Prabakaran (ප්රභාකරන්)
I saw Prabakran.
When I went to Regal Cinema to watch Prabakaran, I was highly doubtful that it was a good movie- good in the sense of being artistic. I already knew that it was good in the story, message, and objective departments. I especially wanted to know what so pissed off the LTTE supporters in Chennai, India that they sent media freedom on a hike and beat the shit out of Thushara Peiris, the debutant director of the movie and hijacked the original copies of the movie.
My initial impression was that Thushara Pieris is trying to make a buck out of the current anti-terrorist and pro-military sentiment in the country by making a cheap movie and capitalizing and dramatizing the hijacking of the movie reels so as to increase the ticket sales. I remember, asking someone who had watched the movie, when it initially came out, about its quality. “Crap,” he said- “just a cheap movie- no point in watching”. But a few weeks back, my good friend Namal and fellow blogger posted a very nice and eloquent post on the movie and told me that all Sri Lankans should definitely go see it.
So after a lot of putting it off, I finally did see it yesterday.
Boy, was I glad to be proven wrong about my doubts!
It is an excellent movie.
The story flows smoothly from beginning to end and revolves around a pregnant would be suicide bomber living in a border village and her brother, Prabakaran, a child soldier with the LTTE. The movie explores topics that were, before this, conveniently or treacherously left out from most other movies that were set on the same background. It speaks of the suffering and insecurities in the border villages, the tolerance of the Sinhalease in accommodating Tamils amongst them (obvious to anyone living in Sri Lanka, but for some reason overlooked by everyone preaching harmony to us from outside), the forceful proscription and retention of child soldiers by the LTTE, the culture of hatred that propels the LTTE terrorist machine, the hoodwinking of NGO’s by the LTTE, the humane side of Sri Lankan soldiers, and more …
Movies like “Sudu Kalu Saha Alu”, “Ira Mediyama”, “Sulanga Enu Pinisa” were also set on the same theme and were “international recognized” and “critically acclaimed”. I watched “Sudu Kalu Saha Alu” and was utterly disgusted. Well, “Sudu Kalu Saha Alu” was cinematographically excellent, the story was convincing- at least to an outsider, say somebody sitting on the panel at an international film festival. But the spirit of that movie was plainly and hideously pro- LTTE. Pro-terrorist in the sense that it propagates the same beliefs and values that the LTTE terrorists want to propagate. One example that made an indelible sore impression on my mind from the movie “Sudu Kalu Saha Alu” was a murder scene committed in front of a Buddha Statue, with the statue prominently and symbolically highlighted.
Didn’t have the opportunity to see “Sulanga Enu Pinisa” but according to those who did, it is even worse than the other one.
I did watch “Ira Mediyama” and I should admit that it was an ok sort of film when you try be very objective, but it definitely had “this war against the terrorist is pointless, joining the army is a waste, the terrorists are humane …” kind of air about it. And watching it you get the impression that the director has his eyes on the international award and had forgotten his duty to his country…
Watching “Prabakaran” after all those other movies was like getting a breath of fresh air. Cinematography wise, there are a lot of places that would benefit from improvement- but Thushara definitely has his heart in the right place.
If you haven’t watched it, please do go and watch it…
Encourage Thushara and other directors like him to make more movies that takes the real picture of life in Sri Lanka to the world.
Spending an evening and watching the movie is the least you can do…
It just passed his 50th day of screening in Sri Lanka- so you probably would want to hurry before it is taken off. You can see it at: Regal Colombo, Lido Borella and many other theatres island wide.
If Mr. Thushara Pieris happens to read this post, well done and please, once the theatrical screening is over, release the movie as free divx video on the Net. That will take it to thousands of more viewers…
I am back to blogging
Didn’t write to the blog for a long time.
Although I could say I was busy, I could have made time if I really wanted to.
So I guess that the real reason for ‘Sithiwili’ not seeing any activity was that I was too plain old lazy to write. 
Anyways, I am back.
Obviously I wouldn’t be writing at the furious almost 1 post a day pace that I started out with. 
but at a more sedate and hopefully more maintainable pace. Say, 1 post a week …
My initial idea on writing every post in both Sinhala and English seems a little too much to me right now. So I will write in whatever language seems most appropriate for each particular post.
By the way I am posting at this particular moment in time because I just installed the Flock web browser and it contains a decent looking blog editor.
“Free Education” and “Education for Free”
On my way to work … I find myself on a bus.
Just as we pull off the Fort bus halt, the monotony of the journey is broken by a couple of energetic young students who had just got on- a boy and two girls.
The boy, apparently their leader, positions himself in the front and starts delivering a speech … “Mothers! Fathers! Brothers! Sisters! …”
They were university students- student activists to be exact- and the speech was about their struggle for “Saving Free Education”. They stated that the threat to free education is primarily from private universities.
They mentioned that while students with “three A grade passes at Advanced Level” are unable to get into a state university, students with rich parents, barely making through ALs, get into private universities and grab their jobs.
