Each community has its own social mechanisms, and it is not a surprise that India would present to the world such a lunatic and amazing system as the Dabbawala, the Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery way. Dabbalawa was created 125 years ago, at 1890 (thanks, wikipedia), and has a history of few failures and erros. There are so many studies about it, Prince Charles had recognized its efficiency... but of course cinema would look at this crazy system with more humane eyes.
The not so exact estimate is that this apparent erratic delivery system has an error in 6 to 8 milliion deliveries. Of course, the storyline of The Lunchbox (Dabba, a 2013 Bollywood production, relies in one of its rare failures. A caring, lonely and hopeful wife sends her new culinary adventures to her husband in a lunchbox, in order to reach his cold and desinteresded heart by the stomach. But the food reaches another of the many Mumbai's working men. And so, thanks to the Indian Gods of Bollywood that it happened like that.
Another important assumption in this movie is the saying by which "the wrong train can lead you to the right station". By this rightful error, two individuals lost in the nonsense of their own lives find meaning and hope of better days with each other. They are connected by food, a wonderful way to unite people, and by their loneliness, despite the people around them.
Life can be a picture of this wrong train that leads us to a lot of right station, better sayin, the people that five sense to this crazy journey.
The characters in this movie are so real, so close, so endearing that I went through the whole filme like it was a lullay and I was being cuddled by such a delicate story. I don't know how to explain that exactly, but there's somehting about such real characters in a movie that never fails to break my heart and bring tears to my eyes. Despite being also funny (thanks mostly to the persistent Shaish) and sweet, I wasm ovied by The Lunchbox since the beginning til its unbelievable end. So much life in its amazing details, it is impossible not to get at least a bit emotional here and there. A lovely movie wiht belove characters.
| The Lunchbox (Dabba). Directed and written by Ritesh Batra (With hindi dialogues by Vasan Bala). With: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. India/France/Germany/USA, 2013, 104 min. Dolby Digital, Color (Cable TV). |
PS: Penny Dreadful, season 2, til the heartbreaking end.
PPS: When Ila tries to explain to the Dabba deliveryman that there has been a mistake, he says that she is the wrongful one. After all, they are talking about a system validated by Harvard and the "king" of England. Not a small feature, right? But this scene annoys the hell out of me, because the despising ways by which the guy alludes to the woman's complaint is a small but very effective dose of the lack of a female voice and respect in India and, course, in general.
PPS: When Ila tries to explain to the Dabba deliveryman that there has been a mistake, he says that she is the wrongful one. After all, they are talking about a system validated by Harvard and the "king" of England. Not a small feature, right? But this scene annoys the hell out of me, because the despising ways by which the guy alludes to the woman's complaint is a small but very effective dose of the lack of a female voice and respect in India and, course, in general.
PPPS: I was so suspicious of being caught by another too-painful-to-stand movie that I've asked two friends about The Lunchbox before choosing to see it in this sunday night. Thanks to Sá e Kal, I've reached this incredibly sweet and delicate story.
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