A lunchbox is one important thing that gets to see different dimensions of love everyday – the love of a parent who puts their all into every meal they make for their child, the love of a partner who packs in warmth and affection along with the food they made for the day, the self-love of a strong individual packing a hot nourishing meal to tackle a long day ahead! Just like a lunchbox with a hot home-cooked meal lights up a smile on your face, the movie The Lunchbox is sure to bring a smile on your face while you reminisce on long past days of your childhood.
If you haven’t watched the movie yet, the film focuses around two main characters – Ila, a young house wife played by Nimrat Kaur, and Saajan, a career accountant on the verge of retirement, played by Irrfan Khan. Both characters are suffering a type of loneliness and isolation (that has nothing to do with a pandemic or lockdown!); Ila has an inattentive husband and Saajan is a bit of a curmudgeon who hasn’t felt a human connection in years.
The characters mistakenly come in contact with one another when the infallible dabbawallas of Mumbai deliver a lunchbox Ila prepared for her husband to Saajan. This leads to a dialogue, friendship, and great food being exchanged via tiffin box delivery. While it doesn’t magically cure their loneliness, both characters end up in a stronger and more content place, with an urge to continue working and improving on their human connections. The story is wonderful, because it reminds you of all the friends that you made over a shared meal from your lunchbox! Most friendships that are more than a decade old today are the ones that started during lunch breaks of school, college – where you learnt sharing is caring!
Lunch boxes are still in style, just like the movie, even thirteen years after The Lunchbox aired. From steel to plastic and now insulated, lunchboxes have evolved too; but still they are the best things you can look up to when you are in dire need of a friend in a new place. Open your lunchbox, share your hot ‘ghar ka khana’ and in your heart you will know you have made memories, for life! The magic of a lunchbox is – it transports the meal with a dozen or so ingredients along with the warmth and love that went into making it, and that is why there is love in every single lunchbox out there!
