Mr Wolf vs Hare

Lunchbox deliveries by dabbawalashave wowed top B-schools and won admirers such as Prince Charles. They are also renowned for their low-tech Quaker-like work ethic. This ostensibly springs from their allegiance to the Warkari sect. Founded by Sant Gynaneshwar and his family in the 13th century, Warkari Sampradaya promoted ecumenical peace and equality at the grassroots across guilds and castes of medieval Maharashtra. Eventually, it managed to bring around opposing interests from the ruling and priestly class to their inclusive, “can-do” brand of Bhakti.

So much so that even the “secular” state pays annual homage at Pandharpur shrine, the epicentre of the Warkari faith, during Ashadhi Ekadashi. It is this spirit of the meek inheriting the Earth, or at least making a game bid for it, which shines through a recent crop of movies such as The Lunchbox, Shrimant Damodar Pant and Narbachi Wadi.

The latter shows an abhang-spouting nature-loving hare that gets the better of the usurious wolf masquerading as a zamindar. But Narbachi Wadi — so inextricably rooted in the local colour and Marathi idiom of pre-Independence Konkan — is, in fact, a remake of a Bengali classic. In turn, Tapan Sinha’s Chaplinesque Bancharamer Baganwas the film adaptation of Manoj Mitra’s Sajano Bagan.

The play is a Tom-and-Jerry fable where a mousy old man passionately attached to his orchard foils the machinations of the Tomcat, a rapacious landlord, with a mixture of native cunning and lucky breaks. Alas, real life remains most contrary to reel life. Is that why we pine for it so much?