Sukanya reviews Dabba, a 2013 film, exclusively for Different Truths.
Director: Ritesh Batra
Writers: Ritesh Batra (Screenplay), Vasan Bala (Hindi dialogue consultant)
Stars: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Ritesh Batra presents a totally contemplative film, Dabba (2013), patient, very attentive to the slightest gestures, the flight of a look, a pinch of lip, a smile that goes out, a frown. It was a visual pleasure watching the movie, felt like I was a part of it.
The storyline follows that a woman cooks a meal each morning for her husband who works on the other side of town. She sends her lunchbox to her husband’s office via a system of couriers, a system both simple and complex
The storyline follows that a woman cooks a meal each morning for her husband who works on the other side of town. She sends her lunchbox to her husband’s office via a system of couriers, a system both simple and complex, so famous that academics try to understand the fascinating mechanics and impeccably effective, it seems, but we will leave this aspect. Here, it is for us only a pretext for a mechanism much more exciting, the one that touches the human feelings. This infallible system … failed. Consequences? Well that’s where the actual story begins!
Photo sourced by the author
Sukanya Basu Mallik is a renowned Indian writer, known for her works in various publications and for winning Best Manuscript Awards for fiction & non-fiction categories (Mumbai Litofest, 2018). She is currently pursuing a PhD at IIT Madras, focusing on organisational behaviour and art-based therapies for enhancing teaching-learning effectiveness using immersive technologies. She was recognised for her short story ‘Healing of Wounds’ at NCLF, led by Ruskin Bond.
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