The LunchboxMovies like The Lunchbox
- Key Features:
- Mistaken identity, Mumbai, Longing, Unexpected connection, Fantasy vs reality, Letter writing, Cultural clash, Existentialism, Midlife crisis, Yearning, Social commentary
- Tone:
- restrained, poetic, earnest
- Target Audience:
- Romance, International cinema, Character-driven stories, Foodies
- Emotional Arc:
- Curiosity → Connection → Yearning
The Lunchbox

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.
The Lunchbox
A group of Mumbai up-and-comers search for love and struggle for success in this ensemble drama that centers on an eager young call centre executive.

Three ordinary air hostesses from Mumbai embark on a journey to pursue their dreams but find themselves caught up in unexpected misfortunes.

Believing himself to be a jinx and bringing bad luck upon himself and others, a man attempts to find true love, but ends up in very complicated relationships.

Nandan, a middle-class man, finds a suitcase full of money near his workplace and steals it. However, he is soon chased by a police officer, a notorious gangster and a corrupt politician.

A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, the man's innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting go.

A taxi driver and a businessman create havoc in each other's lives after a chance meeting.

A depressed wealthy businessman and a spunky carefree young woman embark on an unexpected journey that changes their lives.

In 2001, somewhere in rural India, two young brides get accidentally swapped on a train. In the ensuing chaos, they both encounter a host of colourful characters, resulting in hilarious and unexpected consequences.

A struggling street photographer, pressured to marry by his grandmother, convinces a shy stranger to pose as his fiancée. The pair develops a connection that transforms them in ways that they could not expect.

After destroying his older brother's motorbike in retaliation for his constant bullying, 11-year-old Krishna is sent to a traveling circus to earn money to pay for the bike's repairs, but soon winds up in the streets of Bombay's poorest slums. There, he befriends the drug dealer Chillum and young prostitute Sola Saal, while trying to make enough money at a neighborhood tea stall to repay his debt to his family.

A comedy centered around three people who each have a lookalike of a lookalike, all with the same name.

A small time detective is mistaken as a CBI agent and gets embroiled in a deadly mission to save the Chief Minister from an assassination attempt.

A deliciously romantic coming together of Gulrez “Gullu” Qadir a Hyderabadi shoe-sales girl disillusioned with love because of her encounters with dowry-seeking men; and Tariq “Taru” Haidar a Lucknawi cook who can charm anybody with the aroma and flavours of his biryani and kebabs.

Gaurav dreams of settling down with Kavya, the woman of his dreams, but she prefers a man who's more adventurous and willing to take risks. He soon stands to lose everything when a case of mistaken identity rocks his once-happy life.

After her husband loses his job, a housewife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a salesperson.

A privileged Delhi socialite hires a middle-class student to pose as her boyfriend to maintain her social status. Their pretense becomes complicated when genuine feelings develop between them.

A shy simple traditional girl leaves her family in India for her new husband in London, where she meets a shameless flirt and a complicated party girl.

Phil and Claire Foster fear that their mild-mannered relationship may be falling into a stale rut. During their weekly date night, their dinner reservation leads to their being mistaken for a couple of thieves—and now a number of unsavoury characters want Phil and Claire killed.

Mita and Raj Batra, an affluent couple from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, are grappling with getting their daughter admission into an English medium school. But there is one big problem. Their zubaan is Hindi, and the elitist snobs won’t let the Hindi speaking hoi-polloi fit in.

Bitti Mishra is a bohemian Bareilly girl who falls deeply in love with Pritam Vidrohi, an author because she admires his progressive way of thinking. Finding him though proves to be as hard as looking for a needle in the haystack. So Bitti seeks the help of the local printing press-owner, Chirag Dubey on her journey of love.

A lonely 40-ish man, likely to remain a bachelor, has a chance to find the love of his life when he falls for a vivacious young woman.

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

A man suspects his girlfriend of being unfaithful, so he sends her a letter, but then finds out that he was wrong. He has 24 hours to stop the package, prevent a disaster, and fall in love. The only problem is the delivery man will not stop until the package has been delivered.

He is a civil servant in the bland state office. His whole life changes when his reports get mixed up in the hospital and he gets news that he's going to die very soon.

