Film review:
Sankara depicts communicative significance
Dr. Senarath Tennakoon
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CAPTIVATING: A scene from Sankara
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CINEMA: Sankara marks the entry of resourceful and talented
Prasanna Jayakody ably supported by Somaratne Dissanayake, Renuka
Balasuriya, Palitha Perera, Priyanka Sirikumara and Nadika Guruge, into
the Sri Lankan creative cinematic tradition. Sankara is a different film
altogether from the contemporary Sri Lankan cinematic tradition, in
respect of theme and plot, style and approach and focus of concern.
The most marked is the lack of sex, glamour, action, suspense and
verbose dialogue. In essence, it is a visual journey into the
psychological ramifications of the human mind. Prassanna has chosen a
young Buddhist monk who has come to a rural temple to restore graffiti.
The partly destroyed paintings represent the essence of a lesser known
Jathaka Story, Thelapatha Jathakaya.
Distasteful trends
The jathaka is a fertile field of enquiry into the distasteful trends
of sensual pleasure. The young monk works with diligence despite being
distracted by the erotic scenes in the old paintings, those presented by
the young pretty village girl’s advances and by his subconscious shadowy
lay counterpart’s stirring.
The subconscious life stream of the young monk is reflected in the
artistic expressions, environment changes, musings and symbolic
presentations in this remarkable film.
The delicate female hair-clip, the female erotic features and the
Preying Mantis, the violent story, the dripping sweat drops etc. are
also symbolic in this film.
Two worlds
Human beings live in two worlds. One is essentially discursive in
character and is a world of signs and symbols. The other is the
physical/material world structured by causal processes. In Sankara the
young Buddhist monk presents the disciplined emotional world while his
shadowy lay counterpart presents the life exposed to emotions.
The Chief monk is prophetic and understands the emotional struggle of
the young monk through wisdom and perhaps experience. Very few words are
exchanged between and among the characters.
The visual medium strongly mellowed by the appropriate musical
compositions is predominant in attracting the attention of the audience.
But, who should be the apt audience of Sankara? The children, the youth
and the ordinary folk may find out of place and taste.
The highly selective nature of the audience would be a limitation of
the commercial as well as the cinematic success of Sankara. The saffron
robe itself restricts the film’s entry into a wide world of lay life
experience.
Sankara would not attract a local audience, but its potential to draw
a global audience would be immense as it presents a different vision and
philosophy. The slow moving style and the rather melancholy tenor in a
fast moving economic world is quite unbelievable for those immersed in
treasure hunting and profit making activities.
International community
Already, Sankara has won some prestigious international film awards.
As such, the international community is aware of the potential of
Prasanna and others in the creation of a film of this calibre and
integrity. But, whether our local creative artists deviate from the
chosen cinematic path is a question.
One would question Prasanna and others about the communicative
significance of this film. Whether Sankara is successful in offering a
moral vision or even a bit of experience that could enrich the lives of
the audience remains a problem. |
