INDIA/FRANCE/GERMANY
2013 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H44 – IN HINDI AND ENGLISH
Synopsis
A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.
director: Ritesh Batra
screenplay: Ritesh Batra
cinematography: Michael Simmonds
editing: John Lyons
sound: Michael Kaczmarek
production design: Shruti Gupte
music: Max Richter
cast:
Irrfan Khan
Nimrat Kaur
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Denzil Smith
Bharati Achrekar
Nakul Vaid
Yashvi Puneet Nagar
Lillete Dubey
Sada (Dabbawala)
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Biography
Ritesh Batra
Indian nationality.
Born on June 12, 1979 in India.
Filmography
2013 THE LUNCHBOX
2012 THE STATE(S)
2011 CAFÉ REGULAR, CAIRO(S)
2010 GAREEB NAWAZ’S TAXI(S)
2009 CHONGO (S)
2008 THE MORNING RITUAL(S) |
production
SIKHYA ENTERTAINMENT
Guneet Monga & Anurag Kashyap
Tel. +919833970777
guneet@akfpl.com
DAR MOTION PICTURES
Arun Rangachari
Tel: +919920010115
vivek.rangachari@darworld.com
co-production
NFDC
Nina Lath Gupta
Tel. +91 9867973806
nina@nfdcindia.com
ROH FILMS
Karsten Stoter & Benny Dreschel
Tel: +49 30 499198880
karsten@rohfilm.de
ASAP FILMS
Cedomir Kolar, Marc Baschet & Danis Tanovic
Tel : +33677196506
Ckolar@noos.fr
mbaschet@noos.fr
sales
THE MATCH FACTORY GMBH
Tel. +49 221 539 709-0
Fax +49 221 539 709-10
info@matchfactory.de
French press agent
Laurence Granec et Karine Ménard
Tel. + 33 (0)1 47 20 36 66
laurence.karine@granecmenard.com
Laurence Granec
Mob. + 33 (0)6 07 49 16 49
Karine Ménard
Mob. + 33 (0)6 85 56 22 99
international press agent
FILM⎮PRESS⎮PLUS
Richard Lormand
Tel. +33 (0)9 70 44 98 65
Mob. +33 (0)6 24 24 16 54
intlpress@aol.com
THE LUNCHBOX
The literary tradition of Bengali cinema (Satyajit Ray's Charulata)has allowed us to discover the grandiose love stories brought about by a love of words, the pleasure of writing and an appetite for reading. It is thus a pleasure to see that The Lunchbox perpetuates this tradition in such a beautiful way, but also updates it by adapting it to a story taking place in modern day Mumbai.
«When I write a story, I don't have a genre in mind. I think of the characters and how can I explore them in depth. The Lunchbox is a simple story of friendship that develops between two strangers, prisoners of their respective inhibitions. Of course, the epistolary relation is more a mark of literary tradition than film but considering this is the story of two people who find it difficult to communicate with people around them and that are behind the times, it seemes to that the letters and notes in the lunchbox would be the best way for the them to communicate and bring them out of their shells and give them confidence. Furthermore, writing or receiving letters is a form of nostalgia that the two characters are attached to.
The impossibility of these two lives crossing paths except through a mistake in Mumbai's Lunchbox delivery system is surely enhanced by the fact that one character is a Hindu housewife and the other an older Catholic gentleman. Even the character of Shaikh, the office colleague, is from a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. Mumbai is the fabric of the story, so its social fabric and complexity- 'many Mumbai's within one' just come along with it.»
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by Charles Tesson, from an interview by Alex Masson |
