Monday Night at the Movies: The Lunchbox
The Lunchbox is the final film for Monday Night at the Movies until September. The screening takes place at 7.30 pm at the Monarch Theatre on May 19.
Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) stars alongside the radiant Nimrat Kaur in Ritesh Batra’s delightful feature debut, in which a mistaken lunchbox delivery paves the way for an unlikely romance.
In Mumbai, home to over 18 million people, more than 5,000 famously efficient dabbawallas — lunchbox couriers — navigate chaotic streets to deliver lunches, lovingly prepared by housewives, to working men across the city. Ila (Kaur) is a housewife living in a middle- class neighbourhood with a husband who ignores her. Saajan (Khan) is a beaten down widower about to retire from his number-crunching job. After Ila realizes that Saajan is receiving the meals meant for her husband, the two begin sending each other letters through the lunchbox.
What starts as an innocent exchange about Ila’s cooking gently develops into something more. Whether it’s the cooking of a meal, the reading of a letter, or the riding of a crowded train, the film’s small moments culminate in big impact. In a word: enchanting. The film is in Hindi with English subtitles.
Monday Night at the Movies is a branch of the Friends of the Medicine Hat Public Library. For more information about Monday Night at the Movies, go to: www.mhfilm.ca or contact Jane at 403-529-2209.