Comments on: 15 Park Ave Comes to the DC Metro

By: rizwan

rizwan — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:00:22 +0000

the film shall re made again as part 2

By: nubamountain

nubamountain — Mon, 22 May 2006 18:03:49 +0000

An atrocious film. Konkona rocks as usual, but the rest of the cast are nothing short of awful. many of the scenes, with stilted dialogue, reminded me of our 10th grade convent school theatrical productions in India. Rahul Bose is, as usual, a terrible, affected performer. The ending is absurd–even if you allow for a post modern, metaphysical take on it. It is only the pathetic state of independent Indian cinema that allows for crap like this to be applauded. The story is of course a great one and in the hands of a more capable director could have been a significant movie. But, alas, Bengali auteurs like Ghatak and Ray are turning with agony in their graves at their new gen counterpart’s attempts to carry on the great tradition of bengali cinema. What is astonishingly bad is the shot selection in the movie– almost amateur-like. There’s no attempt to have the shots communicate what the essence of the drama is in a particular scene. But, ooohhh man, the script is soooooo bad, so english-babu like, with horrible dialogue that it perfectly matches the absurd acting in it. There is one scene with Bose and Shetty–intended as visceral, emotional drama–that is part hilarious and part embarassing to watch because it is so unintentionally, ridiculously funny.

By: duh

duh — Sun, 21 May 2006 16:22:58 +0000

I once did a review too and since I’m a lazy ass, I’ll just copy and paste it.

This is a multi-faceted, insightful and bold story about the people in the life of a schizophrenic patient, their (and our) perception and realities. Although the main theme revolves around a delusional young woman, the story delightfully flirts with physics, medicine, religion and even politics as it questions our perceptions about what is true and what is real. Konkona Sensharma beautifully conveys that the world Mithi is living in is as real to her as ours is to us. Within that world, she is logical and her thoughts are internally consistent, not the gibberish that they seem to us in our world. Here are a few outstanding scenes to look out for while watching the movie (don’t worry, these are not spoilers). I absolutely loved the way Aparna Sen wove these commentaries into the story. - The references to quantum mechanics and relativity intermingled with the witch-doctor (“ojha” in Hindi) performing his religious rituals that he believes will drive away the “ghosts” sitting in Mithi’s brain. - The doctor prescribing shock-treatment as a solution that is “believed” to work - Windows of perception – The scene about the review of Anu’s book. - The allusion to illusion in a conversation about a director looking for “maya”. - News footage of George Bush telling the whole world that there is “no doubt in his mind” that there are WMD in Iraq (now, that is not as much about Bush’s perception, who I suspect knew the truth, as the gullible public’s perception about WMD in Iraq.) - One of the best scenes in the movie is where Mithi tells Anu “Charu sent this man to beat me” and Anu dismisses it as a matter of course. Konkona did a fantastic job, bringing out the strange mix of muddled thoughts in a schizophrenic’s brain when her world and the real world clash. Aparna Sen was bold, but not bold enough to pose one big question: Is nearly all of mankind delusional to believe in God? She could have inserted some scenes about “normal”, “healthy” people praying to and sacrificing for a Being that no one has ever seen or heard from in all of human history (The ritual/exorcism scene doesn’t go far enough). That would be the ultimate question: What is normal? Who’s reality is right, the Believer’s or the Atheist’s? IMHO, this movie is a far more intricate exploration of the schizophrenic mind than “A Beautiful Mind”. It looks at the minds of not just the sick person, but also the healthy, and does so from many different angles and illuminates our understanding of our own minds and our world. If the former got 4 Oscars, this deserves more – At least one each for story, screenplay, direction, Konkona, and Shabana Azmi. It was truly a treat to watch this movie and I’m glad I bought the DVD for my collection. This was a story very well-told indeed.

By: mastervk

mastervk — Sat, 20 May 2006 07:16:42 +0000

So the film was really asking a fundamental question: what is reality? Whose reality is "true" or "real"? Is the reality of a mentally ill person less valid than someone who is not mentally ill?

that is a very deep question . we assume that reality is that what majority confirms to . so we tag some persons as mental /abnormal /sick /..... based on our notion of reality . centuries ago , when nearly everybody believed that earth is centre of universe , saying that earth is sphere and revolves around sun was seen as a sureshot sign of person being held by devil . now if i will say that some aligns are responsible for evolution on earth , majority of students/ professors learning and proving otherwise will shot me down . The same case for everything like sexual orientation / stand on social issues / morality /.....

By: ggk

ggk — Fri, 19 May 2006 21:10:05 +0000

For one thing this is a “hauntingly boring” movie – please avoid

surething I did watch it b/c i was with bad company…. on the flip side coming back to matlab simulation felt quite good after the brain zapper.

By: Supremus

Supremus — Fri, 19 May 2006 19:35:16 +0000

For one thing this is a “hauntingly boring” movie – please avoid .

By: zai

zai — Fri, 19 May 2006 18:39:05 +0000

The movie was screened in Boston last month, with Aparna Sen answering questions after the movies (here's what I thought about it). As others have said, the premise of the movie is quite laudable, but the execution isn't as good as some of her previous movies. The english dialogue and delivery seemed pretty forced in many places. There's a scene in the movie that juxtaposes Shabana Azmi teaching quantum physics with Konkana Sen being flogged by a witch doctor at her mother's behest. I thought this was a rather unsubtle way of showing the generation gap, but Aparna Sen seemed rather pleased with it as she mentioned after the screening. It was also amusing to see a lot of people really dissatisfied with the ending and saying so. Aparna Sen's retort was that an open ending was a standard literary/dramatic device! Well I guess what she really wanted to say was that since the struggle againist schizophrenia goes on for the protoagonist long after the audience leaves the theater, there's no point in allowing them the satisfaction of solving the puzzle of her mysterious fantasy. Despite all that, this is a movie definitely worth watching, or at least attempting to watch. (Two enthusiastic brown thumbs up!)

By: brown_fob

brown_fob — Fri, 19 May 2006 17:23:25 +0000

The ending can vary depending on your perception of the overall movie, it's what you make out of it. It can't be explained.

@Payal

I did interpret it in a couple of ways. I was keen to listen to what others have to say about the ending. This might not be the best place ...but we could use "spoiler alerts" to warn the 'junta'.

By: Payal

Payal — Fri, 19 May 2006 16:48:55 +0000

I watched the movie about 2 months ago and liked it.

brown_fob - The ending can vary depending on your perception of the overall movie, it's what you make out of it. It can't be explained.

By: timepass

timepass — Fri, 19 May 2006 15:50:32 +0000

Sorry, last line should read "one of the more thought provoking ones."