paradise-from-inner-conflict-to-a-greater-war

Neither India nor Indian films are strangers to celebrated Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage. 

His visits to India are so frequent that he calls it his second home.

"In fact, I would say India launched me all those years ago. It is only after I was accepted in India that I found the courage to take my films to all those festivals in Europe," says Vithanage.

Now, India is giving him yet another milestone in Paradise, released worldwide on June 28, including almost 100 theatres in India's big cities.

Paradise is set in the backdrop of Sri Lanka's financial crisis of 2022, but told from the viewpoint of a Malayalee couple. 

Malayalam film stars Darshana Rajendran and Roshan Mathew play the lead.

As he is known for, in Paradise too Vithanage uses the inner conflicts of his lead characters, as they are forced to shed their political apathy, to push forth the bigger narrative of social injustices.

Paradise, produced by Newton Cinema, is already a force to reckon with in the festival circuit. Among others, it won the prestigious Kim Jiseok award at the Busan Film Festival last year.

But the fact that the film will receive a wider audience is a great achievement for him, acknowledges Vithanage. He recalls the time when his wife, Damayanthi Fonseka, an actor, had to pawn her jewellery to produce his film.

"I got lucky, though. All my films from 2008 were partly funded by Indian producers. So, for 32 years now, I have been able to make films, without having to think about an alternative career," said Vithanage.

In fact, Vithanage pointed out, renowned Indian film technician, editor Sreekar Prasad, has been part of his film journey for 27 years. He is the editor of Paradise too.

"He even produced Akasa Kusum in 2008. Later, filmmaker Rahul Roy produced a film With You, Without You and the docudrama Silence of the Court.

 
Mumbai-based Jar Pictures produced Gaadi: Children of the Sun. Now, Newton Cinema is 100 per cent behind Paradise, added Vithanage.

Although he has been in and out of India, Kerala has always been a favourite, because it is very similar to Sri Lanka, said Vithanage.

"So, it was kind of natural that I would gravitate towards Malayalees as my lead. When you weave a story, if you know about the people that you are talking about, it becomes easy to portray them," said Vithanage.

Another recurring thing about Vithanage's films are his "strong women." Just as Paradise, which has people from and outside Sri Lanka, making him adjust his lens to accommodate both their points of view, even though he is a man, Vithanage said he tries to see where a woman might come from, looking at her beyond the male gaze.

"In fact, in my films I am questioning the male gaze… In art, that should happen. The artists who have inspired me have done that. Leo Tolstoy has done that. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has done that. Fyodor Dostoevsky has done that. In real life, I may not be able to do that, but when I start to write, I try to understand human beings from a woman’s point of view," said Vithanage.

Although he has a niche audience within Sri Lanka, the scope within his country, admitted Vithanage, is very limited.

 

"Yes, six million people had watched films in the 200 theatres of Sri Lanka last year, but the trending genre was comedy," added Vithanage.

A far cry from what Vithanage makes. Naturally, his cinematic scope expanded to include people from outside Sri Lanka as well, said Vithanage.

With time, he had mastered the art of telling his stories in a way that would appeal to even people who have no idea of what is happening in Sri Lanka, he added.

But Vithanage said looking away from the issues plaguing his country had never been an option for him.

 

"As a filmmaker, what is happening around me affects me and it is my responsibility to use the visual media as a tool to communicate that," added Vithanage.

Perhaps, it is how he has learnt to package the macro into the micro that has earned him a place among the all-time greats, not just in Sri Lanka but also in South Asia.

For instance, in his second film, Dark Night of the Soul, released in 1996, loosely based on Tolstoy's Resurrection, he alludes to the second uprising of the Naxalites that Sri Lanka witnessed in 1988/89.

 

While the crux of the film is the moral struggle of the male protagonist and his betrayal, the hints about the inequalities of the society that peppers the narration is just about right to pique one’s curiosity about the larger picture.

"My views may be subjective. But I always believed in portraying the objective truth in my films, without distorting them," added Vithanage.

When telling any truth, Vithanage is aware that censorship is inevitable.

"Because politicians choose nationalism to drive their careers, they may not like any narrative other than theirs. So, censorship is real. Artists must fight against it," said Vithanage, recalling how he managed to release one of his banned films, Death on a Full Moon Day, after a year-long legal battle.

Vithanage also said these kinds of difficulties are also a blessing in disguise for filmmakers, giving them opportunities to fine tune their craft.

"For instance, the political atmosphere prevalent in Sri Lanka has made me tell my story in a more imaginative manner," he added.