“I want to disturb the audience,” Tharindu
View(s):
By Susitha Fernando
Award winning young filmmaker Tharindu Ramanayake’s newest film ‘Andeja’ or ‘Living beings born with egg’, made as a part of his film post graduate study at Satyajith Ray Film and Television Institute in India.
Based in rural Sri Lanka with the recently finished ethnic war in the backdrop, ‘Andaja’ reflects how the minority Tamil community experience the suppression by the majority Sinhalese. In 2009, the war ended after around 25 years, causing huge casualties to both the communities and major destruction of the country’s environment and economy.
Tharindu
Tharindu analyses that almost every 10 year period, Sri Lanka goes through a violent be it natural or manmade. ‘In 71, Sri Lanka saw the JVP insurrection. In 83, the ethnic war kicked off between the Tamils and the Sinhalese people. In 87-89, there was a second JVP insurrection. In 2004, Tsunami lashed the shores of the eastern coastline, causing massive destruction of lives and properties. Quite recently, an explosion rocked a Catholic church on Easter morning claiming the lives of around 300 people’ Tharindu explains.
The lives of people are in uncertainty. They don’t know when itwould be their turn to go. Their lives are comparable to those ofchickens, who only live till they are chopped down for food. Such continuous acts of disaster, man-made or natural had broken the people and had traumatised them for life. Their moral believes have changed. Continued exposure to violence had turned them violent.
This change in mindset has affected the society at large. This story is a depiction of how that violence creeps into the family and destroys it bit by bit, devastating it’s members and their relationships with each other,” the young director explained.
“The story of ‘Andaja’ was inspired by a Sri Lankan folklore on the Devil Bird or Ulama. It is a dark story of human realities.
“In wider perspective, even though the war is over, solutions have not being found to many issues,” the director stated.
After the civil war in Sri Lanka, an ex-Sinhalese soldier returns home with a Tamil guerrilla woman who was gang raped by him and his mates. The traumatized girl finds different ways to take revenge but things get brutal when she gets pregnant.
She has no parents or any other relations. She is helpless and she has to find a way to survive in the midst of majority Sinhala surrounding.
“All these problems represent the helpless and marginalized people and how they react when they are cornered by problems beyond their control,” says Ramanayake.
“This is exactly what happened at the Aragalaya which is going on now. When there is no food, fuel and electricity people forgot their ethnic, racial and religious differences,” he explains.
“This is the best opportunity to solve the long lasting ethnic issue in this country,”.
‘Andaja’ symbolically makes parallel between the human and the chicken whose days are numbered until they are killed for flesh.
“Life is so uncertain and short. In a way this is a disturbing film. We are in a disturbed life. I needed to disturb the audience,” Lahiru said adding that his teachers were against the film project claiming there is violence specially when killing of chicken in shown to the audience. “But I can’t kill people. Chickens were symbolical to tell the story of human beings,” he said.
The film was shot at Jharkhand in West Bengal and Sri Lankan cast includes Kaushalya Fernando,
Tharindu Ramanayaka, an independent filmmaker, writer and an actor moved to India to study Drama and Theater for the graduation. From the childhood, he had the desire to tell stories to people and this drove him to pursue theater. But soon he realized film was a better medium to express him. After securing a scholarship, he entered the reputed Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute where he studies film direction and screenplay writing. He started watching more films and learning the history of film and started experimenting with the form, especially with surrealistic images. soon realized that He have found ultimate medium to talk about stories that he has always wanted to tell, derived from the folk tales and Buddhist tales from his region.
With more than eight years’ experience in the world of films, Tharinduhas made short films, documentaries and music videos. Some of them are “MANDALA”, “KRIMIKOSH”, “ANDAJA” and “WEEPING ANGEL.” His films have been screened at many film festivals across the world and won several awards. His short film ‘Krimikosh’ won the Best Film at 9th Agenda 14 Short Film Festival and it was the official selection for the international competition section of 6th Jaffna International Cinema Festival and Royal Stag LargeShort Film Festival 2019– short film of the Week.
His film was also the Official Selection at the Cefalu Film Festival Italy 2019, Music Shorts Film Festival Dublin 2019, Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2019 and Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival 2019.
His film was also selected for Assim Vivemos award at Brazil’s International Disability Film Festival 2019.
Searching for that next furry family member but couldn’t find one in your area? Hitad.lk has the solution with our extensive listings of dogs for sale in Sri Lanka!