For the love of lunch and friendship

THE Lunchbox is neither a hardcore foodie flick nor a lip-trembling tearjerker based on a Nicholas Sparks novel - although it does contain elements of each. Fortunately, first-time director Ritesh Batra displays an assured touch as well as a sense of restraint with this film about a case of mistaken lunchbox identity and the unlikely relationship that sprouts from it.

The movie's promise is deceptively simple yet entirely appropriate to its setting: the urban chaos of Mumbai and more specifically its unique food delivery system starring the city's dabbawallas - people who collect tiffin carriers of cooked food from homes for delivery to office workers throughout the city, using various modes of transport. The system, which has apparently come under the scrutiny of researchers from Harvard, ensures that each lunchbox reaches its intended recipient and also includes the safe return of empty containers.

In The Lunchbox however, a mistake is made when Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a neglected young housewife, cooks up a delicious lunch for her husband Rajeev (Nakul Vaid) - only for it to be delivered instead to Saajan (Irrfan Khan), an aloof widower and scrupulously tidy government employee who has worked in the same department for 35 years.