15 Park Avenue 2006

Meethi [Konkona Sen Sharma] is a 30-something woman living with schizophrenia, cared for by her older, divorced sister Anu [Shabana Azmi], a devoted professor, and their aging mother [Waheeda Rehman]. In the quiet rhythm of daily life in Kolkata, Meethi’s world is tethered to an elaborate alternate reality in which she is married to her ex-fiancé and has five children, all living in a non-existent address they call 15 Park Avenue. This imagined life sits beside the ordinary routines of medical appointments, household chores, and the fragile balance of a family trying to keep her grounded.

In this family, the role of Anu is central. Anu has placed her own romantic life and career on hold to devote herself to Meethi and their mother, a choice that reflects both love and the heavy burden of constant caregiving. The constant vigil over Meethi’s condition is underscored by the realities of her past: dormant schizophrenic traits surfaced in childhood, but she led a relatively normal life until her early twenties. A traumatic incident during her work as a journalist marked a turning point, leading to withdrawal from the outer world and the dissolution of her engagement with Joydeep Roy, a man who appears in both Meethi’s past and present.

A new doctor, Dr. Kunal Barua [Dhritiman Chatterjee], begins to take up Meethi’s case after a severe seizure. Through conversations with Anu, he pieces together the arc of Meethi’s illness—how the traumatic event intersected with her already delicate mental state and how her imagined family became a fortress against reality. On the doctor’s suggestion, Anu decides to take both women on a vacation to Bhutan, hoping a change of setting might offer a doorway back to the outside world.

During this journey, Joydeep Roy [Rahul Bose]—now a husband with two children—reappears in Meethi’s life. In the present, she does not recognize him as the man she has imagined as her husband; instead, she befriends him, drawn by a familiar warmth she cannot fully place. Joydeep learns of Meethi’s deteriorating condition and the strength of her imaginary world, and yet he offers to help her in a practical quest: to locate the elusive family home—15 Park Avenue—that haunts her memories.

Back in Kolkata, Joydeep drives Meethi through the familiar parts of the city, guiding her toward the district where she believes her house and the rest of her imagined family reside. What unfolds is a nightmarish, dreamlike sequence that blurs the line between memory and longing and reality: Meethi steps into the house she longed for and is met by the presence of her “real” family, including the husband she has always imagined. She walks inside, reunited with them, and is never seen again.

The film weaves a careful, compassionate portrait of care, memory, and the pressures of keeping a fragile mind tethered to a world that others recognize as real. It presents a quiet, unsettling meditation on how love and duty intersect when a loved one drifts between two(in)distinct worlds, and how, at moments, the line separating protection from confinement can feel dangerously thin.