Lunch box

The lunch box, also referred to as a lunch pail or lunch kit, is used to store food to be taken anywhere. The concept of a food container has existed for a long time, but it was not until people began using tobacco tins to carry meals in the early 20th century, followed by the use of lithographed images on metal, that the containers became a staple of youth, and a marketable product.

The lunch box has most often been used by schoolchildren to take packed lunches, or a snack, from home to school. The most common modern form is a small case with a clasp and handle, often printed with a colorful image that can either be generic or based on children's television shows or films. Use of lithographed metal to produce lunch boxes in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s gave way in the 1990s to use of injection-molded plastic.

A lunch kit comprises the actual "box" and a matching vacuum bottle. However, pop culture has more often embraced the singular term lunch box, which is now most commonly used.

The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox is a 2013 Indian epistolary romantic film written and directed by Ritesh Batra, and produced by Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap, and Arun Rangachari. The film was jointly produced by various studios including DAR motion pictures, UTV Motion Pictures, Dharma Productions, Sikhya Entertainment, NFDC (India), ROH Films (Germany), ASAP Films (France), and the Cine Mosaic (United States). It stars Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles. The film was screened at International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and later won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award also known as Grand Rail d'Or. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released in India on 20 September 2013. The film was a box-office success.

The Lunchbox was nominated for the Film Not in the English Language category of the British Academy Film Awards 2015.

Plot

Saajan Fernandes is a widower, about to retire from his job as an accountant. Ila is a young wife seeking her husband's attention, looking for ways to put romance back into her marriage, one of which is to cook delicious food for him. Through a rare mix-up of the famous "dabbawalas" (a complicated system that picks up and delivers lunches from restaurants or homes to people at work) of Mumbai, the lunchbox Ila prepares for her husband gets delivered, instead, to Saajan. Ila eventually realizes the mistake and with the advice of her neighbor aunty living in the apartment above her, writes a letter to Saajan about the mix up and places it in the lunchbox ( along with her husband's favorite meal) the next day.

Irrfan Khan

Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan (born 7 January 1967), credited as Irrfan Khan or simply Irrfan, is an Indian film actor known for his works predominantly in Hindi cinema. He is also known for his works in British films, and Hollywood. Film critics, contemporaries, and other experts consider him to be one of the finest actors in Indian cinema for his versatile and natural acting. In 2011, Khan received the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour for his contribution to the field of arts.

Khan has garnered the National Film Award for Best Actor in the 60th National Film Awards 2012, for his performance in Paan Singh Tomar. Khan has won the 2014 Asian Film Award for Best Actor, three International Indian Film Academy Awards, three Filmfare Awards, an Independent Spirit Award nomination, and various international honours. He also hosted a Television show and commercials. As of 2015, he had appeared in more than 50 Indian films in Bollywood, and few international films, such as Life of Pi and Jurassic World, with a featured role alongside Tom Hanks in the 2016 adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Inferno. In September, 2015, he was appointed as the brand ambassador for "Resurgent Rajasthan", a campaign by the state government of Rajasthan.

Nimrat Kaur

Nimrat Kaur (born 13 March 1982) is an Indian actress. She began her career as a print model and went on to act in theater. After brief appearances in a few films, Kaur starred in Anurag Kashyap's production Peddlers, which was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. She followed it with her breakthrough role in The Lunchbox, a critically acclaimed drama co-starring Irrfan Khan, which was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2015, Kaur had a recurring role in the fourth season of the American television series Homeland, in which she played Tasneem Qureshi, an Inter-Services Intelligence agent. She then played the leading lady opposite Akshay Kumar in the war thriller Airlift, a major critical and commercial success.

Early life and background

Kaur was born in Pilani, Rajasthan. Her father worked with the Indian Army, and she has a younger sister, Rubine, who is a psychologist based in Bangalore. Her family lived in Patiala, and she studied at Yadavindra Public School, Patiala. In 1994, her father was killed in a terrorist attack in Kashmir. Thereafter, her family moved to Delhi-suburb, Noida, where she grew up and attended Delhi Public School, Noida. Later, she studied at Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, and began working in local theatre.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui (born 19 May 1974) is an Indian film actor who works in Hindi cinema. After a period of unnoticed performances in his early career, he received the Special Jury Award at the 2012 National Film Awards.

Early life

Siddiqui was born on 19 May 1974 in Budhana, a small town and tehsil in Muzaffarnagar district of the Western Uttar Pradesh State (Harit Pradesh) of India, into a zamindari Muslim family of Numberdars. He was the eldest of his eight siblings. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar. Following this, he worked as a chemist in Vadodara for a year, before leaving for Delhi in search for a new job. Once in Delhi, he was instantly drawn into acting after watching a play, and in pursuit to secure admission at National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, he acted in over ten plays with a group of friends, to fulfill one of the criteria for admission.

Career

Siddiqui went to the National School of Drama, New Delhi. After graduating from NSD, he moved to Mumbai. In 2004, which was one of the worst years of his struggle, he couldn’t pay any rent. He asked an NSD senior if he could stay with him. The senior allowed him to share his apartment in Goregaon if he was willing to cook meals for him. Nawazuddin made his Bollywood debut in 1999, with a small role in Aamir Khan starrer, Sarfarosh. After that, he hung out at film studios and shootings but only got stereotypical roles. He shared screen along with Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS in the opening scenes where he tries to pick the pocket of Sunil Dutt. After moving to Mumbai he tried to get work in television serials, but did not achieve much success. He did a short film The Bypass in 2003, where he appeared with actor, Irrfan Khan. Beyond that between 2002–05, he was largely out of work, and lived in a flat he shared with four other people, and survived by conducting occasional acting workshops.