Seeing it one way, this film rests on two very popular clichés: the proverb about how the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and the western fascination with the Mumbai dabbawallas, a 130-year-old system that accurately delivers nearly two lakh lunch-boxes between suburban homes and workplaces daily.

This dabba service system however does fail, when housewife Ira’s tiffin for her husband lands up on Fernandes’ table. Fernandes, a widower, is an accountant in the pensions or insurance agency of the government. His office has desk after desk loaded with piles over piles of papers and files, revealing an uneventful routine of pure drudgery. Fernandes has been doing this for 35 years, and it shows on his face. Somewhere during the daily commute, life must have passed him by.

The much younger woman (Nimrat Kaur) has a little daughter and a husband wedded to his cellphone. You feel sorrier for her. A 1 BHK matchbox apartment is her life, and packing lunch for her husband its highpoint. Through the misplaced tiffin carrier, the accountant and housewife develop a bond of sorts. Both could do with a change in scenery.

A relationship between two complete strangers is far too common now, given Internet and social media – an altogether alternate universe. They rightly show up in quite a few romantic films as well (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless In Seattle, etc). The couple here communicates through letters in a lunchbox. Their thoughts aren’t literary or profound. The dabba is their pigeon or postman.

Irrfan plays Fernandes. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is Sheikh, his newly appointed understudy. From the moment Sheikh appears on screen, you know he’s going to make you laugh. He doesn’t do much, merely goes, “Sir, aapko kaisa lag raha hai… Aap kaise ho sir” etc. Yet, every time he’s in the frame, I don’t know why, you feel a mild urge to chuckle.

From an equally dreaded dacoit in Paan Singh Tomar or a local goon in an Uttar Pradesh college (Haasil) to a convincingly calm NRI engineering professor at a Boston university (The Namesake), Irrfan remains one of the few working Indian actors to have so fully realised his range and potential on screen. Looking closely at Mr Fernandes, you get a sense that you’ve known this old, unhappy man all along.

Drawing on these three main characters, debutant writer-director Ritesh Batra remarkably scripts a story of loneliness that affects the best of us living in the world’s most crowded cities. Since its award winning debut at Cannes, other major festival credits, the film has found interested mainstream producers (Karan Johar, UTV) to back its release in India, followed by intense media lobbying to ensure it is India’s entry to the Oscars. This is the only way a small, simple film like this can travel such a large distance.

Originally published here.

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