   Review By:   Karan Anshuman   Site:Mumbai Mirror

Could a simple lunchbox and its contents change lives? One of the best films to come out of India in a long time, director Ritesh Batra answers the question in his little masterpiece, The Lunchbox. I watched The Lunchbox twice over a few months and can testify that it has a high repeat quotient, the final confirmation that was required for a perfect rating. There’s buzz of an Oscar selection in the Best Foreign Language Film category. India will be hard-pressed to find a more deserving nominee.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :–   Review By:   Komal Nahta   Site:Zee ETC Bollywood Business

No doubt, the thin story-line, the slow pace and the laidback screenplay make the film class-appealing but it must be added that for that audience, the film offers a lot by way of entertainment. On the whole, The Lunchbox is a delightfully delicious film. It will be simply loved by the classes and will score in the multiplexes of the big cities. The start in several centres may be slow but collections will pick up in the big cities due to positive mouth publicity. It will win a lot of accolades and awards too.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4.5/5   Review By:   Srijana Mitra Das   Site:Times Of India (TOI)

The Lunchbox has levels – it is the story of a man so lonely, he’s forgotten what any companionship means. It is the story of a suburban housewife, deeply alone. It is the story of meeting via eating. It is a love-story – and a love-letter to Mumbai, to trains that go dhak-dhak, to dabbawalas and rain, to love and life, sugar and spice, the despair and hope that mark every heart.Its finesse qualifies this charmer as India’s potential entry to the Oscars, The Lunchbox an unusual banquet, raising a bitter-sweet toast to life. Note: You may not like this movie if you don’t like softly spiced whimsical tales – or food.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :3.5/5   Review By:   Shubhra Gupta   Site:Indian Express

If it hadn’t been for the occasional flatness, and a couple of predictable notes, there would have been no flaws in this dabba. I also found Ila’s mother’s (Lillete Dubey) segment, included solely to underline another kind of vacantness, a little forced. But these are tiny niggles in this film that gets the rest of it so right. Batra’s characters are a delight. They may be of Mumbai, infused with intense desi flavours, but can inhabit any part of the world. You want to take them home, sit them down at your table, and savour them, one mouthful at a time.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :5/5   Review By:   Raja Sen   Site:Rediff

Batra, who has also written The Lunchbox, has allowed his smashing actors tremendous room to improvise, all the while himself sketching in nuanced details about the city, its food-ferriers, and the many disparities Mumbai is crammed with. It is a film of multiple pleasures — small ones and overwhelming ones and exquisitely crafted ones — layered one on top of the other, with something for everyone, and so, so much for the cinematic glutton. Like the dabbawalas he loves, this director delivers.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4/5   Review By:   Saibal Chaterjee   Site:NDTV

It is a unique piece of cinema crafted with great dexterity and attention to detail. A strikingly original, idiosyncratic and charming love story, The Lunchbox dismantles the established structures of the genre in ways that are at once startling and effective.It isnt just the life of the male protagonist that it touches.Gorge into it and savour its lingering aftertaste. The Lunchbox holds riches that arent likely to be forgotten in a hurry.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4/5   Review By:   Harshada Rege   Site:DNA

Indian cinema ought to be proud of moments like these. But beyond the adulation of the world press, the best thing about this bittersweet movie is its desi flavour that gives it a universal appeal. This one may not please those looking for a masala flick, but is more than your money’s worth. But ensure that you eat well before you head for the movie, or else be prepared to deal with the hunger pangs everytime Irrfan opens The Lunchbox.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4.5/5   Review By:   Mohar Basu   Site:Koimoi

 Watch or Not?: The Lunchbox within the first few minutes made its way into the cockles of my heart. Elegantly done, the film conjures a connoisseur variety of cinema where love and romance are stretched beyond the contours marked out by epic Bollywood romances. The love here has so much tenderness, eulogizes companionship of two very unlikely people who are drawn close over notes exchanged via a lunchbox, which almost builds up as a character in their story. Films like these are gratifyingly piquant and should definitely not be missed!

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :4/5   Review By:   Khalid Mohammed   Site:Deccan Chronicle

What stays in the mind at the end of ‘The Lunchbox’ is pretty much what stays in mind at the end of a memorable set by jazzmen not their lapses but the heights they scale. Bottomline: Bon appetit! Miss this sumptuous movie, at your own peril.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :5/5   Review By:   Saurabh Dwivedi   Site:India Today

The trailer might have you thinking it’s a love story but it’s much more than just that. In case you’re looking for a paisa vasool family movie, this is not one to miss. It’s almost as if the movie never ends. You walk out of the movie hall and the film continues with you. How it ends changes with your life experience. A highly recommended movie, that leaves you with a running film reel in your head, and a need to have have delicious food

Visit  Site  for more Also Try: Upcoming Bollywood Movies 2013-2014 Bollywood Box Office India  Salman  Khan Latest Upcoming Movies  Shahrukh Khan Upcoming Movies 2013-2015 Akshay Kumar Upcoming Movies 2014  Latest Bollywood Hindi Movies  Shahrukh Khan All Movies List   List of Bollywood Movies 2013

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‘wolfs’ review: brad pitt and george clooney reunite for a cunning caper that never takes itself too seriously — sometimes to a fault.