Solution to this problem, they said, is simple- “Ban private universities!”
They asked our help for their struggle. It is not just our struggle- they said- we are the voice of all current and future university students of Sri Lanka.
What they wanted from us was simple- buying a ten rupee sticker.
I brought one. Not because I approved of their struggle- but because not so long ago I too was a state university student.
Besides, the sticker was quite nice …
They got off and went away; probably to another bus, with their message and the ten rupee stickers.
But it got me thinking …
Is “Free Education” the same as “Education for Free”?
මාර්ග නීති කාවෙනුවෙන්ද?
සෙමෙන් ඉදිරියට ඇදෙන රථ පෙල අතරින් රිංගමින්, වරෙක දකුණු පැත්තෙන් ද වරෙක වම් පැත්තෙන්ද අනිත් වාහන පසුකරමින්, නලාවේ සහ තම විශාලත්වයේ පිහිටෙන් ඉදිරියට දිවෙන රථයක් …
අනික් දිශාවට ධාවනය වන තවත් රථයක් …
දෙවැනි රථයේ රියදුරා තම වාහනයේ ඉදිරි ලාම්පු මොහොතකට දල්වා ඉදිරියෙන් එන වාහන වලට යම් සංඥාවක් දෙයි.
මෙතෙක් වෙලා ආවේශයෙන් මෙන් රිය පැදවූ පළමු රියදුරු වහා සන්සුයි වෙයි. තම වේගය අඩු කරගන්නා ඔහු මග මැද ඇති තනි ඉර පවා නොකැපී යන ලෙස නියම තීරුවේ තම රථය හසුරවයි.
දැන් ඔහු ආදර්ශමත් රියදුරෙක්!
බොහෝ රියදුරන් එකිනෙකාට දී ගන්නා, මග මරුවන් මග උපාසකයන් කරන මේ බලගතු සංඥාව කුමක්ද? මාර්ග සංඥා පොතේ පවා දක්වා නොමැති ඒත් සැවොම දන්නා, සැවොම කීකරුවෙන සංඥාව …
“මාර්ග පොලීසිය ඉදිරියෙන් – දඩ නොකනු”
අනේ අපොයි අපේ මාර්ග නීති … ඒ කාවෙනුවෙන්ද?
There is no English version of this post.
Wata Ravuma
One of my favorite news paper columns is the one called “Wata Ravuma,” published sometime back in the “Sunday Divaina” news paper.
I loved it for the singular reason that it was about simple yet heart-warming real-life stories of people helping each other and acting in selfless and inspiring ways.
Over the years, there were a few other columns in various news papers on similar themes. Unfortunately, this has not at all been enough. The occasional positive ripples created by these stories sadly get lost in the sea of negative stories and idle celebrity gossip that our media constantly bombards us with.
We need to see and hear more and more about the good side of our people. It will inspire others to “do good” in similar situations and will eventually contribute to the strengthening of the moral fiber of our society.
A birthday thought
I have walked on this earth for a full 31 years as of today.
When I look back, it doesn’t seem that long at all … all through the sweet carefree days of pre-school, the exciting school days to university and work- the years have just rolled by …
I never made a big deal of my or anyone else’s birthday. But I do think they are important; at least as a reminder that we just passed a milestone in the road of life. They force us to take stock of what we have done so far and what we should be doing in the future. After all, we are living on borrowed time. One day, when our number gets called, we curl up and die … We may believe different things on what happens or what does not happen after that, but we all agree on one thing; our time here and now is very important. We definitely got to make the most out of it!
Are you a Sinhalease?
Are you a Sinhalease and computer literate?
If you are, can you read the rest of this line after the colon: කදිමයි. ඔබ සිංහලෙන් වැඩ කරනවා!
If you can’t, I think you should better re-evaluate your answer…
Why Blog?
Why do we blog?
What’s in blogging that makes thousands of people take it up, and devote a considerable portion of their working time on it?
Looking closer to home, I ask myself; why exactly did I start to blog?
For me, it is really simple:
Like all human beings, I like to express myself. Through blogging, I want my ideas to resonate in other minds, for them to find fertile ground within others. I want to grow as a person, and I want to help others grow along with me as a result of that intellectual interaction.
This is why I blog.
A note on this blog…
I started this blog on Sunday and as of Tuesday, my hit-counter already reads over 450 hits.
Of course I bugged many of my friends to read the blog… and I am not exactly sure about the actual number of different people that read this.
But seeing the hit counter going-up and reading the comments, made me extremely- almost childishly, happy!
Thanks.
Hello
I am Nalaka and this is my blog.
I plan to share my thoughts as I move through life from my little corner of the world- the beautiful island nation known as Sri Lanka.
I like to describe myself primarily as a researcher and a computer professional. I also teach and write.
My first language is Sinlalease- English the second. I will be using both languages in this blog.
Someday, I plan to blog in Tamil as well- that is of course when I finally get around to learning it.
Note for anyone wishing to make a comment.
Please comment in:
English for English only posts.
Sinhala for Sinhala only posts.
