Akasa Kusum - a refined cinematic painting

E. M. G. Edirisinghe

Concise and precise, Akasa Kusum of Prasanna Vithanage, a well-pronounced and highly talented film maker, is a cinematic painting viewed through a journey realised across multiple aspects of the language of cinema.

A life painting of diverse moods and attitudes of characters and incidents, woven in a delicate emphatic visionary material that grips the viewer with a mellowed narration that unfolds in an uneven terrain.

The opening scene of the film with Sandhya Rani (Malini Fonseka) framed at close-up into reading a letter is so impressive that it takes the viewer into a depth that unfolds into deeply composed sequences. The end of her reading with a cut to rain water dripping from the roof in three tiny streams is symbolical of her past, present and future that was to be portrayed.

The cinematic texture

Usual uniflow with which Prasanna had woven his cinematic textures with exceptional talent as seen in Ira Mediyama and Sisila Gini Ganee, in this film he has given way to a sporadic incidental glimpses enriched by explicitly conceived compositions of depth and variety. Sandhya Rani does not disclose herself in narrative consequences, but within compact episodic progressions that brings out flashes of her brilliant portrayals in such instances as her reading of the letter sent to her by her sister in Canada, search for her daughter in a Karaoke night club and the outrageous display of anger to her sister Mallika (Kaushalya Fernando).

Influence of Buddhist thinking in understanding the true nature of life and how unsatisfactory and impermanent it is, had woven itself into its inner fabric of verbal and visual impressions, that it impels a soft sensitive touch that passionately rests in the mind of the viewer.

Spiritual decline

Behind the life that shot into fame and popular spot-light, is the personality that faded into loneliness; Mallika was in perpetual need; behind Sandhya Rani's success is a total emotional failure in reaching the essence of life and behind the glitter and glamour Priya consumes it is a total spiritual decay and the sister in Canada is in need of fulfilling her moral commitment. The art of presentation of these complications in a mixture of exposures with a polished quick cuts of their fast moving life, which dips into occasional lapses that comes alive with superb collective as well as individual performances.

Sandhya Rani had flowered into national fame and glory in the world of cinema. That is why she said that the whole country knew that she was not married with which she thought that she had sealed her unpleasant past. That bloated life and fragile popularity comes down crashing when she was made to realize with a retrospective sensitivity that touches the roots of human emotions reaching the zenith that was awakened through the eternal maternal love that has no match in mundane life.

Complex reflections

A coercive cinematic presentation, Akasa Kusum brings out a vision that reflects the complex nature of humans which entangles itself in various fields and facets in a diversity of issues giving a fresh dimension to the social and personal life of man. Rani's sentimental attachment to her profession which brought her immense stature is mirrored in her renting out a room for the artistes in the moving art. The universal truth of impermanence is introduced through her being compelled to make patties for sale to supplement her income for survival.

Rani's visit and later to Priya's room, caused a fundamental change in her life lent for the joy of others both at personal and reel level. At the club, Priya paid the mother in the same kind she used to pay her with which she lived after letting her to slip from her mind. It was a reminder that rekindled her past that she had no control over it which had turned unsavoury. The daughter when found living almost in solitude and similar fashion, it struck a similarity in life code to which she was reduced in her post-screen era.

When it was calmness that prevailed on surface with the mother receding to a quiet passive life, the unexpressed conflict between the discarded daughter and the disowned mother reached the climax when the daughter freed herself from the burden of bearing the agony of insecurity.

With this pathetic aspect of life brought to light with the fading light of celluloid life, Prasanna enlivens the reality of life by bringing the distance between the acquired life and the life true to reality being borne into focus. Artistes in the moving art similar to Flowers in the Sky with shine, scent colour and beauty too are without roots. However, the truth is that one day they have to come down on earth as they have no roots to sustain them in air; and that is what Akasa Kusum is about.

Appreciative narrative

One single scene added on to the episodic narrative that is symbolical of eternal significance is the one in which the Policeman who had come on duty, seeing Sandhya was quick to respond with his appreciative sentiments in submissive gestures that she was his most loved childhood actress.

This single event brings out the essence of a film star's role in the eyes of the public who are enthraled by their star roles. How transient are all those material gains in mundane existence.

Photography neat and penetrative, that it touches the aesthetic sense with enormous effect and it appeals to intellectual grip activated by short crispy cumulative dialogues. Emotions succinctly fed into compact refined frames accentuated by melodies that take the visuals into unusual depth.

With meaningfully composed scenes woven into precise sequences, Akasa Kusum is a superb cinematic presentation with all its aspects and shades blended to release a work that easily strikes and sticks deep. It instantly and instinctively feels that Nimmi Harasgama as Priya steals lasting impression of an excellent supporting thespian performance.

Every single scene into which she is framed strikes a note of persuasive conviction. Malini Fonseka in the lead role adds a measured depth with a subdued passive exertion as demanded by the expensive role she is expected to immortalise which she does with a monumental performance.

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page