What is Reality , A figment of your imagination which you believe in!!!

I am so ashamed that I have not been maintaining the blog that I created with love and so called devotion in my head. Every time this shame prevents me from posting anything but this time debate between late or never, here I am with one more post here.

This weekend I saw 15th Park Avenue movie and believe me it is something. It is too early for me to tell you if I liked it because I do not want to lose any one at this point to the movie or their work so keep reading. Frankly I am still trying to understand it. The performances in the movies are indeed good and any movie review will tell you that. Also these days I cry at any movie so it will be worthless to say that I cried in this movie too.

The real brilliance of the movie lies in the fact that many people will hate the movie for the same reason for which many people are going to love it - “The Big Abstract Ending”. Aparna Sen did not offer any of her interpretations of the ending. For a casual movie watcher there is no closure and the feeling after sitting though 2 hrs and still not knowing head or tail of the movie is an unsettling thought. I also personally like the gratifying feeling that I get after watching the movie and in the end when I know that each of the characters had an ending. So why would a great filmmaker like Aparna Sen leave the audience so unsatisfied. Why not just explain what you want to say. Well because in this story to give any ending or explanation will take away the mystic of story itself. The story is not just about the schizophrenia which is stated so many times in the movie but the concept of illusions and reality! Every person defines his own reality and is a person wrong in doing so? So what makes a schizophrenic a schizophrenic??

The scene where Kunal (the doctor) was explaining the concept of schizophrenia to Anjali is the cornerstone of the movie’s meaning. When Shabana Azmi says it is vase on the table, we are also shown a vase. But when Kunal sees the lamp we are also shown the lamp. So are we really in a position to decide what reality is and what is figment of someone’s imagination? In the movie we get to see world through eyes of two narrators i.e. Anjali and JoJo (oh I love this name). Both of them see Anjali as crazy and mentally ill and that might be affecting their view of reality. However in the end we are shown a part of Anjali’s reality. Similar to the conversation between Kunal and Anjali you are left wondering which reality to believe? Again the incidents are bound to turn you against poor Meethi. You are bound to assume that it was Meethi who was schizophrenic. It is all your perception of what is wrong or right, what is real and what is fiction? I think the main thing Aparna wanted to evoke from this movie was support for these so called crazy people by fussing with your own mind. If you cannot decide which is which then can you really accuse someone as being crazy?

I feel the ending when Meethi enters the house and meets her family would have been a good ending for people looking for a closure and people looking for open ended ending. Then is anything that happens after that scene an attempt by film maker to give some meaning to the ending? Yes, there is a reason why in the end both Joydeep and Anjali starts asking about the address which they so vehemently assumed to be non-existent. It is when something that happens in front of your eyes which you thought impossible that you start questioning yourself. They could not believe how Meethi just vanished in thin air? They both question their own sanity or to know if they both are crazy and imagining something which is unreal? They want to know if that address exist and they will find Meethi there and may be then their reality will make more sense for them? I have read one explanation on the internet where the writer came up with a bunch of interpretations of the ending like Anjali was the one who was crazy or Joydeep was crazy but I feel by giving an end to this story will destroy its mystic that makes it so interesting.

So coming back to the Question whether I like it? Well if not for anything then it still has a heart wrenching story with brilliant performances, it is worth seeing once. But the added mystic will hold you much longer and may be will make you question your own sanity.