Mira, the young photographer, serves as a counterpoint to Arjun’s fatalistic withdrawal. She is assertive, technologically adept, and constantly challenges the patriarchal expectations placed upon her. Her own quest for a “lost” image—a photograph of her mother taken in 188 AD (the film’s subtle historical reference to the year 188 CE when Kolkata was still a modest fishing settlement)—mirrors Arjun’s search, suggesting that the desire to reclaim erased histories transcends gender.
The film follows Rahul (Sudipto Chatterjee), a construction contractor who has been working in Dubai. He returns to Kolkata to search for his brother, who has mysteriously disappeared. However, Rahul’s quest is devoid of urgency. He drifts through the city, interacting with a disconnected cast of characters: his brother’s lonely wife, Paoli (Paoli Dam); a wealthy real estate developer obsessed with building a modernist high-rise; and a group of impoverished marginalised people who scavenge the city’s ruins.
Rahul’s search is less a traditional detective story and more a flâneur’s walk through a city that is actively destroying its own history to make way for a sterile, globalized future. Bengali Movie Chatrak Full 188
| Aspect | Information | |--------|-------------| | Director | Vimukthi Jayasundara | | Language | Bengali, Hindi, English | | Runtime | 88 minutes (Official) | | Cast | Paoli Dam, Samrat Chakrabarti, Soumitra Chatterjee, Rii Sen | | Genre | Psychological drama | | Plot Summary | A vagabond named Lakhinder builds a makeshift home under a flyover in Kolkata. A French architect, Pierre, arrives in search of him. The film explores urban alienation, sexuality, and the "mushroom" (chatrak) as a metaphor for spontaneous growth in decaying spaces. |
The film contains bold, artistic nudity and existential themes, which led to controversy but also critical acclaim at international festivals like Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. Mira, the young photographer, serves as a counterpoint
A signature technique in Chatrak is the overlay of actual photographic negatives onto the film stock during post‑production. This creates an ethereal, ghost‑like quality when characters interact with “memories,” visually representing the friction between the tangible and the intangible. Moreover, certain sequences are shot in 35 mm grain, while others are captured in digital 4K, deliberately drawing attention to the medium’s materiality.
If the official runtime is 88 minutes, why "188"? Here are three likely explanations: The film follows Rahul (Sudipto Chatterjee), a construction
The subtitle The Unknown points to the liminal spaces of the city: the narrow, rain‑slick alleys, the overcrowded markets, the dilapidated tram depots. These spaces are rendered in a semi‑surreal manner, blurring the line between the real and the imagined. The film’s soundscape—ambient street noise punctuated by an intermittent, low‑frequency hum—reinforces the feeling of being lost within one’s own environment.