A black comedy with a humorous touch
Experienced director Mohan Niyaz’s latest film ‘Api Merenne Nehe’ (We do not Die) a black comedy is now being screened at Regal Colombo and other CEL circuit cinemas around country. Revolving around a man who pretends to be dead but witnesses the reaction of the society and which places him in a complex situation and makes him frustrated, the film introduced a new genre, ‘black comedy’ to Sri Lankan filmgoers.
The film is woven around Manoj Amarajeewa is a middle-aged father of two sons and while on an official trip in the vehicle he was travelling is blown off by a claymore mine, killing all the passengers. However Amarajeewa escapes as he had got off the vehicle a few minutes before the blast. Yet he continues to remain “dead” making the company pay compensation for his loss. Everybody believes him and the secret was shared only with his buddy, Ginige. Amarajeewa even attends his funeral in disguise.
However the funeral proceedings make Amarajeewa frustrated, yet he cannot commit suicide for obvious reasons. Credited for earlier directions like ‘Yasoma’, ‘Blendings’, ‘Kalu Sudu Mal’, and ‘Eka Malaka Pethi’, Niyaz’s new film presents a different kind of comedy.“Black comedy is a genre in which serious problems are discussed with a lighter presentation. Though there is humour, strong messages are passed through them,” says director Mohan. Black comedies were experimented in the stage by several playwrights but they never came to Sri Lankan cinema,” he added. Niyaz himself experimented this genre with ‘Maya Devi’ a stage play produced in 1980.
Semini Iddamalgoda, Palitha Silva, Kumara Thirimadura, Anton Jude, Sarath Kotalawela, J. B. Gangodatenna, Upali Keerthisena, Ashoka Soysa, Lucky Dias, Chanchala Warnasuriya, Kamal Dilshan, Chaminda Wickremasinghe and Roshan Jayasundara include the cast in the film.
The film is scripted by award winning playwright and script writer K. B. Herath and the film introduces two new producers Ruwan Rukmal Tilakaratne and Anusha Mediwaka to the local cinema. K. D. Dayananda directed camera, Lesley Wimal did art direction and Saneera Dinesh Kumara was in charge of make-up.The film was shot in locations in and around Colombo, Kandy, Kalutara and Panadura.