art & films

A Schizophrenic Life through the Prism of a Film
Jyotika J. Thukral

FROM the portrayal of the ageing and lonely Anglo-Indian woman - 36 Chowringhee Lane to the chilling and effective microscopic view of communal hatred in Mr & Mrs Iyer and now the quandary of a schizophrenic patient in her latest venture 15 Park Avenue, Aparna Sen has proved her ability at directing sensitive films time and over. Undoubtedly her films aim at sensitising the viewers and may not always be box office hits. Discerning audience always offer their critical acclaim she deserves.

And gauging the acceptance for the surreal in cinema, in 15 Park Avenue, Sen has depicted the dilemma of a schizophrenic patient Meethi enacted by Konkona Sen Sharma and her relationship with her older stepsister Anjali played by Shabana Azmi. Schizophrenia is not a new subject for moviemakers and there have been a few good films made earlier. The most popular among them being Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass, Darkly, Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind and Jahnu Barua’s Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara. Yet the film has a fresh appeal to it.

The story of 15 Park Avenue unfolds with Meethi and Anjali searching for the address 15 Park Avenue that they are not able to locate. Apparently Meethi believes that her husband Joydeep (Rahul Bose) and children are waiting for her at their house at 15 Park Avenue. But as the film progresses, one realizes that this address actually does not exist except for Meethi’s imagination.

The film shows a caring and loving family desperately trying to come to grips with Meethi’s condition that manifests itself in a never-ending quest for 15 Park Avenue. Meethi, who once worked for a publishing house as a journalist and is raped repeatedly by political goons when she was on an assignment outside Kolkata. The incident triggers off Meethi's dormant schizophrenia and finally the break off with Joydeep pushes her in to a delusional world where she thinks herself to be Mrs. Joydeep Roy staying with her husband and five children at 15 Park Avenue. The movie is a story of how Meethi’s reality affects the reality of those around her and brings to the fore the thin line that divides real from unreal and normal from abnormal.

Her search for 15 Park Avenue in a way becomes a metaphor for the universal search for happiness. And one is left wondering as to what is more real - Meethi’s reality or of the others around her. For instance at one point, Meethi snaps back at Anjali, “How would you like it if I told you you’re not a professor and are only imagining it?” Thus proving that for Meethi her unreal hallucinatory world that to her is as real a-world as ours is to us.

The film delves into the lives of two sisters who live with their widowed mother Rewa (Waheeda Rehman). Anjali who is a professor and a writer has a powerful personality and is the anchor for her family but she too has contradictions in her own life.  Already divorced, she is into a relationship that she cannot commit to because of her family. Now that indeed is ironical for the one person whose life she considers as having no semblance of reality defines Anjali’s life?

The conflict is also revealed where on one hand Anjali is taking a Physics lecture while on the other her maidservant invites a tantrik home to “cure” Meethi. And, later t Joydeep faces a mayhem following the accidental meeting with Meethi after 11 years. He was happily married with two kids all this while. But the chance meeting with Meethi in Bhutan changes everything. So much so that he is repenting and is ready to help Meethi find that house she has been looking for.

The role of the girl rapidly degenerating into a schizophrenic that Konkona plays is based on someone very close to them. This could be too close for comfort for any sensitive filmmaker like Aparna. "But the role of the schizophrenic girl is designed on someone we have known and seen suffering." "As far as Konkona is concerned this is by far her best performance to date. We know someone very close to us who's schizophrenic... a very close relative. So Konkona got to study the traits very carefully. We also had professional medical assistance to get the nuances right. But ultimately after getting all the details right I made sure it was a human-interest story.”

I have seen people sobbing as they watched the film. Lyricist Javed Akhtar broke down after seeing the film. "Initially I thought he didn't like the film. Then he just looked at me and said, 'Please don't make movies about such pain'," Aparna was quoted by journalists.

Her films are about pain and loneliness. She does not make sentimental ones.  People had cried like babies in 'Mr & Mrs Iyer'. It is a kind of purgation, a catharsis. Her empathy comes through.  I am so glad '15 Park Avenue' is being dubbed into Hindi for 15 prints. After "36 Chowringhee Lane" and "Mr & Mrs Iyer", "15 Park Avenue" is again in English. " Aparna's "Paroma" is bilingual in Bengali and Hindi.

While the USP of the film is an unmatched attention to detail and its cast packed with powerful performances by Konkona Sen Sharma, Shabana Azmi, Waheeda Rehman, Rahul Bose, Shefali Chhaya, Kanwaljeet Singh and Dhritiman Chatterjee. At the same time when the film explores various relationships -- mother-daughter, siblings, husband-wife, two men attracted to a woman, et al somewhere they have been left incomplete. Yet, what is left unstated, as it often happens in life and fiction keeps haunting? In that fashion, one can always think of powerful narrative that this film is. The finale to the story also ends abruptly, but in a very suggestive and at least Meethi finds here 15- Park Avenue. It could have been more gripping, particularly when the build up to the culmination was.