"The Lunchbox" is one of those movies that you come across once in a while. When you're done with the movie you will rest back on your seat, take a deep breath and smile. You will get on with your life but the characters and the story will remain etched in your mind.
Needless to say that every aspect of this movie works well right from the story, dialogues, sound (love the sound mixing....so amazingly detailed), performances, camera, direction...I can go on and on.
Irrfan Khan is brilliant as Fernandes, what amazed me was the freshness he brought to the screen while playing an old *about to retire* man. His performance both physical and vocal (The letter portions) was rare and worth noticing.
Nimrat Kaur was dangerously believable. 5 mins into the movie I started thinking that I know this woman, she used to live in mumbai, the same apartment complex as mine. She portrays the typical middle-class house so damn well!! She is beautiful in her simplicity. Nawaz is slowly emerging as the finest actors India has to offer, he takes a character and lives it on the screen.
You know, the thing that I love the most about his acting style is the characterisctics that he adopts while playing any character. The little nuances that make each human different from another. He adopts the little details so well that I feel like he could take any character and play it with the same believable integrity. Whether its Sheikh from Lunchbox or Don from Don.
Finally Ritesh Batra has written and directed one of the finest films of the decade. The amount of detail he gave to each aspect, whether the characters in the story or the city or the dabbawallas, was beautiful. I absolutely loved the fact that each character of his movie was so well fleshed out, the Aunty, Sheikh, the mother, the husband. Each character had an intruiging story of his own and that was amazing to me(something to learn for every writer).
Watch Lunchbox if you havent already. All this controversy surrounding it is stupid. An academy award is not the deciding factor for how great a film is. Yes I agree this movie would've gotten India noticed but Im also equally certain that a movie this good will not go unnoticed in the international market. And thats what matters the most!
