The Lunchbox

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bharati Achrekar
Director: Ritesh Batra
Genre: Drama

Not a movie to my liking. Overhyped in all respects. And expect a piece of attempted art there!

Minuses:

I am sure, everyone would have heard only good about it from the various critics, here is my perspective looking at it:

• First and foremost, this movie will but for sure hurt the sentiments of the Mumbai Dabbawallahs, they are never wrong, and such projections do infest some element of doubt on the efficacy with which they carry out their jobs
• How bout the lunch! Does it really justify the name or is it just a means for a messenger! I found the factor of food really being paid least attention to. Only the initial few minutes, they would discuss food, and the rest other days even if the lady is cooking with all her efforts, Irfan is never paying any attention to it, at a lot of times he would give the food away to Nawazuddin and on a few, he wont eat. How can you not mention the taste of the food you are eating everyday but have a mind to mention about respective neighbours! Directors fault!
• Ok, next! The character sketches didnt exactly fit into the love story drama. A middle class wife who is otherwise happy in her marriage, suddenly figures out her husband is cheating on her and she does absolutely nothing about it! I think this entire aspect was not required in the movie at all. This was never ever paid attention to! I dont think this issue was less significant in any respect. The only reason i believe they induced this angle was to justify the growing feeling of the lady towards someone out of her marriage, after all Indian woman cannot otherwise be into infidilety! :P Nonsense! And of course i cant imagine a middle class woman like her randomly thinking of Bhutan and taking it so seriously, a woman would think many times before shifting a city in such circumstances, and she there plays a childs game in moving out of the country itself, into the unknown! Kudos :P
• Again the character sketch of Irfan Khan not justified in the love story. A man who is absolutely disinterested in people and is more or less a loner, which is depicted in the movie time and again, suddenly starts speaking to a stranger without context, on whats the deal with Illa's neighbours ceiling fan! I dont get it. They should have built the conversation up more stronger and subtle to show how it progressed between the two. A sudden jump in an uninteresting and irrelevant conversation between the two and Irfan's interest in it, is rather awkward
• The movie is pretty slow, thats something one should expect. However, i count this as a minus since, being slow and a movie with a very simple concept, the director should have paid a lot of attention to the intricacies, which he clearly hasnt
• Lilette Dubey, didnt quite fit in the role of a middle class distressed mother and a wife of an ailing husband! She is glamorous and should remain so. Karan Johar, please stop casting people in unfitting roles just because they are close to you
• The biggest disappointment is the ending of the movie. Entire length of the movie, the only thing you keep waiting is to see what happens to the duo. An open ending just doesnt justify. There is absolutely nothing beyond the trailors in the movie otherwise, no content. I believe, if you are making a bold attempt in showcasing how boundary free are the relations today and dealing with aspects as sensitive as this in Indian context, you need to end it well and diplomatically. There are thousands of people waiting for an answer on what is the right thing to do when and if such thing happens. Film maker should float a right message across, and complete the responsibililty undertaken. You are not supposed to fiddle with issues like this and leave it to no where!
• The only reason for writing a such a detailed review on this movie is the disregard i have today for Karan Johar and Yash Raj movies. All of them anti marriage! All of them just fanning the already disbalanced placard of cards in our society today! Wrong messages everywhere!

Pluses:

• I cannot disregard the performances! Irfan Khan, is a sumpreme actor! Every word told and untold, very well conveyed! Least effort in remembering dialogues and more complex in terms of delivering expressions :)
• Really appreciate Nimrat Kaur. She never gives you a feeling of a debutant! Subtle and expressive
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui, my personal favorite! He is a gem of an actor! The only stainfree, critic free role, sketched properly, written properly and played flawlessly role! Three cheers to him!
• Bharati Achrekar, the voice is more than enough to appreciate this role. She doesnt get a miss, we all remember you from yesteryears and we love you :)

My rating: 2.5/5 (A movie is rated perfect 4+ or 5/5 when its loved by every audience irrespective of maturity. This certainly doesnt qualify)