The Lunchbox

Despite being dependent on a whopping contrivance, writer/director Ritesh Batra's debut exudes wit, warmth and charm. Demonstrating in an opening montage how the 5,000-strong dabbawallah (or box-carrier) service gets lunch pails from housewives to husbands across the teeming city of Mumbai, Batra makes use of a rare delivery error to engage Saajan (Irrfan Khan), a grumpy, soon-to-retire claims accountant, in a relationship by letter with Ila (Nimrat Kaur), who has enlisted the help of her upstairs neighbour (Bharati Achrekar) to tantalise the taste buds of her husband (Nakul Vaid) in a bid to rekindle their marriage. Intrigued by the note Ila encloses when the mistake is repeated, the widowed Saajan replies and the pair share secrets, hopes and fears, as Ila discovers that her husband is being unfaithful and Sajaan slowly warms to the eccentric newcomer (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) he is supposed to be training to take his place. Without fetishising the dishes, Batra keeps the focus on the food and the notion of variety being the spice of life. But it's the way he, cinematographer Michael Simmonds and editor John Lyons convey urban alienation and aloneness that makes this beautifully acted picture so affecting.