A journey of realization on a road movie
Prasanna Jayakody’s much awaited internationally awarded film ‘28- Sri’ is now being screened at CEL and Rithma circuit cinemas around the country.
Taken the route of a road movie, ‘28-Sri’ mainly revolves around three men who take up an interesting and at times entertaining journey with a dead body of a murdered woman. However this tour ends with uncovering the bare truth about themselves and their relationships with those around them.
Along the way all three men discover their direct or indirect, open or secretive connections to the dead woman, ‘Suddi’. This is a new realisation for them. It is not only the three men but the dead woman herself who ‘come to life’ reaches self realization.
The director Jayakody introduces a theatrical effect to the film by making ‘Suddi’ hearts out in a form of a soliloquy. Here Suddi unravels more realities relating to social and cultural barriers that block human relationships. She openly criticizes the conformist society and its inhabitants with sexual frustration who cover themselves up with false religiosity, so called rich culture and tradition.
Jayakody takes a brave effort to talk about taboo subjects of sexuality and hidden realities related to sexual lives of those married and those not.
Mahendra Perera and Rukmal Nirosh who are well-known for their roles in arty films return with their exceptional talent once again while Sarath Kothalawela who is more popular with his hilarious and satirical roles does an equally good job as an ice cream van owner who offers his service to transport a coffin with a dead body without an awareness of what was inside.
But more kudos should go to Semini Iddamalgoda, who comes up with an extraordinary performance as ‘Suddi’, the ‘dead woman who comes to life’. It is unfortunate that it took such a long time to pick Semini for a such a fitting role. One would wonder why her talent was wasted in cheap soap operas on TV, when she could have become one of those internationally awarded actresses in Sri Lankan cinema.
Prasanna Jayakody
won the NETPAC Jury (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) for his cinematic direction of ’28-Sri’ at the 43rd Rotterdam International Film Festival, in the Netherlands. The film was selected as the best Asian film at the prestigious festival which had been running for more than four decades. The Rotterdam Jury in selecting the film noted “a well-measured and crafted film that emotionally engages the audience through poetic storytelling of a critical subject.”
Written and directed by Prasanna, cinematography of ’28 Sri’ is by Chandana Jayasinghe and Rangana Singharage the editor, Nishantha Padmakumara production designer and musical score is by Deshaka Bamunumulla, ‘28-Sri’ is produced by Rasitha Jinasena for SKY Entertainers (Pvt) Ltd.