Raghu, a simpleton, and his best friend decide to run a food stall to get rid of their unemployment. However, Raghu's life takes a drastic turn after he accidentally kills one of their customers and he is pushed into a life of crime.

Daphne is a young woman negotiating the tricky business of modern life. Caught in the daily rush of her restaurant job and a nightlife kaleidoscope of new faces, she is witty, funny, the life of the party. Too busy to realise that deep down she is not happy. When she saves the life of a shopkeeper stabbed in a failed robbery, the impenetrable armour she wears to protect herself begins to crack, and Daphne is forced to confront the inevitability of a much-needed change in her life.

Three womanisers find a baby left at their doorstep. Chaos ensues as they try to contact their former girlfriends to determine who is the father amongst them.

A taxi driver is caught between a dysfunctional relationship between a woman and her father as he drives them to Kolkata.

Afreen, a rebellious Pakistani student sets ablaze the car of an Indian in London. Angered Afreen returns to Pakistan to ask for money from her grandfather that she has to pay in a month's time as damages. However, she gets to know that he is no more and the only thing he has left for her is a letter-delivering task, written by Ram to Sita. As Afreen sets out to find Ram, there begins her journey of discovering the secret behind the 20-year-old letter.

Two straight guys pretend to be a gay couple to secure a posh Miami apartment, but fall for their gorgeous roommate. Hilarity ensues as they strive to convince everyone of the ruse while secretly trying to win her heart.

A small-time thug comes across a young girl who claims him to be her father, following which he realizes he has a lookalike who's being hunted by goons.

A well-off Indian family is paid an unexpected, and rather unwanted, visit by a man claiming to be the woman's long lost uncle. The initial suspicion with which they greet the man slowly dissolves as he regales them with stories of his travels, tales that are at odds with their conventional middle class perspective on the world.

Desperate to find employment, Karam picks up a job as ‘Pooja’ at a call center for sex chats, keeping most people in his life in the dark about the nature of his work. How long can he keep it up before everyone including his girlfriend and father find out?

Lovely Singh is extremely respectful of Mr Rana and his daughter Divya. While appointed as Divya's bodyguard, he falls in love with a girl he has never met, unaware that she is none other than Divya.

A case of mistaken identities featuring a young woman, an electronics business owner and an aspiring musician which leads to chaotic yet hilarious situations.

A comedy of errors wherein four men help each other to fool their prospective father-in-laws creating a cascade of confusion and mayhem.

Yogi and Jaya, who have polar opposite personalities and sensibilities, meet via an online dating app. This encounter turns into so much more when the two travel to Rishikesh.

Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.

A Hindu man and a Muslim woman fall in love in a small village and move to Mumbai, where they have two children. However, growing religious tensions and erupting riots threaten to tear the family apart.

Two couples with the same surnames pursue in-vitro fertilisation and wait for their upcoming babies. Trouble ensues when they find that the sperms of each couple have been mixed with each other.

Photographer and serial womaniser, Mac devises a scheme to keep three airhostesses, who are unaware of each other, as his live-in partners. Everything works fine as long as they only come home every third day. But changing schedules, a jealous friend and his fiancé might just break apart his elaborately structured life of deceit.

A man and woman from feuding families each pretend to fall in love, as part of a revenge plot. Chaos ensues when their fake romance becomes a reality.

Three couples who get separated from each other due to an evil ploy, reincarnate after 600 years and meet each other as history repeats itself again and their respective partners get mixed up this time.

Avinash, a dejected soul stuck in a dead-end job shares a strange relationship with his father. He holds him responsible for crushing his dreams. However, he is left pondering upon this longstanding hatred when he hears of his father’s untimely demise.

The lives of Calcutta's most powerful gangsters - Bikram and Bala, changes when Nandita enters it. Then a counter-force takes charge and a thriller unfolds.

A pair of reformed gangsters try to find a husband for their newly discovered sister, but complications arise due to mistaken identities.

Individually, bank employees Sanjay and Karina don't earn enough to be able to buy a home, so they decide to enter into a marriage of convenience.

Parghat Singh 'Gattu' Kahlon is a middle aged shopkeeper who secretly practices bowling at night in order to keep his dream of playing for England alive. Even though his family members despise him for giving up his dreams only due to his father's wish, they find a ray of hope and convince him to play for England while they plan to hide the truth from his father.

