If you are tired of the sugar-coated romance and loud background scores of traditional Tollywood, Chatrak is your antidote. It is the mushroom growing in the corner of your room—unwanted, strange, but impossible to ignore.
of the film. The scene in question was leaked online shortly after the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
: Rahul (Sudip Mukherjee) returns from Dubai to lead a massive construction project in Kolkata. His lifestyle is defined by the "urban jungle"—a world of concrete, capitalism, and professional success that he eventually views as a collection of "boxes and cages".
The Uncomfortable Gaze: Deconstructing Lifestyle, Alienation, and Entertainment in the Bengali Film Chatrak (Mushrooms)
The intimacy in the film is stark and realistic, lacking the stylized glamour usually found in commercial erotic thrillers. It is meant to feel uncomfortable and vulnerable, reflecting the characters' search for something "real" in a fake, changing world. Legacy and Where it Stands Today
At its core, Chatrak is an arthouse exploration of displacement and the urban-rural divide. The story follows Rahul (played by Paoli Dam’s co-star), a Bengali architect who returns to Kolkata after years of working in Dubai. He finds a city undergoing a chaotic transformation, symbolized by the "mushrooms" of concrete buildings sprouting everywhere.