First Look: Shaheb, Rahul & Madhumita team up for ‘Autobi’ to search for ‘inner ghosts’

What happens when a woman’s desperate search for her missing sister leads her into a forbidden, cursed forest that preys on past trauma and blurs the terrifying line between reality and hallucination? In the new Bengali film ‘Autobi’, director Soumava Banerjee is not only setting out to tell the story of a missing person, but it is a descent into the labyrinth of the human mind, where love can become suffocating and protection can turn into a cage.

At its core, this psychological thriller explores the haunting legacy of childhood trauma. While Madhumita Sarkar plays Dimple, the elder sister, Inaaya Chowdhury will be seen as Taniya, the sister who goes missing. The director believes the setting of the film, that is, the ‘Chamsutti’ forest, is more than just a location. It serves as a metaphor for Dimple’s fracturing psyche. The film also has Shaheb Chatterjee playing Shakib, a Bangladeshi journalist writing an article on the mysteries of Chamsutti and Rahul Arunoday Banerjee as Shamik, the guide of the jungle. Aryann Bhowmik will be seen playing Madhumta’s husband in the film.

“‘Autobi’ is a tragedy about gaslighting and the weaponisation of mental illness. I want the audience to leave the theatre questioning the nature of the ‘ghosts’ we fear: Are they lurking in the woods or are they the people we trust the most?” said the director.