Jayasundara, a protégé of the legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, employs a distinct visual grammar. The film is steeped in a green, mossy hue, suggesting a world where nature is reclaiming the concrete. The cinematography is slow and observational, often fixing the camera on the grotesque and the beautiful in equal measure—ants crawling over a surface, the peeling paint of a wall, or the mist rolling over a highland.
Parallel to this, a strange, wordless relationship blooms in the jungle between Rahul's brother and a foreign soldier (Tómas Lemarquis) who stands guard at an unexplained border. As Rahul and Paoli search for the lost brother, they also encounter people displaced by the city's relentless construction projects, exposing the human cost of urban development.
Many viewers accessed the film through international film festivals and, later, niche streaming platforms (like SLT PeoTv ) which showcased the film’s unique perspective. 4. Key Elements of Chatrak (Mushrooms) Description Director Vimukthi Jayasundara Language Release Year Key Actors Paoli Dam, Anubrata Basu Primary Theme Urban Alienation, Moral Corruption Controversy Frontal nudity, artistic boldness 5. Conclusion bengali movie chatrak full work 72
(English title: Mushrooms ) is a 2011 Bengali drama film directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara . It gained significant international attention after being screened at the Directors' Fortnight during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Summary
Chatrak, a film that refuses easy categorization, lingers in the mind like the smell of kerosene after the lamp is snuffed. Equal parts psychological thriller and socio-cultural allegory, the film—tagged "Full Work 72" in some festival circuits—weaves a quiet but unsettling narrative about how desire and repression combust in the margins of contemporary Bengali life. Jayasundara, a protégé of the legendary Iranian filmmaker
It was screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section. Major Controversy & Versions
: The plot follows Rahul (played by Sudip Mukherjee), a successful Bengali architect who returns to Kolkata after a lucrative career building skyscrapers in Dubai. He is tasked with overseeing a massive, chaotic construction project that threatens to displace local communities. Rahul reunites with his girlfriend, Paoli (played by Paoli Dam), who has long awaited his homecoming while living in isolation. Parallel to this, a strange, wordless relationship blooms
: Rahul’s struggle to reconcile his professional ambitions with the changing reality of his home city.
Vimukthi Jayasundara's 2011 Bengali film Chatrak (Mushrooms), which screened at Cannes, garnered significant controversy over an explicit scene between actors Paoli Dam and Anubrata Basu, leading to a modified version for the Kolkata Film Festival. The narrative centers on an architect returning to Kolkata, with the controversial, unsimulated scene causing substantial public outcry upon leaking in India. For details, see the Wikipedia entry for Chatrak .
Rahul's seemingly perfect life is complicated by a search for his brother, who is said to have gone mad and now lives in the forest, sleeping in trees and eating vegetation.
The film advanced Paoli Dam's reputation as an actress willing to take risks, eventually paving the way for her later success in Bollywood films like Hate Story and the Netflix series Bulbbul . For director Vimukthi Jayasundara, Chatrak remains a testament to his thesis that cinema can function without compromise, ignoring geographical frontiers in favor of a universal, often uncomfortable, artistic statement.