Real Illusions. Review on 15 Park Avenue

Illusions:

When the brain cannot differentiate between reality, illusions and the illusions, it itself creates out of real incidents that occur in the surroundings.

Illusions can be situations that brain simply believes to be real or which the brain clings to and yearns for and thus creates it's own world which seems to be so familiar that one starts literally living in this world which may be an illusion for the others but a true blue reality for the one living in it or rather for it.

The Movie

15 Park Avenue tells one such tale of reality and illusions. A tale of a girl suffering from chronic schizophrenia, Mithi (Konkona Sen Sharma) who stays with her sister Anjali (Shabana Azmi) and her mother Rewa (Waheeda Rehman). Mithi's process of growing up has been very complicated, what with the use of medicines to keep her normal or her inability to mix up with other children at play or her visions of imaginary people staring at her and so on. All is well, as she gets engaged to her boyfriend Joydeep or Jojo (Rahul Bose).

Tragedy strikes when on a professional journalism assignment. When Anjali denies her requests to accompany her outside Kolkata, Mithi out of her passion to prove her efficiency as a journalist travels alone and soon is working on her assignment. However her assignment crosses paths with some political goons who gang-rape her and leave her in the corridors of the hotel, shocked and bleeding profusely.

The shock of this incident finds her lost deep in the valleys of her schizophrenia. Her madness compels Joydeep to rethink about his future, thus he leaves Mithi to her own fate.

After their father's demise, her elder sister Anjali is the only one left to take responsibilities of Mithi and their aged mother. Anjali tries hard and even suceeds in striking a balance between her profession as a Professor and her duties as a sister and daughter but by compromising on her own happiness. Her circumstances leave her lonely and thus a lill' bit cynical.

To give her tough routine a miss, Anjali takes her mother and Mithi on a vacation to Bhutan. It's by sheer co-incidence that they meet Joydeep over here. Joydeep is now happily married with two children. However Mithi doesn't recognize him and he finds her deep in her abyss of surreality where she is married to her boyfriend Jojo and has five children staying at this specific address ''15 Park Avenue''.

Out of his guilt of leaving her at her fate, Joydeep is left in melancholy and is drawn back to help her find her destination. ''15 Park Avenue'' - A destination that doesn't exist. The end of Mithi's search for her husband Jojo and their five children at their home at 15 Park Avenue marks the climax of the movie.

The climax leaves one confused to the hilt. It leaves the viewer restlessly disturbed as to what happened of Mithi? That's where the tale marks the difference between the viewer's world and Mithi's world. Mithi has found her 15 Park Avenue - a place that is invisible and inaccessible to our sane instincts.

The Performances:

15 Park Avenue is a brilliantly made film colored with brilliant performances. Konkona Sen's delusional schizophrenic act is played with utmost maturity. Konkona Sen is no doubt Smita Patil / Shabana Azmi of our times. Far from the number game of other actresses, Kokona Sen has a carved a niche for herself with performances like Mr. & Mrs. Iyer, Amu and now 15 Park Avenue. Even her outing in commercial cinema with Page 3 won her accolades.

Shabana Azmi's performance is as dazzling as ever. Anjali comes true to life with Shabana beyond the mask of the character.

Waheeda Rehman plays her part with aplomb.

Rahul Bose is competent in a woman oriented movie.

Direction:

Aparna Sen's direction is simply mind-blowing. The way she incorporates dark humor in saddest of scenes is something truly noteworthy. Aparna Sen has a magnificent way of story telling. The characters keep growing along with the story and by the time they are fully developed, they seem so life-like that it tough to believe they are fictious. At the end of the day, 15 Park Avenue provides satisfaction of watching a good cinema.

Aparna Sen has her own way with cinema. 36, Chowranghee Lane, Mr. & Mrs. Iyer and 15 Park Avenue each of these a masterpiece in true sense. I am desperately waiting for more flicks from this lady.

And to conclude:

15 Park Avenue may be slow paced, but it's authenticity lies in the environment it creates, finely etched characters, detailed story telling and all these come at a cost which is the pace. Moreover a plot like that of 15 Park Avenue demands these ingredients for the audience to relate to the characters. This ain't a run of the mill masala flick where quality of film making can be compromised for popular entertaining content.

This is a touching tale about living life against all odds be it real or illusion. Mithi's yearning to live life as she wants, with her imaginary husband and imaginary kids at an imaginary address may seem madness to us but for her these illusions are real - as real as her whole life - something she derives happiness and sadness from.