A father doesn't want his three daughters to get married. Now, it's up to three men to try to and convince the father that they're a good fit for his daughters.

A cook from Chandni Chowk gets mistaken for the reincarnation of an ancient peasant warrior by the residents of an oppressed Chinese village.

When a famous Bollywood actor visits a small village for a film's shoot, a poor hairdresser's claim that they were once childhood friends soon makes him the centre of attention.

Tilo is an Indian shopkeeper in America with an ability to see the future and a magical connection to powerful spices, which she uses to help her customers satisfy their various needs and desires. One day she falls in love with an American man. But the spices forbid it.

A heavily addicted smoker is unprepared for the true price he must pay when he asks a guru's help to kick the habit.

A petty thief is put on trial for the attempted murder of a lawyer. Through a series of flashbacks, the intertwining lives of the thief, the lawyer, and the thief's defense lawyer are illustrated.

A young MBA mistakenly interviews for the wrong job... and ends up as an Au Pair for a pair of snotty rich kids.

A gifted but insecure woman is in for a transformative experience when she enlists the help of an enigmatic con artist to recover her stolen car.

On a trip to India, Jasmeet's father forcefully marries her off to Arjun. However, when they return to London, Jasmeet announces her intention of marrying her boyfriend, Charlie Brown.

Four lives intersect along the Ganges: a low caste boy in hopeless love, a daughter ridden with guilt of a sexual encounter ending in a tragedy, a hapless father with fading morality, and a spirited child yearning for a family, long to escape the moral constructs of a small-town.

Sulekha is in awe of her brother-in-law Raghavendra for his intelligence. Parimal, her husband, decides to take up the challenge of fooling Raghavendra and goes to work for him as a driver.

Years after his father disowns his adopted brother for marrying a woman of lower social standing, a young man goes on a mission to reunite his family.

A young mute girl from Pakistan loses herself in India with no way to head back. A devoted man with a magnanimous spirit undertakes the task to get her back to her motherland and unite her with her family.

Vishwas, an aspiring actor, is mistaken for an inspector while dressed for a photo shoot.

Arun is a reclusive and lonely modern art painter. Shai is an American banker who is on a visit to Mumbai. Munna is a washerboy also living near Arun and Yasmin. The movie is about these four characters from different class of society and how the lives of four characters are intertwined.

Four friends from a sleepy little village in Punjab share a common dream: to go to England. Their problem is that they have neither the visa nor the ticket. A soldier alights from a train one day, and their lives change. He gives them a soldier's promise: He will take them to the land of their dreams. What follows is a hilarious and heartwarming tale of a perilous journey through the desert and the sea, but most crucially through the hinterlands of their mind.

As the romantic monsoon rains loom, the extended Verma family reunites from around the globe for a last-minute arranged marriage in New Delhi. This film traces five intersecting stories, each navigating different aspects of love as they cross boundaries of class, continent and morality.

Seeking vengeance on those who double-crossed him, an escaped prisoner impersonates an unsuspecting chef.

Three unemployed men find the answer to all their money problems when they receive a call from a kidnapper. However, things do not go as planned.

Abla runs a modest local bakery from her home in Casablanca where she lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter Warda. Their routine of housework and homework is interrupted one day by a knock on the door. It is Samia, a young woman looking for a job and a roof over her head. The little girl is immediately taken with the newcomer, but her mother initially refuses to allow a pregnant stranger into their home. Gradually, however, Abla's resolve softens and Samia's arrival begins to offer all of them the prospect of a new life.

Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill struggle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to wrestle back some independence appears with a shiny new van and the chance to run a franchise as a self-employed delivery driver. It's hard work, and his wife's job as a carer is no easier. The family unit is strong but when both are pulled in different directions everything comes to breaking point.

Raj, a successful businessman, has everything going for him, including a lovely wife. Just when he thinks things can't get any better, Sonia — his ex-girlfriend, now the boss's wife — walks back into his life, and she wants Raj at any cost.

When two cash-strapped UK-based Indians become male escorts amid an economic downturn, money flows right in but everything else in their lives starts falling apart.

Pregnant and alone in the city of Kolkata, a woman begins a relentless search for her missing husband, only to find that nothing is what it seems.

