Dear Gossips,

In Sarah’s review of Inferno a few years ago, she wrote that the movie was OK and that the best part of it was Irrfan Khan’s performance, which seemed to be the consensus among all critics, and that’s pretty standard any time Irrfan Khan shows up in a film in a supporting role: he ends up stealing it.

My favourite Irrfan Khan movie is probably the same as many others: The Lunchbox. It screened at TIFF and I didn’t have a chance to see it at the festival but I was on a flight a few months later (the “world” tab on Air Canada flights is often a treasure) and was so happy to see it there, by the time I arrived where I was going, I was a f-cking mess. It’s not that the story is super sappy, but there was so much tenderness in his performance, which you could see play out in the smallest of gestures as the film unfolded – every time he opened the lunchbox with growing anticipation, and the flicker of delight that then became comfort and familiarity in his eyes when he smelled the food – it was impossible to not get emotional because he made you believe that you knew him. Or that he could know you. I ended up watching The Lunchbox on the out flight and on the return flight and I think I’ll watch it again this weekend. It’s available on Prime Video, put it at the top of your Social Distancing viewing list.

Cinema has lost a giant today.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Irfan Khan Gossip

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