Moving away from overt sexuality, Paoli delivered a masterclass in restraint in this horror-drama.

: The story follows Rahul (Sudeep Mukherjee), an architect who returns from Dubai to oversee a massive construction project in Kolkata. While he reunites with his girlfriend, Paoli, he becomes obsessed with finding his brother, who has reportedly gone mad and is living in the forest.

The title Chatrak (Mushrooms) is the primary hermeneutic key to the film. Mushrooms thrive in damp, dark, decaying environments; they are the fruit of decomposition. In the context of the film’s setting—a Kolkata undergoing rapid, chaotic construction—the mushroom symbolizes the uncontrolled, organic byproducts of human expansion.

The shower scene and the subsequent seduction sequence with Randeep Hooda. Unlike the clinical aesthetics of typical Bollywood intimacy, Paoli brought a raw, almost animalistic desperation. The scene where her character, Izna, holds a knife to her lover’s throat during a moment of passion is iconic.

– The Debut