text: From "36 Chowringhee Lane" to "15 Park Avenue", Aparna Sen has indeed traveled a long way. If the first one goes down in history as a débutant's clean sweep the latter will definitely carve a special place as a "mature" film. Until you see 15 Park Avenue you cannot imagine feeling thrilled and moved at the same time. Thrilled to see the director's ingenuity and agility in portraying seriously challenging situations and moved by the sensitivity echoing throughout the film. It is not a movie that merely makes you feel 'tchh tchh, how difficult life must be for schizophrenics', but makes you ask a much deeper question about the reality that you see and believe. Sen has done a brilliant job in highlighting this supreme fact of our existence that we all are, in some way or other, trying to live in a make-believe world of our own, trying to run after mirages called happiness, peace, contentment. Along with the depiction of a delusional mind, Sen's magic has brought forth many little nuances of human relationships as they sustain stress and strain. The fact that at times we all lose calm, break down, make wrong choices, be haunted by guilt, behave selfishly and so on, is captured with extreme adroitness by Sen. She showed the cruel dilemma which Shabana had to deal with all her life, of having to choose between a schizophrenic sister and a normal life with a husband and kids for herself. And in the act of always being beside her sister, always being a strong persona, providing support, making judgments and so on, she unknowingly cut off some of the oxygen that her sister needed to bloom. Isn't this a very harsh truth that at times, in an attempt to do the best for someone, we strangle their assertiveness and end up hurting their self-esteem? Of course Konkona's and Shabana's acting deserves laurels as always because had the ingredients not been so good, the dish could not have turned out to be so extraordinary. Aparna Sen once again made a masterpiece of a movie for those who crave for some "food-for-thought" . Bravo !