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| Wednesday, 16 June 2004 |
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Adaraneeya Vassanaya : Love in the first flush of youth by E.M.G. Edirisinghe Innate bud of love flowers in youth and matures in marriage. In essence, that is what Senesh Dissanayake Bandara captures and conveys through his maiden enigmatic effort Adaraneeya Vassanaya. It cheers one to see youth love blossoming on screen enlivened by spirit of life in its undiminished vigour and unadulterated fidelity. The filmmaker surmounts youth love within the context of prevailing social norms. Initially emotions forge ahead of matrimonial concerns and conveniences. His desire is to bring out the inner conflict whether to take the plunge or be restrained by social norms which besiege every youth, sensually alive. Love kindled in young hearts in its clarity, purity and gravity, survives untainted with its tempo heightening the momentum that gathers at the first bounce of titillation.
One cannot rob one's love. There are no rules to determine the legitimacy of love, unlike the validity of marriage. Love springs with a sparkle and grows into a glow. Bandara touches on youthful love at its heart unsullied by external contacts. What is tangible can be materially disposed of:, but, not so a feeling. Rohan's marriage to Chapa was severed once as she was physically separated from him. But, her love to Kasun didn't leave her teenage soul even if she lived apart, and in close physical proximity to her legally married husband. Chapa and Kasun come from two different social backgrounds. While Chapa is outspoken self-assured and confident Kasun is backward, subdued and defeatist. The social and cultural gap delayed and deferred their relationship blossoming into an emotional union of passionate love. While Chapa was quite open and expressive, lifted by self-confidence, Kasun was non-expressive as well as unobtrusive and was pushed into a shell lacking in self-confidence. But, barriers whatsoever, failed to halt their emotions ripening and enveloping the two in a blaze of love. Finally they sank in each other's heart. Desire However blissful love is, it bears fruit only when it endures into maturity with emotions mellowed and tempers appeased. Symbolic of love gaining perpetuity is when a child is born out of wedlock into which love finally leads. This was impressed by Chapa when she saw an infant in a mother's hand. At the time she was about to entrain with Kasun away from all fuss and turmoil she expressed her unconcealed desire to have a baby. Her wish though so distant spells, in what material form love eventually does cement itself. Obvious transient nature of youthful love is reflected in her eagerness to get married and bring up a child. The youth easily clicks with emotional responses. The filmmaker cleverly brings the image of a baby to transform their emotional delight into sensual pleasure, and begin the second phase of their relationship within the nest of maiden love. Expression Madhu developed a platonic love, towards Kasun and attended on him but he never warmed himself towards her. This completes the triangular expression of the nature of youthful love which the filmmaker is set to include in his visual composition. Kasun finds Madhu a nuisance and an alien in his domain of romance in which a flame of love is already alight in total shine.
Similarly Rohan who looked after the interests of Chapa, spends for her education and health fails to kindle the flames of love in her. The filmmaker uses the relationship between Madhu and Kasun to tell how the approach to love fails to click when the warmth of love goes missing. The filmmaker deftly uses symbolic expressions to convey subtle impressions in absorbing images. When Madhu writes a letter to Kasun revealing her love to him, he burns it and uses its flame as an instrument to light his cigarette. From the huge flame portraying the magnitude into which her emotions had grown, what he takes and retains is just a flow while the letter which carries her heart and soul is destroyed without a trace. Marriage The visual embodying the trampling of the wedding ring symbolises the crushing of the marriage between Rohan and Chapa, paving the way for a legally valid marriage between Kasun and Chapa, Frustrated Rohan commits suicide. Youthful love that bestrides all paths of opposition finally triumphs. Similarly, voluntary offer of an apple to Kasun by Chapa, and Rohan snatching one from her lap for himself, in reflection is what the movie is all about in the end. Most of the frames in the film are captured in medium close-ups which create the appropriate atmosphere in which the narrative is to be viewed and understood. Not too distant and not too close visuals make the viewer to get a clear objective view of the film. The economical use of the diologue provides adequate time and space to ponder on the compositions and their contents carved with great care and vision. Fast moving characters give the film a tempo which captures the live and brisk transition of events, profusely and forcefully urged by youthful virility. The rhythm that is maintained right through the flow of the film is a reflection of constantly fluctuating nerves and moving moods of the youth. Adaraneeya Vassanaya is a fresh vigorous move of youthful love and romance viewed in a climate of prevailing attitudes to teenage love with a touch of sympathy. The adult world fails to reach the hearts of the youth still blooming. However, the film reminds that with the passage of years, the youth too, catches up with adult tempers and begin to repeat misconception in reading love and romance dominant among the teenagers. Preadeep Senanayake as Roshan and Chaturika Pieris as Chapa give a fine performance with the latter adding a refreshing liveliness to the character. Roshan Rajapaksha gives life to the more challenging pivotal role of Kasun. Had Kasun been a youth full of charm and cheer, it would have added another dimension to the character and the film would have been more appealing to the youth. Generally the youth identify themselves with the charm and vigour of the hero in screen character. The greatest disadvantage one notices in the film is its poor sound quality. A good part of the dialogue is not only inaudible but also not clear. This drawback has affected the quality of music as well which otherwise would have accentuated the thematic content in the visual. This a film any youth would certainly love to see and remember as his own story presented through the perception of Roshan. **** Back **** |
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