Scripting Loneliness

With the turn of the millennium, Indian audiences got to see what actually happens when fairytale romance ends and life begins on the big screen

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

I LA (Nimrat Kaur) bites her lower lip in excitement as she sits at table, with a piping hot glass of chai in one hand and a letter in the other. The letter is from the same stranger who has, mistakenly, been receiving her husband's lunchbox everyday for some time now. "Yesterday, I found something from many years ago," it reads. "...Old TV shows that my wife used to record," Saajan (Irrfan Khan) writes. As Ila continues to read, Saajan tells her that his late wife loved these shows. "I don't know why I wanted to see them. I watched them for hours," he says. Finally, the realisation behind his desire to revisit these shows hit him. "Every Sunday when she watched the shows, I was outside repairing my bicycle or just smoking. I would glance through the window, every now and then, just for a second. And I would see her reflection on the TV screen, laughing—laughing at the same jokes, over and over, each time as if she was hearing it for the very first time. I wish I had kept on looking, back then.”

This scene from The Lunchbox (2013) succinctly depicts the longing of its two protagonists—Ila and Saajan—who pour their solitary musings out to each other in letters that are exchanged in a dabba (lunchbox). While Ila overtly yearns for the love and attention of her distanced husband, Saajan rediscovers his hidden desire for companionship through their correspondence. Films like The Lunchbox—though uncommon—have captivated viewers for their poignant contemplation on loneliness, love, and loneliness in love.