alexaha
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 18 
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Post by alexaha on Nov 25, 2013 15:39:50 GMT
linking to the threads on our old forum: www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=36548.0www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=36137.0This is a lovely movie. Unfortunately I had to watch the dubbed version which certainly took away a lot from my movie going experience. The subtle humor Poonam speaks about in her post was there but only barely and while I was watching the film I couldn't help but think this would have been so much nicer in Hindi. The feel of Mumbai, a place I've never been to, was somewhat claustrophobic (therefore, I take it, realistic). The neighbor who feels more like a person living in the same flat, the crowded trains, the laundry drying in a tiny apartment. The film is slow but flows nicely and actually tells much more than the story of Ila and Saajan. There's Ila's neighbor whose husband is in a persistant vegetative state and has been for many years, needing her constant care. Yet she seems content enough, doing everything she can to keep her husband by her side. Ila's mother (Lilette Dubey) takes care of Ila's dying father and at one point confesses how resentful she has grown of him during the lonely and difficult years of having to take care of him. The director manages to establish a net of relationships around the two main characters with just a few brush strokes and through this adds more layers to the story . Ila's isolation and desperation is painful to watch, so is Saajan's sudden realization that he has become "old". Yet somehow the film deals with its characters affectionately enough to not make this depressing. The themes of growing old "without noticing", taking active steps out of isolation and loneliness yet constantly being faced with the possibility of not succeeding with what you're trying to achieve, to risk getting hurt by opening your heart to someone new and to realize that this is what it means to be alive - they all resonated with me. Ila and Saajan are both such decent people, they deserve our affections and all the luck there is. And I guess that says it all concerning the abilities of the actors involved (and yes, Mr. Siddiqui's acting is a treat as well). |
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Post by allshewrote on Nov 25, 2013 19:43:25 GMT
I think this film is scheduled to come to the U.S. early next year and I am really excited to see it! It will be interesting to see what more mature characters will do with subject matter of love.
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etu
Dancing in the chorus
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Post by etu on Apr 4, 2014 3:42:45 GMT
I just saw this with a fellow Bollywhater tonight. Is anyone discussing this film? I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for anyone if it's still traveling to their city. Here are the screening dates in a variety of American cities. It's making a tour of art houses instead of the typical South Asian venues. sonyclassics.com/thelunchbox/dates/{Spoiler: details about the end} {Spoiler}Did we see Ila put her jewels on her nightstand when her voiceover said she sold them? The few things I read say the ending is open, but I see a probable very specific ending that isn't so happy. |
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Post by MrB on Apr 4, 2014 7:35:17 GMT
For UK Bollywhatters, it's releasing over here on 11 April. I haven't found a list of cinemas, but there are posters for it on the London underground, so it is probably also on the art house circuit rather than the usual Bollywood cinemas.
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NewLaura
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 28
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Post by NewLaura on Apr 4, 2014 14:39:32 GMT
I just saw this with a fellow Bollywhater tonight. Is anyone discussing this film? I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for anyone if it's still traveling to their city. Here are the screening dates in a variety of American cities. It's making a tour of art houses instead of the typical South Asian venues. sonyclassics.com/thelunchbox/dates/{Spoiler: details about the end} {Spoiler}Did we see Ila put her jewels on her nightstand when her voiceover said she sold them? The few things I read say the ending is open, but I see a probable very specific ending that isn't so happy. {spoiler about the ending}
It has been several weeks since I saw it, but I thought we saw that scene of her putting her jewelry on the nightstand earlier in the film? I had remembered it as being earlier, when we heard the reports about the woman jumping off the roof with a child.
At the end, I thought she was waiting for her daughter to get home from school and was going to run away with her, unless Irrfan got there in time before she left (and she would then go with him). |
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Post by MrB on Apr 14, 2014 12:25:43 GMT
I just saw this with a fellow Bollywhater tonight. Is anyone discussing this film? I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for anyone if it's still traveling to their city. Here are the screening dates in a variety of American cities. It's making a tour of art houses instead of the typical South Asian venues. sonyclassics.com/thelunchbox/dates/{Spoiler: details about the end} {Spoiler}Did we see Ila put her jewels on her nightstand when her voiceover said she sold them? The few things I read say the ending is open, but I see a probable very specific ending that isn't so happy. {Spoiler}
She did put her jewels on the nightstand shortly before the voiceover said she sold them. Presumably it was a deliberate reminder of the earlier scene with the woman jumping off the roof. But then we hear her voice reading the letter to Saajan saying they will leave for Nepal when her daughter returns from school. So I assume she is not going to do anything drastic, though whether he arrives in time is left open.
I didn't much like the unresolved ending - it felt like a cop-out to me.
