Ila, played by Nimrat Kaur, is a housewife and loves to cook delicious meals for her husband to get his due attention that she longs for. She sends her tiffin with the dabbawala and puts a little letter for him to read. One day a little rare mix-up happens and the letter and dabba goes to another person
Saajan, played by Irrfan Khan, who works as an accountant and is a widower. Realizing her mistake, she writes another letter to Saajan mentioning the mistake. He writes back to her and this back and forth messaging creates a strong friendship between the two.
Meanwhile at work, Saajan is about to retire and is traning his replacement Shaikh, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who is very careless. Over time the two get along well and Saajan even covers up his many blunders at work. Shaikh makes Saajan his best man at his wedding to his ladylove Mehrunissa, played by Shruti Bapna. Later, Ila finds out that her husband is cheating on her and is heartbroken. She writes to Saajan that she would like to move to Bhutan as it’s cheaper than India. He requests that they meet in person and decide a place, but Saajan doesn’t show up.
The next day a dejected Ila sends an empty tiffin to Saajan and he apologizes saying he saw her from a distance but couldn’t approach her as she is too young and beautiful and he is too old for her. He suggests she move on in life and forget him. Later Ila’s father succumbs to Cancer and she decides to look for Saajan but comes to know that he has already retired and moved to Nasik. Enroute to Nasik, Saajan has a change of heart and return for Ila but learns from the dabbawala that she has left for Bhutan with her young daughter.
The movie is directed by Ritesh Batra and produced by Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Siddharth Roy Kapur. The music is composed by Max Richter.
