It’s hard to believe that something has had an affect so
strong that it made me pull out my old college laptop safely stored in a place
that I hardly access on a regular day and write down an array of thoughts &
feelings gushing within me after experiencing something from which I am yet to
recover.
The last time I wrote something was when I was in college (2.5
years back) and had sometime on me to put down my thoughts & opinions. But
things moved so quickly after , that in spite of having lonely evenings in
Mumbai for more than 2 years now I never felt the need or desire to put my thoughts down .
It’s the sheer power
of cinema & story telling that makes you take notice of things which you see, feel & indulge with
on a daily basis can’t be appreciated or noticed just cause your mind is pre
occupied with so many things to do, achieve , prove & re do the process to
survive that you tend to give them a miss .
With thousands of advantages & special moments, one
strong demerit of being married is that you get responsible & accountable
for your mood, smiles, and expressions & conduct at home, but there are times
you do not want the stream of thoughts n feelings to be broken or disturbed.
Well somehow I have managed to get into the room & type
down all that I feel at a cost of my wife’s swollen cheeks for a while, guess
it’ll be all fine once we get up tomorrow morning and I explain to her about why I
decided not to talk about anything but put everything down here.
As a human being and as a man (there is a reason why I
mention this) , one hardly knows what would strike him & when , something
that will make him stop & think for a while , something that will calm him
down, something that will take him out of the daily routine , even though all of this might be for a while
, although all of this might be just momentary , although all of this might not
mean anything to me tomorrow , this is what I feel & this is what I am RIGHT
NOW .
Just back after watching a film that had moments that would
stay with me for life , moments that made me twist in my chair , sink low &
wonder how on earth has someone managed to portray human emotions & more
importantly means of their evocation in a way that is difficult to describe .
With actors like Irfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur & Nawaz they just get more real,
believable & arresting.
There are few things that have stayed with me & I guess
will remain engraved within me forever, listing down few of them:-
Irrfan’s reactions
when he gets the Dabba for the first time: - coming from a family that
depends a lot on food & taste, irrfan perfectly depicts the feeling when he
tastes delicious homemade food after a long time. Who would know that feeling
better that someone who has stayed away from home cooked food & ate
Tiffin’s & outside food for year and a half (used to get the same feel when
some used to offer chapattis they used to get from their homes)
The invisible aunty:
- one of the key characters in the film who is not seen throughout the film is
probably a master stroke by the director .Wish we all had someone like her in
our lives J ,
someone who gets restless if you are out without her knowledge
Irrfan’s travelling to office & back home:
- Uff hats off to shoot those scenes in way that would make the viewer feel
what the protagonists goes through on screen, with small nuances kept
completely alive while her travels in the locals, bus , autos & taxis. The suffocation is transferred to the audience in these scenes
Irrfans way of
spending time at home in the evening :- an old man staying alone having
hotel food with chapattis packed in a plastic bag & dal being squeezed out
from a polythene into a melamine bowl , while he stares at a family in the
opposite building having a joint dinner together .
Lunchbox-The Superman – there
is a shot in the film where the Dabba is shown getting transported from one
place to another, I felt it was projected like ‘A Hero’ (with its handles flying in the air)
who is responsible for all that is happening between Nimrat & Irfan ‘
The topics of
communications between Irfan & Nimrat :- they were such simple things
of day to day that one would like to share with their partners , just because Nimrat
dint get a chance to & Irrfan dint have anyone to they started doing it
with each other .
Irrfans reaction was
he is invited for a dinner: - it shows how empty & alone he has been
from within & has been vying for someone to give him that importance to cal
him over.
Irrfans treats
himself:- I have been doing this all my life , being someone who hardly
likes to spend on himself , on a day I am happy from within I would treat
myself with things I wouldn't do otherwise , something as simple as having food
of my choice with thinking of the price or treating myself by choosing taxi
over walking down the distance to save that money.
Companionship over Love:
- The most important take away from the film was that the protagonists were not
attracted to each other physically or emotionally but to fill a constant void of
a true companion , a soul mate with whom we can just BE, share & rejoice …
there is no aim or destination. It’s just the journey.
Irrfans realization:
- this is the part that tore me apart. Probably it’s a guy thing & a girl
might not be able to relate to it but I have experienced it myself. The moment
that made him realize was that the bathroom smelled like it used to smell when
his grandfather used to come out of the shower. Smell of an Old man!! This
gives you creeps within that irrespective of what you feel from inside, your
body starts decaying & aging from inside & nothing in this world can
stop, pause or reverse that.
Guess I might not have appreciated it all to this length had
I not lived & experienced Mumbai before the way I have till now. The
connect & portrayal of the protagonist just got me arrested in the frames
of the film. Wish I am able to connect with more often with myself & next
time due to an inner persuasion & not just due to the sheer magic of
cinema.
Not sure whether even Ritesh (the director) thought that all
the above emotions could be evoked in someone with what he has made J and what can be more
filling that the fact that I have my name included in the presentation credit
when the film starts … This easily will remain my MOST favorite story on
COMPANIONSHIP !!
