|
Samanala Sandhawaniya:
Bringing harmony to Lankan cinema
Reviewed by Lakshman Illangakoon
Rear Admiral (retired)
Until I went to see Samanala Sandhawaniya (Butterfly Symphony) I had
no idea why a movie like that should have a name such as Butterfly
Symphony. Halfway through the movie, I realised that though the director
may have named it for some other reason what he has done to Sri Lankan
cinema is analogous to what Beethoven did to symphony music dramatically
expanding the horizon of symphony music. His symphony Eroica has a scale
and emotional range that set it apart from other symphonies of his days.
Jayantha Chandrasiri with his Butterfly Symphony has achieved for Sri
Lankan movies what Beethoven did to symphony music; a scale and
emotional range that are rare in Sri Lankan cinema. Jayantha Chandrasiri
has done this in a very special way. His movie defies pigeonholing; it
is difficult to categorise this movie into a genre. What at the
beginning appears to be a simple and straight story like any other love
story in a Sinhala movie, eventually reveals itself to be a
multi-faceted affair, making it difficult to classify it into a
definitive category.
 |
|
A scene from the film |
Highly charged emotional scenes, which crop up frequently in the
movie, keep the audience thrilled. The climax of such emotional scenes;
the scenes where Vadeesha (Uddika Premarathne) meets Punya (Yashoda
Wimaladarma) in his dressing room, it was so emotionally charged that it
fills the theatre with smog like tension that can be cut with a knife.
Intricacies
The story of the movie, well woven with all the intricacies and
ingredients, revolves around a fleeting moment of a adolescent child,
who refuses to let go a letter, thrown to jungle by an errant mailman
and that moment, from his memories. In the course of this stubborn
refusal he gets himself and others around him trapped prisoners in that
moment. In his mundane parallel universe he becomes a superstar.
What distinguishes this film from similar movies of pashion and loss,
is that its unbearably intense sensual quality, which is present to
different degree in almost every frame of the movie. Both the leading
actors and especially Vadeesha’s brother (Pubudu Chathuranga) are able
to keep that intense feeling throughout, even in brief encounters.
Vadeesha’s feeling of being trapped in someone else’s inescapable
misfortune, as if he is instrumental in trapping the girl in that dark
world runs through like a emotional storm from beginning to the end.
Hilarious scenes
Though the movie is dealing with very emotional and serious subject,
to the director’s credit, he has been able to mix a just an adequate
amount of hilarious scenes without disturbing the flow of the story even
for a second. The comedy scene at the park, the location, which is the
epicentre of the movie, brought to life by Sadun Bandara and Dimuthu
Chinthaka is one of the best comedy scenes to come, in my opinion in a
Sinhala movie in recent times.
At the beginning of the scene at the park you expect a usual movie
comedy scene and get the familiar feeling of embarrassment that you get
because somebody known to you is going to make a fool of himself and you
can’t help him. But as the scene unrolls it keep you laughing and at the
same time on suspense. Two actors are very professional and they would
do well to start their own comic act like ‘Rajasabawa’. Like the movie
itself the best moment of the comedy scene is at the end. The encounter
between Vadeesha’s brother and the comic duo was probably the best 30
second in the movie.
Memories
The movie also takes us, who lived through snail mail era part of our
life back to the memories of living in a world sans instant
communication. For the generation that has not experienced the snail
mail era it will be very difficult to comprehend how much ruination a
one lost mail, can bring.
No doubt the, music director, song writers, technical teams had
contributed immensely to the success of the movie, though sometimes I
felt that the music was two loud and trying to dominate over the other
more important elements of the movie.
In the end I found this film to be a mixture of genuine poetry
nostalgia for era bygone and some rare moment of unembarrassed genuine
hilarity. |
