Children address children in 'Siri Raja Siri'

Ruwini Jayawardana

After a series of successful crowd-pullers like Saroja, Punchi Suranganavi, Sooriya Arana, Samanala

 Thatuand Sankara, the Somaratne Dissanayake - Renuka Balasooriya duo are back with a new creation, Siri Raja Siri. The story relates the experiences of a boy who ventures from the village to the city environment as he passes the Year Five scholarship and is admitted to the city school.

Sirimal, portrayed by child actor Kokila Jayasuriya, faces numerous problems as a result of this transition.

His adventure takes us through the emotions, problems and the innocence of childhood as the audience see the world through the eyes of a child.

After 40 days of non-stop shooting in Kandy, Colombo, Negambo and Anuradhapura, the movie is finally complete and is ready for release in the near future. The Daily News met with the director and producer to discuss their experiences related to the film.

What makes Siri Raja Siri similar to or differ from your previous creations?

The similarity lies in the fact that children portray the main roles. Many scenes were shot in boys' schools so a lot of young actors took part. The difference lies in the fact that these characters all emerge through Sirimal, the protagonist. In my past films I used only one or two children but Siri Raja Siri involves around 40 children. We packed children from all over the island into one classroom.

We shot scenes in different schools like Kingswood College and Trinity College (Kandy), Ananda College and Thurston College (Colombo) and Marist Stella College, (Negambo) and pieced them together to form one school.

This school does not have a name but it is shown to be the largest and best school in the island. Most of the village scenes were shot in Ambana. We went in search of different sceneries all over the island and made up a village with breath-taking scenic beauty.

This films also includes some underwater scenes. It is a new technique that we experimented with and proved to be a success.

How was the child used for the main role chosen?

Kokila was chosen out of around 3000 children. He came for the interviews and auditions. We chose him

 because he passed all the tests and was most suited for the role.

Is this Kokila's first moment in the limelight?

No, he had acted the role of Sethu in Jayalath Manoratne's stage drama Thala Mala Pipila. He is also a vocalist in Jackson Anthony's children's programme, Hapan Padura, which is telecast on Swarnavahini.

We did not know about this until we had chosen him for the role. Though I am well acquainted with Jackson and Mano, their friendship had no connection with me choosing Kokila as the star for Siri Raja Siri. Edward Jaykody's daughter, Saranya, portrays the role of Sirimal's sister. Similarly she was chosen after taking part in auditions.

Shehan Randeniya plays a significant role, a pulmp boy belonging to the upper class - also named Shehan. (Smiles)

Sankarais very different from all the creations you have done so far. Any idea to do something which go along those lines?

Sankara is not meant for children. It is more of an adult movie. I would not classify all my films as children's movies. They are films that children can watch and enjoy. Siri Raja Siri is the one closest to being labelled as a children's film because children address children through it.

Our previous creations dealt with children speaking to adult minds but Siri Raja Siri is based on the children's world: their problems, joy and experiences. The past films showed how children were affected by adult problems.

Would you say Siri Raja Siri relates experiences taken from real life situations?

Certainly. It involves my own personal experiences and the experiences of others in contemporary society. These problems need no research to be recognised.

They are clearly visible. This story puts a child from a village into the setting of a city school. Thus when a child from a rural background and a child from the upper class wealthy society who had gotten through politicisation are put in same classroom set-up various problems arise.

Parents face a huge dilemma today when they have to enrol a child in a school. There is a lot of competition for entering the city schools as they have more facilities than the village schools. Obviously a parent wants his or her child to have the best education facilitates. Therefore this film also questions the present educational system of Sri Lanka.

What can we expect after Siri Raja Siri?

We are hoping to shoot a film next year, hopefully two. The script is being prepared these days but this will take a different angle. It will not be a film for children.

Sri Lankan film industry enters diamond era - Part 2

E.Weerapperuma

In 1937, W. Don Edward, a musician by profession is said to have made a 25 minute long film titled “Paligeneema”, a story based on history. According to some, N.R.Dias played the main role and it was shown only for two days at the Capitol Theatre, Maradana.

In 1938, F.D.Farook, the owner of the Capitol Hall, Maradana, and also the Manager of the “Bombay Pioneer Films Company” showed keen interest to do a Sinhala film. But he had to abandon the idea as there was not much of enthusiasm among the locals to do films at that time.

In 1945, a well known stage actor E. C. B. Wijesinghe, along with Organ Rodrigo, Senanayake, T. Simion de Silva, Kamala and Wimala had gone to Madras, to make the film “Divya Premaya”, the first sound and dialogue film. But due to lack of resources it was stopped and an attempt was made once again by Thuraisinham, a director of the “Lanka Mohini Films”. Later through his own “Shanmuga Film Company’ tried produce the film but did not complete it due to lack of funds.

In 1947, B. S. Perera of the ‘Minerva Stage Drama group’ wanted to do a film on “Sri Wickrama Rajasingha” based on the script by D. V. Seneviratne but had to abandon due to the out-brake of the Second World War.

It is on record that the film “Devya Premaya” abandoned by others, led the director of this film J. Sing to make a fresh attempt. He went to Madras with Karuna Devi, Luman Rajapaksha and Peter Siriwardene and completed the film. It was screened on June,4, 1948, as the fourth Sinhala film.

We have information to say that attempts were made to produce “Asokamala” and “Sri Wickrama” but failed to do them. But if the attempts were a success, those two films could have gone down the film history of this country, as the first films and not Kadawuna Poronnduwa. (Source: Chitrapati gene by Rev. Fr. Ernest Poruthota, Chapter 19: Page 137 - Katholika Poth Gabada Publication-1964). “Premawathie” was one other film, which could not be completed. The producer was M.S.M.Sakinam, a Muslim national (1948). He was the Chief Advertising Manager of the Imperial Mobile Cinema Company.

He went to Madras with his own script in search of a producer. But those who came to help him, removed him from the production and decided to do another film having got the clue of the opportunity available for the screening of Sinhala films in the country.

With events of the nature described above and other matters unknown to us that led to the delay in giving birth to Sinhala cinema ended with the screening of the film “Kadawuna Poronduwa” on January 21, 1947.

It was the epoch making day, in the history of Sinhala Cinema, as on that day the audience witnessed the screening of the first ever speech and sound film “Kadawuna Poronduwa”. The film was an adaptation of the popular stage drama “Kadawuna Poronduwa” written and directed by B.A.W.Jayamanne. The director of this film Jothish Sing was a Bengali national and Sri Majura Nayagam was the producer.

Nayagam reasoned out as to why he ventured to produce the popular Sinhala play as a film. He said: “You may be wondering why on earth a Tamil person came forward to produce a Sinhala film. You may be disturbed to know the reason.

My answer is very simple. I have noted that a good number of my Sinhala friends enjoy Tamil and Hindi films. I wanted to find out why do they love and appreciate those films and in the reasoning I came to realize that my friends were sad that they did not have films in their own language while there was a lot of resources and talent here.

This was the reason that led me to do a Sinhala film using the talents of the local actors and actresses”.