Jon Watts ('Spider-Man: Homecoming') wrote and directed this New York-set action comedy, which will roll out on Apple TV+ after premiering in Venice.

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

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Can movie stars stay cool forever?

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Ethan hawke compares acting to "the joys of doing drugs," talks about being "slightly disappointed that i'm not a wizard or a jedi", brad pitt and george clooney whip venice film festival into a frenzy with 'wolfs' world premiere.

Either way it’s unfortunate, because Wolfs is a work that deserves big-screen attention — instead of being viewed in bed on a MacBook that’s resting on top of your crotch. Written and directed by Jon Watts , who, after a lengthy stint in the Marvel Universe, returns to the caper mode of his 2015 breakthrough Cop Car , the movie has twists galore and showcases a slick, deadpan style you hardly see in Hollywood anymore. Both fun and thin at the same time, it’s not about much in the end except the idea of reuniting Pitt and Clooney to see if they still have their magic, which they mostly do.

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Characters die in movies every day. Whether you’re watching a violent thriller or a death-bed tearjerker like “Steel Magnolias” or some of the more macabre meditations of Ingmar Bergman, you might say that the movies, in some grand collective way, are nothing less than a rehearsal for death. Yet it’s still rare to encounter a big-screen drama that grabs death by the horns, that looks it in the eye, that asks us to confront its daunting reality on every level the way Pedro Almodóvar ’s lyrical and moving “ The Room Next Door ” does.

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“The Room Next Door” is vibrantly shot (by Eduard Grau), notably when the characters move to a fancy modernist rented vacation home in the upstate country near Woodstock, NY. Mostly, though, it’s a movie in which Martha and Ingrid talk about death, and Martha finally figures out what she’s going to do about it. She has not stopped wanting to live. But she has grown tired of fighting the fear that she’s going to die.

Tilda Swinton has always had a face so distinctive — pale and severe, expressive in a way that’s almost translucent, with that aura she conjures of looking like the aristocratic elfin alien sibling of David Bowie — that we feel as if we know that face like our own. In “The Room Next Door,” Swinton’s face, along with her words, becomes an awesome instrument of inquiry. She gives a monumental performance, one that in its raw emotion, its pensive power, is worthy of comparison to the spirit and virtuosity of Vanessa Redgrave. She makes Martha a grounded woman who knows herself, and knows what she wants, but has landed in uncharted territory. She’s not prepared for this. Who is, really? But she’s going to take the journey and take us with her.

At a certain point, Martha decides that she’s had enough, and that she’s going to seize control of her destiny. She’s going to decide when she dies. “The Room Next Door” is not an “issue” movie (though it’s very much on the side of euthanasia). It’s a deceptively plainspoken but artful voyage into the river of emotion that accompanies the impulse to end one’s life. Martha has a plan, and it’s a relatively simple one, though it involves a pill she had to obtain, with some difficulty, on the dark web. And the challenge hardly ends there. As she and Ingrid move into the upstate home, a timetable emerges, and it infuses the film with a reality-based suspense. Will Ingrid wake up to find Martha’s bedroom door closed? That’s the code they’ve agreed on for the day of Martha’s reckoning. Moore’s Ingrid, warm and empathetic, will do whatever it takes to support her friend, which makes her part of a spiritual-ethical equation. She’s there to protect Martha, though she herself also needs to be protected (from the law).

Pedro Almodóvar, at 74, is no Spanish fatalist, but his films have become increasingly haunted by death. That’s why the comedy in them has mostly been burned away. Yet I would argue that this has not made him a downbeat artist. “The Room Next Door,” as driven by the scalding humanity of Swinton’s performance, lifts you up and delivers a catharsis. The movie is all about death, yet in the unblinking honesty with which it confronts that subject, it’s powerfully on the side of life.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (In competition), Sept. 2, 2024. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release of an El Deseo, Moviestar Plus, Washington Square Films production. Producers: Agustin Almodóvar, Esther Garcia. Executive producers: Joshua Blum, Han West.
• Crew: Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar, Sigrid Nunez. Camera: Eduard Grau. Editor: Teresa Font. Music: Alberto Iglesias.
• With: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro, Alex Høgh Andersen, Alessandro Nivola, Melina Matthews, Victoria Luengo, Esther McGregor.

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