City Of Illusions), released internationally as Once Upon A Time In Calcutta is a 2021 Bengali-language Indian-French-Norwegian film directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.

[3] The film stars Sreelekha Mitra as the protagonist, along with Arindam Ghosh, Bratya Basu, Satrajit Sarkar, Anirban Chakrabarti, Rikita Nandini Shimu and debutant Shayak Roy in supporting roles.

Ela (Sreelekha Mitra), a bereaved mother, wants to leave the house of her husband and start an independent life of her own.

She's the daughter of a cabaret dancer, who once had an affair with the owner of an iconic theatre in North Calcutta, called Circarena (the first revolving stage in Asia, owned by Amar Ghosh).

Unable to secure a bank loan to buy a house of her own, Ela uses her boss, owner of a ponzi-scheme to get what she wants.

[citation needed] Initially, Fred Keleman was supposed to shoot the film, which was then titled Memories and My Mother.

"[13] The Hindu in its post-Venice coverage added, "save Dune for IMAX, don't miss Once Upon a Time in Calcutta.

"[14] David Katz of Cineuropa gave the film a positive review, calling it "a cinematic poem to contemporary Kolkata".