The latest film of award winning filmmaker Somaratne Dissanayake ‘Bindu’, a children’s story woven around the human-elephant conflict, is now being screened at the Savoy cinema, Colombo and other EAP circuit cinemas.
Produced by Renuka Balasooriya, the film revolves around two children Muthu and Malee played by Sachin Chathuranga and Ruvindika Ishadinee in their debut roles.
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| Renuka Balasuriya |
Somaratne Dissanayake |
Nine year old Muthu and 7 year old Malee (girl) are good friends in an elephant threatened remote village. They become friendly with a baby wild elephant who comes to eat the crops. The friendship between children and the baby elephant develops into a strong bond, but children have to keep the new friendship a secret, because villagers regard elephants as enemies.
A businessman exploits this friendship to attract tourists. Muthu’s father is against the idea, but Malee’s father agrees. Soon the village becomes a tourists spot, and the culture and the natural beauty of the village begin to change.
The story takes an unexpected turn when one day, the baby elephant is disturbed by the misbehavour of a group of tourists and leads to a tragedy. ‘Elephant human conflict in Sri-Lanka is an unsolved problem in the country for many centuries. The problem has reached its peak now, with the reduction of natural jungles for wild animals to live’ said the director speaking about the film.
‘Naturally the wild animals
have no options other than invading villages for food. At the same time poor farmers have to protect the crops, in order to survive. This is a complicated matter which should be handled carefully considering the grievances of both human and elephants’.
‘What I have tried in this film is to address this matter with an interesting story through two little children and a baby elephant in lead roles’ said the director who has won both local and international acclaim for his previous films ‘Saroja’, ‘Suriya Arana’ (Fire fighters), ‘Samanala Thatu’ (Butterfly Wings) and Siri Raja Siri (King Siri ).
The others in the cast are played by Jayantha Muthuthanthree, Kumara Thirimadura, Jayalath Monorathna, Jayani Senanayake and Athula Liyanage.
Make up was done by Ebert Wijesingha, art director is Sunil Wijerathna, Suminda Weerasingha is the cinematographer and Ravindra Guruge edited ‘Bindu’.
To the lyrics of Somaratne Dissanayake and Rohana Weerasingha’s music Madugeeth Dissanayake did the playback singing.
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