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15, Park Avenue

Directed by	Aparna Sen
Written by	Aparna Sen
Produced by	Bipin Vohra
Starring	Shabana Azmi Konkona Sen Sharma Soumitra Chatterjee Waheeda Rehman Dhritiman Chatterjee Rahul Bose Kanwaljeet Singh
Cinematography	Hemant Chaturvedi
Edited by	Rabiranjan Maitra
Release dates	27 October 2005 (2005-10-27) (London) 6 January 2006 (2006-01-06) (India)
Running time	124 minutes
Language	English

15 Park Avenue is a 2005 English-language Indian film directed by Aparna Sen. It stars Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Soumitra Chatterjee, Waheeda Rehman, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Rahul Bose and Kanwaljeet Singh. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English.

Plot

30-something Mitali aka Meethi has schizophrenia and is taken care of by her older, divorced sister Anjali aka Anu, who is a professor, and their ageing mother. Although she was never married in real life, Meethi has created her own alternate reality in her mind in which she married her ex-fiancé Joydeep and has five children. While Anu has dedicated her life to taking care of Meethi and her mother, even putting her own relationship with a fellow professor on hold, in Meethi's imaginary world both the older women are holding her in the house and away from her husband and children against her will. She imagines her family to be living at the non-existent 15 Park Avenue in Kolkata.

After Meethi has a severe seizure, her case is taken up by a new doctor Kunal Barua. While discussing her sister's case with the new doctor, Anu reveals that though Meethi had dormant schizophrenic traits since childhood, she led a very normal life until her early 20s, before a traumatic experience in the course of her job as a journalist made her withdraw from the outer world. Her fiancé, unable to deal with the emotional upheaval caused by the incidence, broke off the engagement. On the doctor's advice, Anu takes both women on a vacation to Bhutan, where they are spotted by Joydeep, now married with two children. In her present state, Meethi does not recognize Joydeep as the same man she is married to in her imagination, and befriends him. When Joydeep learns of Meethi's worsened condition and her imaginary world, he offers to help her locate the elusive family home - 15 Park Avenue.

Back in Kolkata, Joydeep drives her down to the part of the city where she believes her house and her family are. In a surrealistic climax, Meethi finally locates the house and finds her husband Jojo (as she fondly calls him) and her five children waiting for her return. She walks into the house, reunited with her 'real' family and is never seen again.

Cast

Shabana Azmi as Anjali
Konkona Sen Sharma as Meethi
Soumitra Chatterjee as Meethi's father
Waheeda Rehman as Meethi's and Anjali's mother
Rahul Bose as Joydeep Roy
Dhritiman Chaterji as Dr. Kunal Barua
Kanwaljit Singh as Anjali's colleague and boyfriend
Shefali Shah as Lakshmi, Joydeep's wife
Suranjana Dasgupta as Madwoman on the street
Dipavali Mehta as Child Meethi
Sunil Mukherjee as Witchdoctor

Reception

Sonia chopra of Rediff.com called it "hauntingly beautiful." She further wrote, "There's dry, black humour all over the film, if you care to look for it. There's comedy in the darkest of scenes, if you dare to laugh. As Joydeep himself broods, 'It would have been funny, if it wasn't so sad.' Watch the film, and forgive the small irregularities and pace. You'll step into another world. Just like our Mithi."

Conversely, Namrata Joshi of Outlook gave the film 2 out of 4, writing, "In effect, the film seems to have everything going for it. Not quite. Instead of exploring these intriguing associations to their logical emotional depth, Sen leaves them sketchy and open-ended." Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave it 1 out of 5 praising the performances but criticised the writing, pace and climax of the film.

References

"This week's screenings". The Times. Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
"15 Park Avenue". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
"15 Park Avenue". www.bbfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
"53rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. p. 84. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
Chopra, Sonia (6 January 2006). "15 Park Avenue is hauntingly beautiful". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
Joshi, Namrata (23 January 2006). "15 Park Avenue". Outlook. New Delhi: Outlook Publishing (India). Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
Adarsh, Taran (6 January 2006). "15 Park Avenue Movie Review". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 21 August 2024.

External links

15 Park Avenue at IMDb

v t e National Film Award for Best English Feature Film
1964	The Avalanche (1964)
1981–2000	36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) – (1982) – (1983) – (1984) – (1985) Watchman (1986) – (1987) In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1988) – (1989) – (1990) – (1991) Electric Moon (1992) – (1993) English, August (1994) The Making of the Mahatma (1995) – (1996) – (1997) Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (1998) – (1999) Pandavas: The Five Warriors (2000)
2001–present	Mitr, My Friend (2001) Stumble (2002) Dance Like a Man (2003) Amu (2004) 15 Park Avenue (2005) Quest (2006) The Last Lear (2007) Land Gold Women (2008) – (2009) Memories in March (2010) – (2011) Lessons in Forgetting (2012) The Coffin Maker (2013) – (2014) – (2015) – (2016) – (2017)

v t e Films directed by Aparna Sen
36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) Paroma (1984) Sati (1989) Yugant (1995) Paromitar Ek Din (2000) Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) 15, Park Avenue (2005) The Japanese Wife (2010) Iti Mrinalini (2011) Goynar Baksho (2013) Arshinagar (2015) Ghawre Bairey Aaj (2019) The Rapist (2021)

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