Some movies make you sad. Some movies make you happy. Others make you hungry. The Lunchbox is a delicious little romantic drama about a retiring accountant and a young, depressed housewife who begin to correspond via letters after her homemade lunch is accidentally delivered to his desk.

Starring Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) and Nimrat Kaur, The Lunchbox is like an Indian version of Sleepless in Seattle, only without an obligation to comply with Hollywood conventions. With no guarantee that the two will end up together (the odds are not in their favor, given that the woman is married and he’s significantly older), the movie is a captivating piece of filmmaking.

Even if the abrupt ending is a cop-out.

Khan and Kaur deliver terrific performances in their respective roles; Khan is always reliable, while relative newcomer Kaur steals the show. Her role is complex and interesting and she handles the challenge with ease.

The two play wonderfully off one another, which is a bit of a lie because they are rarely in a scene together. And yet as you watch them interact via letters and get to know their characters, you begin to believe that these people, these realistic people, could be together.

And that, my friends, is what any romantic movie needs.

The Lunchbox has its other perks, too. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who stars as the earnest and almost-but-not-quite obnoxiously happy “intern” Shaikh, injects energy into every scene he’s in. And regardless of the actual story, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the dabbawallah system, the Indian lunch service that flawlessly delivers hundreds of thousands of lunches to people every day, despite a lack of paperwork or even addresses.

As mentioned earlier, the film’s ending is disappointing, its only real flaw. I won’t say more than that for sake of spoilers, but it felt unfinished.

Nonetheless, The Lunchbox is an entertaining, lighthearted and believable romantic drama-comedy that is worth watching, even if you don’t like subtitles.

Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.