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Movie Review
Vassane Senahasa - off the beaten track
Dr. Senarath TENNAKOON
T he theme itself is symbolic of the sensitive plot embedded in
Vassane Senahasa. Thunder and lightning accompanied by a torrential
downpour disturbing the environment and the living beings including the
frogs and calves etc for a variable period of time gradually settles
down, ushering harmony.
Likewise the disturbances that erupt in a life situation settle down
quite amicably. In Vassane Senehasa the context is more representative
of the setting than the culture and it is not unusual in modern urban
social settings.
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A scene
from ‘Vassane Senehasa’ |
Densil Jayaweera, fortified with a lengthy period of experience in
aesthetic editing and recreation, has made use of his imaginative acumen
in the production of his maiden cinematic production, Vassane Senehasa
where he has employed the ultra modern or third generation HD technology
that extends beyond the 35 mm negative technology.
Realistic event
Although the plot is not complex it has been made complex in an
imaginative round about way by mixing and shifting episodes forwards and
backwards without causing confusions in the minds of the mature
audience. However, there is one scene where Pradeep kills the servant
boy which appears to be a realistic event on the screen. But later it
appears to be a haunting dream in the disturbed mind of Pradeep, as
later in the film this servant boy appears in the court house.
The plot when straightened looks like this. Pradeep is on the eve of
his marriage with his chosen girl. But when he goes to purchase a
bouquet of flowers for the wedding ceremony, he notices a dead body with
head injuries plunged into the dikkie of his car. It happened in the
night and it was raining too. So he removed the corpse and dumped it by
the wayside. But he noticed a boy watching the incident. Obviously he
was in a state of disturbed mind and was trying to hide the truth.
Although his marriage ceremony was a success, he became a changed
person and his emotional life changed dramatically. He quickly develops
an attachment with the murdered young manager's pretty wife who was
living with her daughter and mother neglecting his married wife. The
story drags on until the culprits who murdered the manager are
identified by the police. The suspicion around Pradeep is withdrawn at
the court house. But Pradeep's beloved attachment to the unfortunate
daughter and wife of the murdered young manager continues to develop
further. The end is kept open for the audience to decide.
The cast includes experienced performers like Wijeratna Warakagoda,
Janak Premalal, Veena Jayakody and Rodney Warnakula. But Rodney
Warnakula's role as that of a jester is redundant and does more harm to
the film than exerting a positive influence. The newcomers in the film
are Umayangana Wickramasinghe, Chandana Nanayakkara and Udith Abeyratna
who do adequate and appropriate justice to their specific roles in
particular during the critical emotional episodes. The numerous speech
acts and speech events are context sensitive. In particular, Janak
Premalal's aggressive and boisterous behaviour after his identification
of Pradeep's connection with a widowed pretty young woman having a
child, was quite efficient-expressed in his verbal encounter with
Pradeep's father (Wijeratna Warakagoda).
More opportunities
In such a volatile setting the verbal pouring oil in soft gentle
appeasing speech by Veena Jayakody (Pradeep's mother) is quite realistic
and appropriate. More opportunities have been offered to Umayangana
Wickramasinghe to express her communicative competence through her
verbal performance, in particular during critical speech acts and
events.
The viewpoint/voice is from an omniscient narrator in the third
person and the perspectives, all the characters and events are narrative
in style. One would recollect the emotional status of the key character
in the film ‘Delovak Atara’ created by Lester James Peiris. In Delovak
Atara the image of the dead person by the road is shown to appear when
the key character of the film (Tony Ranasinghe) tries to see through the
room window. But that apparition type scene even gave a shudder of
amazement to an experienced cinema viewer.
In Vassane Senahasa the apparition of the killed manager lying in the
car dikkie begins to haunt Pradeep at inappropriate times.
How much of it is context sensitive is the issue in focus? Despite
the application of colour and modern technical knowhow the beaten tracks
seem to work well when applied appropriately.
While Jayaweera's film is under the hammer, it is an entertainment
film and is essentially a drug in the market.
Many a good sward is in a bad sheath. Although there is a modicum of
weak detective work, the film does not capsulate the genre of a
detective film of the James Bond type.
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