Dabba (The Lunchbox)

Some of the most difficult reviews to write are the ones where you have just seen a movie that is so good that you cannot come to terms with its perfection.  So you get caught in the vicious trap of being on a witch hunt.  That my friends, is exactly what I got drawn into with Dabba aka The Lunch Box (for international audiences).

All through The Lunch Box, I was searching for flaws with a magnifying glass.  So here are the moments that I thought made Lunch Box a wee bit flawed

1. Lilette Dubey doesn’t come across as middle class and was more importantly heavily made up.  I think she is a fine actress.  But for this role?
2. Aubergines was pushing it.  We call it Brinjal here.  Brinjal it should have been.
3.  “Mera Dil Bhi Kitna Pagal Hai” starts mid-way and not from the beginning
4. The green screen when Sajjan Fernandes (Irrfan) leaves for Nasik was obvious
5. The Bhutanese song when that aspect comes in didn’t seem natural.

Yet again, much like in RUSH, I could find precisely 5 mistakes.  There maybe more and for all you know there maybe a justification for these 5 as well.  I really do not know because I am no expert in the field of cinema.  These are just my opinions.  And for the record, I do not want them to cloud the fact that I LOVED THE LUNCH BOX.

There are so many moments where Ritesh Batra gets a different concern from my side.  Has he put in everything that he has got already into his first movie? Is there anything left there that will be able to give us an even better one in the future.  I sure hope it is the latter because it is quite possible to not live upto a superb first attempt.

There is hardly anything wrong I can find in terms of technicalities or script or story or performances.  Lets start with the last one.  Nawazuddin Siddiqui is yet again, for me, the most outstanding performance.  To maintain that lisp all the way through the 2 hours is an achievement.

Nimrat Kaur is superb except for a few moments in the beginning where she may have been less than 100%.  Irrfan Khan is as always brilliant.  Bharti Achrekar’s voice as Deshpande Aunty provides the movie with a character that ensures that the middle class roots of the story are maintained.

Don’t mistake Lunch Box to be a serious movie all through.  In a story that involves a 35 year old government officer who is retired and his relationship with a housewife whose marriage is in trouble, you have several moments that make you laugh.  But if you look deeper into those lines, you will find that they are solid jibes towards our life today.

Like when Irrfan says, “There is no value for talent in this country any more”.  Or when he screams at Sheikh (Nawaz), “Don’t you cut your bloody vegetables on the office file”.  Sheikh replies, “OK Sir, I will put a plastic cover on it and then chop the vegetables” – a clear jibe at how we treat our government documents and people.

There is no moment where you will feel bored with The Lunch Box and for that, one has to give credit yet again to Batra and the cast.  The technical aspects are also really good.  The attention to detail – Thank you so much Ritesh Batra, for ensuring that I don’t give up on Indian film makers.

The country has been calling, “Oscar Oscar” for The Lunch Box.  I believe that it may not be able to go all the way.  But a nomination in the top 5 is definitely possible.  Unless of course some moron somewhere picks up something else stating, “It is a representation of India”.  8.5 on 10 for the movie of the year to date from this part of the world.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enq9nNGnMFY