Sinasuna Aadaren

ready to roll on screen:

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

Director of Sura Yahana Gini Gani, Gini Gath Madu Samaya and Rosa Patikki fame, Eranga Senaratne will bring his fourth creation Sinasuna Aadaren to theatres at L.F.D. circuit from April 17.

The movie starring Chathurika Peiris, Pradeep Dhamradasa, Shriyantha Mendis, Dilhani Ashokamala, Buddhika Jayaratne, Rodney Warnakula, Vijaya Jayawardena, Udayanthi Kulathunga, Sajeewa Malmalarachchi and others introduces child actress Rachini Viranga to cinema.

The story is based on sacrifice. Vihangi is faced with the bitter choice of giving up her first love for the sake of saving her sister’s family from coming to a tragic end. Vihangi and her sister Anuththara together with her sister’s family visit Nuwara Eliya.

The beautiful landscapes of the cool climate not only bring happiness but a change of emotions as well as she encounters Milan who falls in love with the carefree young girl.

However the bliss of the lovers is short lived as Vihangi is presented with two choices: to follow her heart or to save her sister’s family as they are plunged in debt. Meanwhile Thivanka, the son of businessman whom Anuththara’s husband owns money, steps forward with a proposal.

He asks for Vihangi’s hand in marriage.

Will Vihangi submit to her emotions or will she sacrifice her happiness on behalf of her family? The script is by Lakshman Pushpakumara and the cameraman is Aruna Peiris.

The make up and hair styles are by Kiran G. Soyza. Asela Salgadu is the art director, Stanley de Alwis is the editor, Asela Sapuarachchi is the production manager, Kapila Kumara Samarakoon and Mahesh Indika are the assistant directors and Kushani Weerakoddyi and Nalin Gunaratne are the dance directors of the movie.

Sunil Wimalaweera, Mahesh Rathsara Maddumarachchi and Dinali Senaratne penned the lyrics while the Priyantha Nawalage and Priyanjith Wijesekara are the music directors. Uresha Ravihari, Greshan Ananda, Visharada Abisheka Wimalaweera and Samanthuwa Wasam render their voices for the vocals.

Salinda Randiligama is the production executive. Sinasuna Aadaren is produced by Aeranjan Keerthiratne and Chandani Keerthiratne on behalf of Vidun cinema Entertainment.

March 22:

Watch a film and help the North

The National Film Corporation has set aside March 22 as the date to collect the profits to be donated to the Jaffna Art Centre. Films enthusiasts who are keen to contribute their share to the project are requested to watch a film of their choice at any of the film halls in the island, GM of the National Film Corporation Dharmananda Wijesinghe announced last Thursday.

NFC together with a host of leading artistes in the island, lead by Malini Fonseka, Ravindra Randeniya, Sangeetha Weeraratne, Sanath Gunatilleke, Yashoda Wimaladharma and Nadeeka Gunasekara held a special briefing to enlighten the media on the subject.

“Our aim is to sooth the minds of those who had suffered immensely due to the conflict which had cast its shadows over the country for over three decades because it is art which binds the communities together despite ethnicity, race and religion,” award winning actress, Malini Fonseka who is the driving force behind the project related. The Jaffna Art Centre will comprise a community centre, open art theatre, mini cinema theatre, rehearsal room, office building and a dormitory.

They have also considered the architectural system of the buildings in Jaffna and hopes to employ similar techniques in constructing the building.

“This is our artistes’ gift to those living in the north. The response of all those related to the scene is very encouraging and everyone is eager to do their bit which goes to show that this is not merely an effort organised by the artistes,” Ravindra Randeniya commented adding that this effort will go down in history as years of dedication is needed to put the project into practice.

He also said that once the centre has been established, the maintenance will be conducted by a joint body. A website relating to the details of the project is still under construction and an advertisement to be aired on television had been shot recently.

-RJ

Political Filmmaker: Mirnal Sen

K S Sivakumaran

In the 1970s Maoism was a popular fad even in Lanka. One of the Bengali filmmakers presumably inspired by Maoste Dung was Mirnal Sen Having read about his film Kolkatta’ 71 in British film journals like the ‘Sight and Sound’ and ‘Film and Filming’, I was anxiously awaiting the screening of this film in Colombo.

It was shown here during an Indian Film Festival, courtesy the now defunct FCJAC ( Film Critics and Journalists Association of Ceylon).

At that time conditioned by the new awareness of politics, I was awe struck by the violence depicted in the film. That was the only film of Mirnal Sen that I saw. However for the benefit of interested young readers let me give some information on the film and the filmmaker.

In fact Kolkatta’ 71 was part of a trilogy of Mirnal Sen.His other two films were ‘Intervirew’ and ‘Padatik’. One critic informs that “ The 70’s throbbe with tumult and Sen reacted to it, with the fervour of militancy, of a legacy bequeathed by the Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association.”

The film exposed stark realism and disturbing pictures of poverty.

I find it irresistible to quote a critic on Mirnal Sen’s films:

“Sen’s concern with peoples’ minds, the quality of degradation, everyday moral crises, choices which denote a sell-out or a personal triumph has led to his films becoming so to speak, less physical.

