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Santhrase is full of suspense
By Susitha R. Fernando

"Santhrase" based on James Hadley Chase's novel 'One Bright Summer Morning' is telecast every Friday at 7.30 pm on ITN channel. The detective style telefilm depicts a writer who goes in search of a calm and quite surrounding to write his latest script finally becoming a hostage of a gang of thieves.

Wickrema Gunaratne is a famous writer and a novelist. Invited to write a script for a film he wants to get away from the noisy town to complete his work. Gunaratne leases an abandoned bungalow situated in the thick of a jungle and moves in to it with his wife, child and the house keeper John along with the pet dog for a stay of three months there.
While Wickrema one morning was busy plotting how end his story hears something fishy going on in the house. On inquiries being made he finds John and the pet dog missing.

Gunaratne finds his telephone disconnected making it impossible for him to contact Police. Also his car could not be started. These make him nervous and shows him to what dangers he was facing.

Soon Wickrema comes to realise that the house he had leased is being used by a some others to hold an abducted millionaire girl while demanding a ransom. Wickrema and his family become hostage in the house he had leased. In order to rescue his family from the predicament Gunaratne agrees to be the instrument of contact for the gang.
What would happen to Wickrema and his family? Will the gang be able to accomplish their goal and get the ransom? As 'Santhrase' reaches its end at the 19th episode all these questions would find answers.

The cast in the mini-film include Gnananga Gunawardena, Ananda Wickremage, Susantha Chandramali, Nimanthi Porage, Nilanthi Wijesinghe, Roger Seneviratne and Sasanthi Jayasekara.

Music is directed by Visharadha Upul Perera and the camera is handled by Thrishula Thambawita and Thilak Ranaweera. The teleplay is edited by Bathiya Dunusinghe.
'Santhrase' is directed by Prasanna Wanasinghe and is a production of '2R Creations'.

Asoka war lord turns to peace
By Sanath Weerasuriya
The much talked about Hindi movie 'Asoka' with English sub-titles, started to conquer Sri Lankan audiences at Liberty Cinema Colombo. Top Indian director Santosh Sivan's extraordinary Indian epic begins as a dance-filled journey and ends on a battlefield, where a conquering warlord, Asoka, decides to turn his back on bloodshed and dedicate himself to peace.

The film is very important to Sri Lanka as, Emperor Asoka, who sent his son Mahendra (Mihindu) and daughter Sangamitta to Sri Lanka with the message of Lord Buddha, for the first time out of India.

The film too mentions this part of history as Sri Lanka was the very first country to get the words of Lord Buddha, much before he spread the Buddhism in Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Syria and Cyrenia (North Africa). Sri Lanka is the only Buddhist country in the world today to have public holidays (Poson and Esala Poya) to celebrate the arrival of son and daughter of Asoka.

Asoka established Buddhism in India centuries before the birth of Christ. Though this Bollywood crossover mixes fact with much fable, it succeeds brilliantly, combining impressive scale and a rich use of natural landscape with a story that twists and turns, and calling upon the pop video, ancient dance, traditional puppetry, costume and music, stand-up comedy and athletic sword fights.

Starring the heart-throb Shah Ruk Khan as Asoka, and the transfixing Kareena Kapoor as his lost love, Kaurwaki, it is sexy without one kiss and savage without indulging in gore, and deserves to be this year's Crouching.

Shah Ruk Khan takes the title role as the self-exiled warrior prince who masquerades as a commoner, finds love with an incognito princess, but is forced to return home to take up arms. He wages a bloody and unrelenting war, takes a wife and devastates all before him until he sees the Buddhist light and renounces his violent past. The other stars in the film are Rahul Dev, Hrishita Bahtt and child star Suraj Blaje.

Generally I do not encourage Hindi movies, but I think 'Asoka' can be exceptional, though it has few songs with typical modern-day Hindi dancing sequences. Mainly because the historical facts that directly connect to Sri Lanka.

"Prabhashwaree":Women crisis on stage

Ashoka Weerasinghe's "Prabhashwaree" stage drama is scheduled to be staged at the YMBA Borella on June 8, at 6.30 pm. This drama is based on the crisis young women face in our society. Cast includes Rathnasheela Perera, Premadasa Withanage, Shantha Deshabandu, Adeesha Kanchana, Newton Katugampola, Hasini Jayaweera, Dayanada Hewage and Ashoka Weerasinghe. Music for the drama is by Nelson Damascene. The drama is a production of Francis Perera.

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