Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox is one rare film that bothers to scrape beneath the surface of an average officer-goer and a housewife in Mumbai.
Or that the monotony of this relentless, rushing city, its seemingly plain inhabitants concealing a world of loneliness can sometimes be broken by an unexpected, everyday magic -- the lunchbox.
Batra employs the workings of Mumbai's famed dabba delivery, its crammed local trains, congested government offices and a sprinkling of relatable faces and voices that not only allow the viewer to touch The Lunchbox but savour it too.
Highway
A young bride-to-be gets kidnapped but mid-way through the trip, she decides she is safer in the company of a brooding hoodlum and his fellas. This forms the far-fetched plotline of Imtiaz Ali's Highway.
What follows is a journey to self-healing as Alia Bhatt's character comes to terms with past demons while discovering the breathtaking landscapes of Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Himachal. Travel is the core of Highway's structural narrative and soulful exploration.
One may argue over the rationality of the script but not its virginal visuals and rare portrait of locals, which are sheer poetry and befittingly underscore the 'Incredible' in India's tourism campaign.