Reflecting “The lunchbox” : an alternative ending.

While Irrfan Khan has a great filmography in his career with films like “Maqbool,” “Hindi Medium,” “Angrezi Medium,” “Piku,” and “Karwaan,” the one that stands out for me is “The Lunchbox,” starring Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles. The movie is based on Ila, a woman trying to save her broken marriage by preparing food for her husband and sending it to him via the dabbawala service. One day, by mistake, the dabbawala delivers the lunchbox to a middle-aged man named Saajan, which eventually leads to them having conversations through letters packed in the lunchbox with rotis.

Everything about this movie is spectacular, but the ending has left me uneasy. I was patiently waiting for Saajan to find Ila and have their happily ever after or at least a conversation face-to-face. However, the movie ends with Ila leaving for Bhutan on a train with her daughter, while Saajan is on a train with the dabbawalas to find Ila.

As a person who has grown up watching Bollywood movies, I came up with my own ending where Saajan finds Ila before she leaves for Bhutan. But what if Saajan couldn’t find Ila before she left? What if they both continued their respective lives in Bhutan and Nashik?There is a dialogue in the movie, “Kabhi kabhi galat train bhi sahi jagah pohcha deti hai,” which translates to “Sometimes the wrong train can take you to the right place.” It’s also true that “Life is like a train journey, and all the people around us will leave when their station comes, but that isn’t the end of the journey.”