‘Dada Ima’ wins Silver Remi Award for debut film
Dr. Naomal Perera and Dr. Nishani Fernando
Dada Ima’ (End of the hunt), the debut film by Dr. Naomal Perera recently won the Silver ‘Remi Award’ for debut direction at the 53rd World Fest Houston International Film and Video Festival in the USA. Last year film won the Best maiden film at the Calcutta International Cult Film Festival. The film also has represented Sri Lanka at several international film festivals.
‘Dada Ima’ follows story of ‘Dadayama’ (The Hunt), the epoch making film by the late Vasantha Obeysekera. In ‘Dadayama’, an innocent village damsel Rathmalie was murdered by her fiance’, Priyankara, who runs over her in his car and this multi awarded film was screened in 1985. This film was based on a true story which took placed many years back in which the accused was found guilty and sentenced to death by Supreme Court in Sri Lanka.
‘Dada Ima’ starts from here. After Rathmalie’s demise, the custody of their one-year old son (Ravinath) falls under her sister, Rohini. Rohini without disclosing the truth about his parents to Ravinath, lives with him in Europe after leaving the motherland in 1986. Her reluctance to return to Sri Lanka is governed by her fears and disgust of a haunting past of her sister’s catastrophic death.
Priyankara, meanwhile, has absconded the legal repercussions by concealing the murder of Rathmalie for 30 years, and was residing in the UK under a false identity. After completing his education there, he now has come back to Sri Lanka as Keerthi Gajanayaka, a well-known lawyer.
Swarna Mallawarachchi
In the background of these past events, three decades of silence is shattered as Ravinath, who is now a renowned pianist is invited to perform at a concert in Sri Lanka. During his stay, he has a fateful encounter with Keerthi Gajanayake, without realising Keerthi is his father. And this follows a number of dramatic twists and turns.
Interestingly ‘Dada Ima’ stars Swarna Mallawarachchi who played the main role of ‘Dadayama’ for which she won the Best Actress awards at a number of film festivals. After 35 years, Swarna plays the role of Rathmalie’s sister, Rohini.
When Rohini recognised that Priyankara is non-other than disguised Keerthi, she decides to join her ‘son’, with the aims of discovering the truth about her sister’s murder, and to hide the malevolent past from Ravinath.
Other main roles are played by Jackson Anthony, Mahendra Perera, Akila Dhanudhdhara and Marion Wettasinghe. Cinematographed by Ruwan Costa, music director of the film is Nadeeka Guruge.
For Ensquared Private limited, the film is co-produced by Dr. Nishani Fernando, the daughter of Aleric Lionel Fernando, veteran filmmaker, who produced films like ‘Anupama’ (1978), ‘Adara Rathne’ (1980) and ‘Kristhu Charithaya’ (1990). He also directed ‘Randamwel’ (1987) and ‘Dalulana Gini’ (1995).
Filmmaker Dr. Naomal Perera is an Oncological Surgeon hailing from a family in the industry of cinema. Dr. Perera started his film career with a short film in 2014 and it was telecast on TV.
Jackson Anthony in ‘Dada Ima’