The Lunchbox: Anupama Chopra's review

Poignant, Powerful

The Lunchbox is my favourite love story of the year. It’s sweet, sad and deeply aching. Debutant director Ritesh Batra captures the harrowing loneliness that a metropolis like Mumbai fosters, the hope of happiness that glimmers and enables us to go 

on.


The Lunchbox

Direction: Ritesh Batra

Actors: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Rating: ****

The Lunchbox is about two desolate individuals who make a tenuous connection when the famed Mumbai dabbawallas mess up and deliver lunch to the wrong man. Saajan, played by Irrfan Khan, is a widower on the verge of retirement.

Ila, played by Nimrat Kaur, is a housewife, frayed by neglect. Their relationship – expressed entirely through notes exchanged in the lunchbox – develops into love. Every detail in this lovely film speaks of the care with which it has been crafted. So, as Ila does the household laundry, she listens to recipes of paneer do pyaaza on the radio.

Saajan, who is Catholic, writes to her that he has been offered a vertical burial plot – “I’ve spent my life standing in trains and buses,” he says, “now I will have to stand even when I’m dead.” The writing is enhanced by terrific performances. This film is a triumph for all its leads – Irrfan, Nimrat and Nawazuddin Siddiqui who is endearing as Saajan’s junior.

Irrfan, who also co-produced the film, is its backbone. His gait, eyes, even his slight smile, captures Saajan’s melancholy. Irrfan and Nawaz are two of the finest actors working today but this film wouldn’t be what it is without Nimrat’s heartbreaking performance. The Lunchbox is poignant and powerful. It will make you laugh and cry. And it will also make you hungry – I was dying to eat paneer kofta and bhindi when it finished.

I absolutely insist that you see it.

Phata Poster Nikla Hero: Review- Courtesy Hindustan Times

Rajkumar Santoshi's Phata Poster Nikla Hero has not managed to garner appreciation from the critics. The film, they say, doesn't offer anything new but Shahid Kapoor is the only possible reason to go for it. 

Going by the reviewers, the film attempts to be a comedy and it fails 

miserably. Simantini Dey of Firstpost sets it straight, "If Phata Poster is meant to be a comedy, it isn’t funny. If it is an action film, then it’s so last decade. What it definitely is, is a disappointment."

Dey gives credit to the lead actor and feels there is no meat in the film except him. The critic says, "Shahid Kapoor owns whatever there is to own in this film. His face is like all the emoticons that you have ever seen, rolled into one. This could have been a bad thing, but when Kapoor pulls all these expressions, he manages to make it work. He is delightful in dance numbers like Khali Pili and Dhating Naach. However, there is only so much that he can with a half-baked character and a messy plot"

Mayank Shekhar seconds that, "This movie is supposed to be a comedy, though it’s cacophony for the most part with assorted dons, fake cops, real cops, and general unexplained madness."

Shekhar further adds: "You feel sorry for the director, swallow some pride on his behalf. But the lead actor here wanted to be a Bollywood hero anyway. The pint-sized star like Singham drops from the air on his feet over flying dust, his body horizontally swaying over the earth as villains come crashing down, he travels to desolate beaches for the Sufi song, dances on the stage for the item track, weeps for his mother, hugs his father, mimics Dev Anand, Amol Palekar for comedy. You wish him well, quickly pop a Saridon, along with the popcorn, and safely go home."

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama too feels the film is full of clichés. "It's a frothy comedy that would have gone astray and misplaced its luster had it been delegated to a lesser talent", he believes.