What do Martin Scorsese and Chandran Rutnam have in common? Aside from the obvious, they’re both fans of Sir Ben Kingsley. When ‘SBK’ began popping up around Colombo he was immediately recognized, but nobody was quite sure what had brought him here. Now we know it’s Chandran Rutnam’s ‘A Common Man’ – the film being hailed as the first local production to star an Oscar winner.

As the Sri Pada pilgrimage season ended on Vesak, Ian Lockwood’s exhibition of photographs - a personal overview of the sacred mountain opened at the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo. As a 15-time Sri Pada climber, I had my doubts whether anyone could capture the mystical beauty of this sacred mountain and the special culture involved with the pilgrimage through a lens.