Aba, a film based on the story of prince Pandukabhaya:

Techno excellence in wilderness of history

By Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne

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Beguiled by the perfect tailor coupled with rumours that the film Aba, maiden directorial venture of Jackson Anthony is going to be an epic film like those of Gladiator and Ashoka, on the story of Prince Pandukabhaya, we entered Savoy Cinema in Wellawatte with the hope of witnessing an epic film Aba.

According to history, the astrologers predicted that prince Pandukabhaya would kill all his uncles and become the king of the land. The crust of the film is made on the legend Pandukabhaya.

It was clear from the very beginning of the film that the producer has taken every measure to make Aba, one of the best technically perfect productions. At no stage, quality of picture and sound has it been compromised. Aba will go down in the history of Sinhala films as one of the best productions in terms of use of state of art technology.

In this aspect, the film attempts to equate itself with the Gladiator and Ashoka. Both films were based on legends. However, success or the failure of a film is, by and large, dependent not only on the application of modern technology but also at the hand of the director.

Especially in an epic film, the film maker should painstakingly look into the details of the legend on which the film is made as well as the kind of society prevalent at that particular period of time in the history.

A considerable ground should be covered researching into minute details of the principle characters such as royal family and the mode of punishments meted out to condemned persons and execution of the capital punishment.

The film commences in the royal birth chamber (Wadum Geya) where princess Chithra undergoes labour pains while her brothers protect the chamber in the hope to kill the child if the child happened to be a male.

According to royal astrologers, a baby boy born of princess Chitra would kill all her brothers and capture the throne. For this very reason the beautiful princess Chitra was imprisoned in a single towered compartment built in the middle of a pond and zealously guarded by soldiers around the clock.

However, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son who ultimately captured the throne killing his uncles.

Archaeological evidence vindicate the legend and remnants of the foundation supposed to be that of the single towered compartment (Ektam geya) together with ruins of the Royal palace is found in the ancient seat of governance in Paduwas Nuwara.

It is evident from the rather unrealistic details of the royal birth chamber the callous approach that the director has adapted in portraying the legend of Pandukabhaya.

The cauldron-belly women together with princess Chithra who are undergoing labour pains and rather unwanted depiction of birth has portrayed, without a doubt, a picture of a primordial society which really did not exist in Sri Lanka.

Absence of Royal physician in the birth chamber is conspicuous. The bellies of the women in the chamber are rather abnormally large as if they are about to give birth to elephant cubs rather than babies.

The royal palace on sand is, perhaps, a cheap adaptation from the film Gladiator and far from being realistic with regard to historical evidence on royal palaces in Sri Lanka.

According to history, Sri Lankan royal palaces were not built on sand but on firm foundations laid with stone pillars and supposed to be protected by ditches filled with fierce crocodiles and strong gates and doors.

The sliding door with planks of wood in a grid like structure and when closed sank into the sandy ground, perhaps existed in a desert civilization and certainly impossible to have been existed in any part of Sri Lanka.

It seems that the script writer and the director has quite conveniently forgotten the history of the land of his birth and as more insignificant details were given prominence in the story.

The Climax of the story is rather artificial and the mission that sixteen year old prince Pandukabhaya professed to undertake at the end of the film wielding a sword is bleak.

Jackson Anthony has miserably failed to do justice to the legend Pandukabhaya. Instead of making an epic out of a rich legacy of Pandukabhaya, Jackson Anthony has made a concoction seemingly deriving elements from epic films such as Gladiator, Ashoka and even mystic elements from north Indian Tamil movies.

For instance Chitraraja’s apparition reminded the audience of a Tamil movie. Some of the scenes are both unrealistic and hilarious and did not evoke the intended feelings. For instance the beheading of Chitraraja and Kalawela by royal executors in the midst of thunder and rain is one such incident.

The royal executors who supposed to be fearless, urinate in fear of earning the curse of the god and the sheer gush of urine from the under pants of the executors dissolved in rain water, seems rather to emanate from bulls than from humans.

Instead of evoking a fear and preparing the audience for imminent destruction of royalty at the hand of prince Pandukabhaya, the scene becomes hilarious, evoking pity on the director and the cast.

Although colloquial language can be effectively used in a film as an indirect indicator of time and social status of characters, it cannot be permissible to use derogatory remarks aimed at women as Sri Lankan Buddhist milieu placed higher value on women in general and on the motherhood in particular.

The attempt at using derogatory remarks and wildlife behaviour especially in the context of intimate relationships is amounting to gross distortion of Sri Lankan history, vindicating some of the biased views expressed by imperialist writers such as Lenard Woolf in “Village in the jungle”.

It is rather estrange that the officials in the Public Performances Board who vowed to be the vanguards of culture, religion and national integrity, are turning a Nelsonian eye on the gross distortion of our motherland’s image in the film Aba.

The Public Performances Board should have put this film into the category of adults only or more suitable for adults as children who watch the film would call their mothers by animal’s names and scantily clad characters would give them a wrong impression of Sri Lankan ancient civilization which is depicted here as barbarians.

It is a home truth that in Sri Lankan villages, the affairs of intimate relationships are held sacred by the community which is also a common trait in Asian cultures and sexual behaviour in public is restrained.

In this context, Habara’s sexual elation which is publicly manifested in monkey-like behaviour is distortion and unrealistic. This would have been the notion of village in the brink of imagination on the part of the director Jackson Anthony. Saumya Liyanage, who is an academic, should not be a laughing stock before the public by portraying such third grade characters.

Apart from the Princess (Sarala Kariyawasam), Badra Kachchayana (Malani Fonseka), Gumbaka Bhutha (Dulani Anuradha) and king Abhaya (Lucien Bulathsinghala), other actors and actresses including Samuya Liyanage (Habara) failed to live up to their allotted roles. Wasantha Dukganarala as Maha Berana also failed in portraying the character of the royal messenger.

For instance the tom-tom beater or Maha Berana should deliver the royal decree in a fitting manner so as to convey the gravity of the message, to the instance of beheading Chitharaja and Kalawela, the messenger failed to evoke the feeling of gravity of beheading. The Delivery of the message is hilarious and reminds one of the audience of legendary royal jester Andare.

The main character Aba has not showed remarkable traits of a hero. It is a mediocre character which has also not been evolved as host of other characters in the film. The director has failed to derive the best performance out of the talented cast including Malani Fonseka (Bhadra Kachchayana) and Sabitha Perera (Ummada Chitra).

Malani Fonseka did not show the same ability to use facial expression as he did in Ammawarune. It should be mentioned here that a comprehensive review on the film Aba is necessitated by the fact that this negative trend of deteriorating quality of artistic films should be arrested forthwith.

The music scores in the film seem to be of no value and not integrated with the story. If the music has been well integrated into the story and played a prominent place, the film makers would have been able to intensify the zests. However, here music and some songs added spices to the confusion.

Compared with legendary production like God King by Lester James Peries, Aba comes not even closer to the shadow of it.