Three married womanisers cheat on their wives. In order to catch them red-handed, their sceptic wives enlist a detective who specialises in investigating extramarital relationships.

John is a mild-mannered banker who has never been lucky in love. Fed up with waiting for the right girl to come along, John takes a chance on a Russian mail-order bride arranged via the Internet, where he is introduced to Nadia. John's fondness for Nadia grows... until the sudden arrival of Nadia's gregarious cousins makes John realize that he's in over his head.

Dev and Maya are both married to different people. Settled into a life of domestic ritual, and convinced that they are happy in their respective relationships, they still yearn for something deeper and more meaningful, which is precisely what they find in each other.

London publicist Helen, effortlessly slides between parallel storylines that show what happens when she does or does not catch a train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap and surprisingly converge.

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

Kishanlal marries the beautiful Lachchi, but the day after the wedding, he leaves on business for five years. When Kishanlal reappears only a few days later, Lachchi is delighted, but this new Kishanlal is in fact a spirit who has taken the form of Lachchi's husband, after having seen her by chance and fallen in love with her. Four years later, the real Kishanlal returns and the townsfolk must determine who is who.

Based on the classic Brazilian television series that conquered audiences during Sunday night prime time on TV Globo, with improv that happens like in scenes of a play. The feature film’s structure maintains the members of a middle-class family from São Paulo, their maid, and the building’s doorman. It’s the return of iconic characters like Caco Antibes, Magda and Ribamar, and also new characters.

After their lead actress quits their drama troupe; Bunty, Babla and their boss Champak search for a new heroine in London where they have just arrived, and get embroiled in a murder case involving a mysterious woman.

Two inept criminals are mistakenly delivered a package of cocaine and think they've hit the jackpot, triggering a series of events that changes ten people's lives forever.

Maurice and Dave sell high-end cuts of beef, but after hitting a patch of no sales, they're facing being fired. Maurice needs money to enroll in his final semester of acupuncture school, and the recently-separated Dave needs money for his daughter's birthday gift. Their final client card—a beautiful woman—is attracted to Maurice, but a desperate call from a suicidal friend interrupts her signing the contract. Still hoping to close the sale, they offer to drive her to the friend's house—where their troubles multiply.

Not wanting the same fate as befell her sisters, Sona Mishra re-locates to Mumbai to try to make a living making movies, but she soon finds that the path she has chosen is not an easy one.

Haunted by the memories of home he once knew, a middle-aged tour guide unconsciously embarks on a journey to find self.

Michael, a pizza delivery boy, lives with Anu, an aspiring horror fiction writer. One day, on a delivery run, he goes to a bungalow, where mysterious events begin to unfold.

Martin is a neurotic web designer taking baby steps out of the isolation of his one-room apartment and his virtual reality. Mariana is an artist fresh out of a a long relationship. They are perfect for each other, live on the same street, in opposite buildings, but they never meet. Can the movement of a modern city of three million people bring them together?

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

An employee at an Indian call-center travels to San Francisco to be with a guy she falls for over the phone.

The encounters of two people who run into each other on several occasions under circumstances ranging from friendly to hostile to loving. Along many years and countless run-ins, the two despise each other, befriend each other, and fall in love with each other—in no particular order.

A con artist poses as a film director in a village with the intention of executing a caper with the unwitting help of the villagers.

Sweety has to contend with her over-enthusiastic family that wants her to get married but the ultimate truth is that her love might not find acceptance in her family and society.

A woman tries to win back her husband when she discovers he's keeping a model for a mistress.

Three unsuspecting, average guys find themselves on the hit list of one of India's most-powerful crime syndicates.

A comedy that chronicles a chance encounter between Robert and a Chinese named Jun who wanders lost through the city of Buenos Aires in search of his uncle after being assaulted by a taxi driver and his henchmen.

Raja, a taxi driver, falls in love with Aarti, a rich girl, and marries her against her parents' wishes. Later, her stepmother tries to create a rift betweenthe couple.

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

Three best friends juggle life as 20-somethings in Mumbai, where romance, ambition and heartbreak collide with the addictive draw of social media.

Roshan, an NRI, arrives in Old Delhi with his ailing grandmother and starts to rediscover himself before getting caught in a religious dispute that shakes the once peaceful neighborhood.

