TV Times - ‘15, Park Avenue’ at ICES

'15, Park Avenue' Directed. By Aparna Sen will be telecast at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) at Kynsey Terrace on Monday, May 29 at 5.30 pm

15 Park Avenue is a milestone in Indian cinema in the English Language. Aparna Sen, actor, director, and a poet makes this film for an intelligentsia who has to dare to question the conventional therapy laid down in the treatment of a mentally handicapped and how much sane we might be in the present moment.

A tale from her on the lines of other award winning English movies 36 Chowringee Lane and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. Anjali (Shabana Azmi) lives with her mother Rewa (Waheeda Rehman) and sister Meethi (Konkona Sen Sharma, a schizophrenic patient. Meethi being schizophrenic always stays in her own world with her own virtual characters. In spite of her illness, Meethi had been quite functional up to her early twenties. She had even got engaged to a young man call Joydeep or Jojo (Rahul Bose). After that, disaster had struck Meethi, who was working for a publishing house as a journalist, had gone on an assignment outside Calcutta where political goons had raped her. This incident had triggered off Meethi's hitherto dormant schizophrenia. Joydeep was unable to relate Meethi any longer and had broken off the engagement.

Eleven years later, Joydeep again sees Meethi coincidentally in Bhutan. He has come there with his wife (Shefali Shah) and two kids. He feels an urge to visit her and see what's going on in her life after he dumped her. Meethi doesn't recognize Joydee and tells him about her husband Jojo and their five kids who stay at 15 Park Avenue, Calcutta (122 minutes).