The creator of 'banned' film Aksharaya - Ashoka Handagama

Exploring intimate ties in a traditional setup

In his quest to find ulterior forces in the human subconscious and collective psyche that are often veiled in the facade of tradition and convention in a supposedly puritan Asian society, internationally renowned filmmaker Ashoka Handagama has always tread on the sort of dangerous ground no other Sri Lankan contemporary filmmaker has dared traverse.

Through his creations, Handagama exposes the dark facets of the unspeakable and harsh reality of Sri Lankan society: the decadence of once revered social institutions and the vices practised in a highly commercialised metropolis. He also destroys the totally mythical idea of a puritan society which unfortunately exists only in the minds of those moralists who still refuse to face the stark reality of an increasingly failing State.

During a career in filmmaking spanning over fifteen years, Handagama has made films on diverse themes, exploring recesses of the human mind and exposing social vices, creating thereby an audience that looks at his work with a critical eye.

His works have made a lasting impact on Sri Lankan and international audiences, bringing him numerous international awards, including five awards each for Me Mage Sandai (This is my moon) and Thani Thatuwen Piyambanna (Flying with one wing).

Handagama aims his cinematic creations at this particular audience - one which understands his applications of the media - so as to make these movers and shakers bring about a positive cleansing change to a society that is corrupted to the core.

His embryonic early works, those of a university student and budding dramatist, such as Bhumika (role), Hena (lightning) and Maghatha, were in the genre of propaganda dramas on simple themes, in direct contrast to his present works of cinema with their powerful insight into the subtleties of the human psyche, and the complex nature of human relationships in today's socio-political context.

The veteran filmmaker considers the present uproar over his latest film Aksharaya (Letter of fire), a cumulative effect of his entire career in cinema.

There have been controversies over most of his earlier works too, including several teledramas; Prabhathaya, Dunhida Addara (At the Dunhida falls) which came under the sort of ferocious attack that accused Handagama of distorting "village culture" by portraying a rural woman having an extra-marital affair and Diyakata Pahana, "Synthetic Sihina".

After a lapse of four years, he made Me Paren Enna and his latest teledrama is Nagenahera Weralen Ahena.

Most of his films including Me Mage Sandai (This is my moon) were attacked by a section of the military, while moralists were heartlessly critical of Thani Thatuwen Piyambanna (Flying with one wing) which questioned those ideals of manhood they held dear.

Handagama attributes these criticisms to a deep-seated societal attitude: one that says we should not look at society with a critical eye. This particular section is of the view that social evils should never be discussed in works of art, because they consider Sri Lanka to be a sort of a moral Eldorado, abounding in a wealth of goodness and high-mindedness! This segment imagines that the State has enemies outside it, totally refusing to come to terms with any internal factors which might inhibit development: it is always someone else's fault; never our own.

They firmly believe that there are no internal enemies: they consider Tamils, World Bank, IMF and even Norway as external enemies, aiming the destruction of the State in a global context.

However, the stark reality is that child abuse is committed daily, and a large number of youth suffer from unemployment. Social institutions are increasingly collapsing, resulting in the overall decline of moral values and the collapse of once revered institutions.

According to Handagama, any artist who tries to highlight these shortcomings and weaknesses in society falls easy prey to cultural purists who believe these vices do not exist in our society.

Contrary to popular belief, largely a product of ill-informed and biased reporting, Handagama's Aksharaya is a strong critique on incest and its devastating consequences that bring about a tragedy in an upper- middle class family.

He also tries to portray the gradual decadence of social institutions, of the founding pillars of State such as the judiciary, and some of those nefarious activities that have become part and parcel of metropolitan nightlife.

According to Handagama, the intimate relationship between a mother and a son is not an alien concept to Sri Lankan society, in village or city, but only shocking to those who have migrated recently from the village and settled down in the suburbs, belonging to neither village nor city.

It is not the ordinary citizens that were shocked by Aksharaya but a segment of society which has taken it upon themselves to be the moral watchdogs of the Nation.

They are mortally scared to reveal social evils, which when exposed might threaten their very existence. They would rather be the proverbial Ostrich, burying its head in the sand; they believe that ordinary citizens should follow the age-old adage "ignorance is bliss."

