‘Boradiya Pokuna’ still in deep water

Young filmmaker Satyajith Maitipe's maiden film 'Boradiya Pokuna' (Scent of the Lotus pond), after four years of its production is still awaiting clearance from the Censor Board. Filmed in 2001 and produced in 2003, the failure to release the film for more than three years has denied many talented first timers including the director himself to introduce themselves to the cinema. The worst is that the young director who also was the co-producer of the film with National Film Corporation has faced severe financial crisis as he was not able to collect the money nor to settle the loan taken to produce the film. The worst of all is that the Sri Lankan audience is denied to see the film after it being awarded and highly acclaimed internationally.

Having participated in a large number of festivals, the film was awarded the special prize for the Best Fiction Film at the Honolulu International Film festival 2005 in Hawaii, United States of America.. Earlier it won the "Tiger Award's nomination" for the most promising new directors at the Rotterdam International film festival- 2004, in the Netherlands.

In addition in 2004 the prestigious Smithsonian institute of USA selected Bora Diya Pokuna for their Discoveries- 2004 Programme as one of the six most exciting, entertaining and original films from Asia. Jay Weisberg of The Variety international film magazine described Bora Diya Pokuna as a film with "Surprisingly explicit content and complex protagonists ".

"Bora Diya Pokuna" represented Sri Lanka at Vancouver (Canada), Seattle (USA) and Brisbane (Australia) international Film festivals and was hailed by the critiques as "At once a modern-day Buddhist parable, a deliciously juicy melodrama and an astonishingly frank depiction of sexual obsession". However having forwarded the film twice to the Public Performances Board (PPB), 'Boradiya Pokuna' remains unsuitable to be seen by the Sri Lankan audience.

After seeing the film initially the Censor Board or the PPB with a letter signed by PPB Chairman dated April 23, 2007, informed director Maitipe to edit certain scenes and dialogues. Having forwarded the film for the second time, the PPB has informed that relevant scenes had not been 'edited' and had listed two more scenes to be 'removed' for the film to be passed for the public screening.

According to the director, executive producer and others in the technical staff including the editor they had reduced the relevant scenes at length, and that certain dialogues and words in the film that were considered to be indecent, taboo and offensive in a separate scene were also deleted and muted from the sound track on the initial request by the PPB.

"Although the editor of this film Ravindra Guruge, the artistes and technicians who contributed to these scenes, and myself as the director did not personally agree to the editing of the scenes mentioned, we have striven to comprehend the prudent and informed decision that the censor board had taken keeping in mind the political and cultural reality of the institution it serves," the director Maitipe stated.

However the decision to completely 'delete' the scenes which had been edited as per the Boards suggestions was unexpected and it had shocked and baffled the production team completely. "That the Sri Lanka PPB comprising a panel of well known educated and sensible intellectuals and artistes who have gained the respect of Sri Lankan society should recommend the complete deletion of these scenes has indeed been bewildering and astounding," the producer said.

"We sincerely believe that a work of art should be appreciated taking its overall implications into consideration. We, artistes and technicians of the film collectively created those scenes keeping in mind the themes of the film and its construction of characters, so as to expose/study their psyches as well as to realistically capture the socio-political and cultural ambience to which these experiences belonged," the director further said.

It is not compatible with the intellectual disposition of the board to consider the scenes of 'Bora Diya Pokuna' as equivalent only to the distasteful and substandard visual depictions of a B-grade sex-only film. Subsequently the production team has requested from each member of the PPB, in the interests of artistic integrity, to reconsider the decision to seek the complete 'deletion' of certain scenes.

Main roles in Bora Diya Pokuna are played by Kaushalya Fernando, Dilani Abeywardena, Dhaminda De Silva, Irangani Serasinghe, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake and Veena Jayakody. The cast boasts of many actors and actresses including, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Veena Jayakody, Priyanka Samaraweera, Chandani Seneviratne, Chandra Kaluarachchi, Leoni Kothalawela, Rohitha Karunaratne and child actress Pramudi Karunaratne.

Among the technical crew; filming is done by Palitha Perera who won the Sumathi awards for camera on two occasions and this is his first attempt in the silver screen. Ravindra Guruge is the editor and the music director is Pradeep Ratnayake. Art director is Suneth Nandalal and G. Shivagurunadan, Ashoka Ariyaratne and Thilina Weerasinghe assisted in production.

When inquired by the TV Times, the head of the PPB Prof. Somaratne Balasuriya said that what he meant by 'editing' was 'deleting' of the said scenes and at the first instance it had not been done. However Prof. Balasuriya said "there are court decisions that have been delivered on films and we have to consider them when passing films".

"With different governments and different ministers regulations change. For example the present regulation with regard to smoking and alcohol in films is one such decision," PPB head said. "We use the relevant scenes if the theme of the film demands them”. “If the director Matipe is willing to remove the relevant scenes we are ready to allow it to be released," he said.