To change from radical chronicler to mellow psychologist is regarded as sudden and his later film evoked a sense of deja vu.

The first explained by the prevalent social condition which reached a turning point with the assumption of power by the left in Bengal, the latter is the result of ordinary people, revealing themselves through fragmented encounters triggered off by certain crises.”

Let me conclude with one of Sen’s bitter observations:

“ I can alone, and not insipid optimism, bring sanity and decency to a world where, to quote Chaplin, greed has poisoned men’s souls”

Come to think of it our own Dharmasena Pathirajah was one of our early filmmakers who had political satire in his creations.

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Slumdog comes to the city

The Event Concept Pvt Ltd will bring award winning movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ to Majestic cinema in April. The much talked about movie which clinched eight awards at this year’s Academy Awards, is based on Vikas Swarup’s Boeke Prize winning novel.

The Event Concept Pvt Ltd which is originally in Dubai has a branch in Sri Lanka.

They have organized many outstanding events with globally acclaimed figures like Shah Rukh Khan, Rock Ohn, Arjun Rampal, Farhan Akhtar and Shankar Ehsaan Loy. They have imported Aamir Khan’s blockbuster movie Ghajini. The more recent Bollywood movie ‘Victory’ and Madhavan’s :Yaavarum Nallam.

EAP to upgrade cinema halls

Leading movie distributors EAP Films will take steps to upgrade 15 of their cinema halls to the standard of their well equipped theatre, Savoy cinema, Wellawatte.

Samantha - Dematagoda, Impala - Rajagiriya, Quinlon - Nugegoda and Tower - Moratuwa will be the first to be upgraded according to this new project. The cinemas will comprise well equipped A/C facilities, DTS and Dolby Digital sound systems, Platter systems, Floating Screens, comfortable chairs and children’s parks.

The Impala cinema will be renamed as Premier Impala after work is complete. The company’s head engineer, Nihal Jayasinghe, after discussions with some companies in India, had estimated that around 50 million rupees will be need to complete the project.

The work is to be completed this year and in 2010 Sinexpo - Kurunegala, along with the other theatres will be upgraded.

The aim behind this project is not only to lure audience to the comforts of enjoying a movie in a well equipped theatre but also to help producers cash in profit to meet up to the amount they invested on the films.

They hope that these steps will encourage many to take up producing quality films, thereby contributing to the welfare of the industry.

-RJ

Keira Knightley takes ‘The Edge of Love’

Does Keira Knightley ever get to take a break? She’s without question one of the industry’s foremost young actresses, but since her 2002 breakthrough in ‘Bend It Like Beckham,’ she’s also seemed hell-bent on proving herself the hardest working.

In the past three years alone, she’s appeared in two blockbusting instalments of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ snagged a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the lauded Ian McEwan adaptation ‘Atonement,’ strapped on a corset for ‘The Duchess’ and shrugged out of one for ‘Silk’, but she assures she’s had her fair share of time off: “I am sort of chomping at the bit to get going. I got tired, and I wanted to be hungry for it again.

And I am very hungry for it now and I can’t wait to start.”

Knightley’s latest role is as Vera Phillips, the childhood flame that poet Dylan Thomas (played by Matthew Rhys) re-encounters in a war-torn London in ‘The Edge of Love’.

The drama, based loosely on events from Thomas’ life, traces the triangle that forms between him, his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller) and his former sweetheart. When Vera marries William Killick (Cillian Murphy), an officer who’s called away to combat, the uneasy friendship the three have formed begins to fall apart.

The film reunites Knightley with John Maybury, who directed her in ‘The Jacket’, and finds her for the first time working off a script written by her mother, playwright Sharman Macdonald.

IFC

How do you break free without breaking apart?

Ten years after appearing together in the highest earning film of all time, Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite in front of the cameras in an all round beautifully, artistically crafted film ‘Revolutionary Road’.

The movie packed with powerhouse performance will begin screening at New Olympia theatre from March 20. It’s 1955. Frank and April Wheeler, in the seventh year of their marriage, have fallen into a life that appears to most as being perfect.

They live in the Connecticut suburbs with two young children.

Frank commutes to New York City where he works in an office job while April stays at home as a housewife, but they’re not happy. April has forgone her dream of becoming an actress, and Frank hates his job - one where he places little effort - although he has never figured out what his passion in life is.

One day, April suggests that they move to Paris - a city where Frank visited during the war and loved, but where April has never been - as a means to rejuvenate their life.

April’s plan: she would be the breadwinner, getting a lucrative secretarial job for one of the major international organizations, while Frank would have free time to find himself whatever his passion, he looks for.

Initially sceptical, Frank ultimately agrees to April’s plan. When circumstances change around the Wheelers, April decides she will do whatever she has to get herself out of her unhappy existence.

‘Revolutionary Road’, based on Richard Yates’s 1961 book about postwar disillusionment, is directed by Winslet’s husband Sam Mendes. It is Mendes’s first time directing his wife.