Indian director Ritesh Batra’s debut film “The Lunchbox” (Dabba) was the winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Viewer’s Choice Award, the Golden Rail (Grand Rail d’Or) . Starring Irrfan Khan “Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire” it is a beautiful story narrated with tremendous warmth revolving around two strangers whose lives unexpectedly and miraculously intersect. Set In Mumbai, home to over 18 million people, more than 5,000 famously efficient dabbawallas, lunchbox couriers, navigate through chaotic streets to deliver lunches, lovingly prepared by housewives, to working men across the city. In the movie a delivery man proudly recalls, that their dabba system has been subject to a Harvard University study, which concluded that only one in a million dabbas goes astray. The Lunchbox is the story about that one in a million.

The Lunchbox is a traditional love story with a wonderfully contemporary twist that develops through exchange of notes via a lunchbox. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a pretty young mother who’s trying her best to win the attention of her unfaithful husband (Nakul Vaid). Her simple logic is to reclaim her husband’s attention through her cooking “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. The lunchbox she prepares gets wrongly delivered to Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a widower who is about to retire after 35 years of immaculate service in the government’s claims department. Realizing the mix-up that has occurred, Ila encloses a note the next day. Saajan writes back and soon a daily correspondence develops between them. They secretly start sharing their lives through handwritten notes that maintain a noble tone throughout.

Even before “Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire” Irrfan Khan’s face had become increasingly known outside India, and for good reason: The star has an extraordinary range and chameleon-like presence. His portrayal of Saajan, with his spare melancholy attitude and poker-faced delivery shifting between witty and downhearted, is powerful. Delightful and lovely Kaur has a radiant presence brilliantly captured in camera close-ups that matches Khan’s performance.

Batra’s The Lunchbox, executed with his remarkable understanding of visuals, captured on film by Michael Simmonds, edited by John Lyons and garnished with apt musical background score by Max Richter, has created a delightful movie. This tale very close to the Indian heart with just the right amount of humor and delicacy that it will appeal to a universal audience. Batra has cleverly managed to bring the characters together despite the complex physical and social intricacies of Mumbai’s overcrowded trains, traffic jams and social divides. As the movie heads towards its highpoint, “one wishes that everybody finds his or her share of happiness and reach the right destination, even if someone takes the wrong train.”

Highly recommended. In theaters 2014

Christophe Chanel

Shown at this year’s TIFF13 : Toronto International Film Festival.