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etu
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 7
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Post by etu on Apr 22, 2014 18:23:48 GMT
I just saw this with a fellow Bollywhater tonight. Is anyone discussing this film? I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for anyone if it's still traveling to their city. Here are the screening dates in a variety of American cities. It's making a tour of art houses instead of the typical South Asian venues. sonyclassics.com/thelunchbox/dates/{Spoiler: details about the end} {Spoiler}Did we see Ila put her jewels on her nightstand when her voiceover said she sold them? The few things I read say the ending is open, but I see a probable very specific ending that isn't so happy. {Spoiler}She did put her jewels on the nightstand shortly before the voiceover said she sold them. Presumably it was a deliberate reminder of the earlier scene with the woman jumping off the roof. But then we hear her voice reading the letter to Saajan saying they will leave for Nepal when her daughter returns from school. So I assume she is not going to do anything drastic, though whether he arrives in time is left open.
I didn't much like the unresolved ending - it felt like a cop-out to me.
Thanks MrB and NewLaura. Sorry for the delayed reply. I had a strong feeling about the ending (which no one else seems to have come away with) that {spoiler}she told Sajaan that she was going to Nepal as a metaphor for leaving "here," and that because she left her jewelry on the nightstand like in the case of the woman in the news, she also waited for her daughter to come home so they could jump off the roof. I didn't see her pack anything, for example. It seemed to make it a stronger case for the build-up of the storyline, too. I also thought she had no visible means of support if she actually went alone with her daughter to Nepal. The concept of a place where well-being is measured in happiness sounded more like a fantasy than a practicality.
What do you think? |
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Post by chrisanthi on Sept 14, 2014 9:13:13 GMT
{Spoiler}She did put her jewels on the nightstand shortly before the voiceover said she sold them. Presumably it was a deliberate reminder of the earlier scene with the woman jumping off the roof. But then we hear her voice reading the letter to Saajan saying they will leave for Nepal when her daughter returns from school. So I assume she is not going to do anything drastic, though whether he arrives in time is left open.
I didn't much like the unresolved ending - it felt like a cop-out to me.
Thanks MrB and NewLaura. Sorry for the delayed reply. I had a strong feeling about the ending (which no one else seems to have come away with) that {spoiler}she told Sajaan that she was going to Nepal as a metaphor for leaving "here," and that because she left her jewelry on the nightstand like in the case of the woman in the news, she also waited for her daughter to come home so they could jump off the roof. I didn't see her pack anything, for example. It seemed to make it a stronger case for the build-up of the storyline, too. I also thought she had no visible means of support if she actually went alone with her daughter to Nepal. The concept of a place where well-being is measured in happiness sounded more like a fantasy than a practicality.
What do you think? I saw this less that a week ago so it's still quite fresh. My understanding of the ending was the same as NewLaura's and MrB's but, having read your interpretaion and having thought about it a bit, I now wonder if that is the case. {Spoiler}
The first time we see her put her jewelry on the nightstand, during the narration of the story about the woman who jumped off the roof with her daugher, there's a scene where she bundles her daughter up, carries her in her arms and walks up the stairs (with her daughter still in her arms). To me, it implied that she was walking up to the roof. I didn't think much about it other than to think that this was something that she had thought about doing. But now, after your interpretation of the ending, could this scene be a preview of what happens? Personally I don't want to think so because I want my happy ending. Maybe the scene is what her fate would have been if she hadn't met Saajan or maybe it's something that she thought about and rejected - which is what I like to believe.
The second time we see her take off her jewelry; she takes it off, puts it on the nighstand and then we see her lying down (deep in thought) next to her husband, who is obviously asleep. Since we had seen her put her jewelry on the nightstand twice, my, admitedly pedestrian interpretation, was that she takes her jewelry off before going to bed - a lot of people do. I do agree with Mr B that this is a deliberate reminder of the story of the woman jumping off the roof.
The next time we see Ila (during the reading of the letter to Saajan) she's not wearing any jewelry so I believed her when she said that she had sold it. I thought that she was waiting for her daughter to come from school so that they could leave and go somewhere - not necessarily Bhutan (I agree that that sounded more like a fantasy rather than reality). If Saajan gets there in time, she wil definitely go away with him.
I'd love to live in a country where well-being is measured by happiness rather than material wealth but, unfortunately it doesn't exist. Of course my economist's mind is wondering how happiness would be measured. |
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Post by chrisanthi on Sept 18, 2014 1:06:07 GMT
I was discussing this film with my brother and he had a different take on the ending. {Spoiler}
He said that, although it crossed his mind that Ila had jumped off he roof with her daughter, he thought that she didn't go anywhere, that she didn't leave her husband and continued her life as it was and that she kept the letter as a keepsake that she could read years later. He thought that she wouldn't have the strength to leave or jump. I disagree with him but that's the thing with open endings - everyone brings their own interpretation. |
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odadune
Star of the item number
not around much due to stuff in my personal life.
Posts: 1,494
Favorite actor: Currently a certain Kumar, but I like most of them
Favorite actress: whoever's in films I'm interested in this week
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Post by odadune on Sept 18, 2014 1:24:27 GMT
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Since Sept. 6, 2022, Chiloka has not been reachable. (