If truth be told, it is a painful and Herculean task to come out of this sort of mind-set. Only if we do this can we become the sort of enlightened beings who can march towards culture and socio-economic development that will make a better world for all beings.

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Ashoka Handagama says: My Aksharaya and their Aksharaya

For the very first time in my life I witnessed a "film (p)review" published in a pioneer English daily newspaper in the country by a group of lady-critics who have not seen the movie. This so called (p)review was, as they claimed, based on views and reports of those who have seen the film, media reports and website information.

I was shocked to see that prestigious English newspapers were so down in their moral standards to publish an essay on an unseen movie under the caption of Film (P)review.

These learned ladies review a movie called Aksharaya, of which the name is as same as the one I scripted and directed. The characters are similar. Apparently the difference is the content and the presentation.

In their film, the director, whose name is unknown, has glorified the incestuous relationship between the mother and the son. In my Aksharaya there is no incestuous relationship between the mother and the son, at all. If anybody who has seen my movie can prove that there exists such a relationship in the movie I will withdraw my film from proposed circulation. ( That does not mean that I don't have the right to portray such a relationship in a film. But for my film Aksharaya, such a portrayal was not necessary).

They blame the PPB under several charges. Firstly, for approving a film in which an 'unnatural' relationship between a mother and a son is depicted. As I don't know whether the PPB has approved such a film, I reserve my comment on that. But, the relationship between the mother and the son in my film Aksharaya is the most 'natural' one of all.

The human subject begins with the castration of the umbilical cord through which a child is attached to the mother's body. This separation from mother's body is still incomplete as the child has to depend on the mother's breast feeding. In a normal family, it is the father ( father's law ) who intervenes and breaks this bond.

The story in my film revolves around an elite family within which this role of the father has not been performed. The consequent confusion in the boy's mind drives him into a vicious circle of tragedies from which he has no option to escape. This is because of his failure of entering into the father's symbolic world, i.e. the culture. This is the story in the outer layer of the film. Interwoven with different layers, the real politics of the film lies in the lower layer, which is the subtext. Unfortunately, the current discourse is nowhere near that.

The psycho - analytical explanation

If somebody asked me whether the relationship between a mother and a son was sexual, I would, with no hesitance, say yes. It is of course sexual, but this sexuality is in the unconscious. This can easily be demonstrated, without going into deep psycho-analytical explanation, through commonly observed examples.

The most commonly heard quarrel in a traditional family unit is the so-called Nendamma leli habe (grudge between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law). Why most of the mothers, especially in rural areas, are jealous of their daughters-in-law? Can these learned ladies explain the psychological background for this? Is it because of the wickedness of the mothers-in-law..? Or due to the jealousy of the mother towards the intruder ( daughter in law ) who robs her object of desire?

I would like to ask these ladies to conduct a survey across the district courts in the island to have an idea about the regularity of the cases filed by the wives seeking divorce, charging their husbands for being attracted to the mothers. Once there was a news item in the papers that a wife had filed a case against her husband charging him for sleeping with the mother. (That does not mean that they had sex).

In another such case, the charge is that the mother feeds the son ( husband ) while she (wife) is watching. There are plenty of such cases. Another frequent observation is that some men want to marry women who look like their mothers. The bond between the mother and the son is so strong and that is why Mahamaya had to die after giving birth to Sidhartha.

Father (his symbolic world) appears as a 'bar' separating the child from the mother's body. (If this separation is imperfect, the ensuing child will be a pervert). Once this separation is done the child loses his object of desire and at that point the real journey of the life begins. All of us in the society are in search of this lost something. This desire is sexual, and it is in the unconscious.

There is no religious literature other than in Buddhism, in which this complex human subject was addressed. Enough of examples can be traced from the Jathaka potha, Parajika Pali, Anguththara Nikaya etc. The irony in the case of Aksharaya is that the most of the protestors based their protest campaigns in the name of the Sinhala-Buddhist culture.

These ladies blame the PPP, for approving a film that shatters the family values and cultural standards. How can a film shatter those values and standards..? A film for me, does not destroy ( or create) anything in reality. If one film can shatter family values and cultural standards of a society, those values and standards can surely be protected or rebuilt by another one. I humbly reveal my inability to do it. If anybody can provide me with such a script, I will be more than happy to exhaust my energy to make a movie based on that.