The Lunchbox is a 2013 Hindi film set in the bustling city of Mumbai, India. This is not a standard “Bollywood” vehicle with song-and-dance or a three hour plot. It’s a simple story centering on two characters. One plans to retire after a career as an accountant and the other is a young homemaker .
The city has a famous lunch delivery system (tiffins) where meals are picked up from home and delivered still hot to their office destinations. Despite the lack of computerization, it has a famous 99% accuracy rate and was studied by Harvard, Forbes and others.

In the Lunchbox, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), the homemaker prepares a particularly flavorful lunch which is mistakenly delivered to Saajan (Irfan Khan). When the tiffin is brought back home by the service it’s been licked clean. Her husband rarely appreciates the food so she asks him about it. His response is the same lukewarm answer. She quickly realizes that her food went to someone else. The next day the same thing occurs only she sends a note with the tiffin. This results in an exchange of notes over a few weeks.

It’s a charming story with lots of dry humor (mostly on Irfan Khan’s part). This is a great movie for those who don’t like typical Bollywood.

Run Time: 104 minutes
Director: Ritesh Batra