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Chatrak (Bengali: ছত্রাক, transl. "Mushroom") is a 2011 Indian Bengali-language art drama film directed by acclaimed filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, who is best known for his Sinhalese-language film The Forsaken Land (2005), which won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Breaking away from mainstream Bengali cinema, Chatrak is an Indo-French co-production known for its surrealist narrative and stark visual poetry.
| Directed by | Vimukthi Jayasundara | | :--- | :--- | | Written by | Vimukthi Jayasundara | | Produced by | Faeze Jalali, Anupam Singh | | Starring | Paoli Dam, Soumitra Chatterjee, Anubrata Basu | | Cinematography | Azhagam Perumal | | Edited by | Suresh Pai | | Music by | Bickram Ghosh | | Release Date | 11 November 2011 (India) | | Country | India, France | | Language | Bengali | | Running Time | 100 minutes |
Chatrak is not a wiki entry for casual viewers seeking entertainment. It is a sensory endurance test—a film that demands patience, rewards intellectual curiosity, and frustrates narrative addiction. For those willing to sit in its concrete dust, it offers a rare, poetic rage against the destruction of human softness by urban greed.
Its legacy is secure: as the boldest Indo-French co-production from Bengali cinema, and as a film that asked, “What grows in us when everything around us is being demolished?”
The answer, like the Chatrak, is beautiful, strange, and slightly poisonous. Chatrak 2011 Bengali Movie Wiki
Also Read: The Forsaken Land (2004) – Vimukthi Jayasundara’s Cannes-winning debut.
Related Films: Punarbhumi (2004), Kagojer Bou (2009), Shabdo (2013).
Article last updated: January 2026. For corrections or additions, please refer to the National Film Archive of India or MUBI’s technical notes.
Chatrak (English: Mushrooms) is a 2011 Indian Bengali-language erotic drama film. The film was directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara and explores themes of rapid urban development and the displacement of people. Plot Summary
The story follows Rahul (played by Sudip Mukherjee), a successful architect who returns to his hometown of Kolkata after working in Dubai to lead a major construction project. He reunites with his girlfriend, Paoli (Paoli Dam), who lives alone away from her family. As Rahul becomes immersed in the city's transformation, he also searches for his brother (Sumeet Thakur), who has been living in the forest and is considered mentally unstable by society. Paoli Dam as Paoli Sudip Mukherjee as Rahul Sumeet Thakur as Rahul's brother Anubrata Basu Production and Themes
The film was shot in and around Kolkata and is noted for its visual style and non-linear narrative. According to director Vimukthi Jayasundara, the film examines the "unstructured development" of South Asian cities, contrasting the city's modern skyscrapers with the poverty and traditional life that persist underneath. Controversy Chatrak (2011 Film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chatrak gained significant notoriety in India due to a leaked scene involving an unsimulated sex act between Paoli Dam and Anubrata Basu. While the film was screened at international festivals like the Cannes Film Festival (Directors' Fortnight) and the Toronto International Film Festival, it faced censorship issues and a delayed theatrical release in India.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. While praised for its cinematography and bold direction, it was also described as having a "confusing narrative" that might be difficult for mainstream audiences to follow. If you'd like more details, I can:
Provide a deeper analysis of the film's symbolism (e.g., the "mushrooms"). Look up more critical reviews from its festival run. Tell you about other films by Vimukthi Jayasundara. Let me know how you'd like to expand the article.
Exploring the Abstract World of (2011) The 2011 Bengali film
(internationally known as Mushrooms) remains one of the most polarizing and artistically daring entries in contemporary Indian cinema. Directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara, this erotic drama transcends traditional storytelling to offer a hallucinatory meditation on urban decay, identity, and the "corruption of the soul". Plot Overview: A Tale of Two Jungles Also Read: The Forsaken Land (2004) – Vimukthi
The narrative follows two seemingly disconnected threads that eventually intertwine in a surreal landscape of "natural forests and urban jungles".
The Return: Rahul (Sudip Mukherjee), a successful architect, returns to Kolkata after several years working at construction sites in Dubai. He reunites with his girlfriend, Paoli (Paoli Dam), who has been waiting for him while living in isolation.
The Search: Rahul’s life is haunted by the search for his estranged brother (Sumeet Thakur), who is rumored to have gone mad and now lives in the forest, sleeping in trees and surviving on vegetation.
The Encounter: In the forest, the brother befriends a European soldier (Tómas Lemarquis). This "soldier" guards a mysterious border, adding to the film’s atmosphere of absurdity and political metaphor. Key Cast & Crew
| Attribute | Details | | :--- | :--- | | Title | Chatrak (ছত্রাক) | | English Translation | Mushroom | | Director | Mostofa Sarwar Farooki | | Producer | Abdul Aziz | | Screenplay | Mostofa Sarwar Farooki | | Story | Anisul Hoque | | Cinematography | Kamrul Hasan Khosru | | Editing | Samir Ahmed | | Music | Minar Rahman (lyrics by Anisul Hoque) | | Country | Bangladesh / India | | Language | Bengali | | Release Date | 15 July 2011 (Bangladesh) | | Runtime | 90 minutes | | Genre | Drama, Surrealism, Art House |
The central metaphor of the film is the mushroom—an organism that thrives in darkness, decay, and dampness. The mushrooms in Chatrak are not natural; they are mutant, aggressive, and almost sentient. They grow out of the cracks of a stalled construction project, symbolizing how repressed nature erupts when human development falters.
The cinematography is the true hero of Chatrak. It is atmospheric, dark, and textured. The film was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it was praised for its visual language and bold departure from traditional South Asian cinema tropes.