Movie "Anjalika" IMO!! ;o)

This post will be about the Sri Lankan film 'Anjalika' - so those not interested, you can bugger off now.

It was screened here down under last weekend & not being too big a fan of very commercial movies, I was in a dilemma - to go or not to go. Those who'd already watched it fell into two broad groups: "Ooohhh!! It's goooorrrrrgggeeeeoooouuusssss!" or "the story/plot isn't much but the photography, etc is beautiful." Hence what could I do but resort to (v.v.v.bad!) reviews of the film! One review in the Observer narrated the entire story for 2/3rds of the article before gushing on about that fantastic performances of not only ALL actors/ actresses concerned, but even of the editor, music director, make-up artist, art director AND production manager who "have done justice to their assigned jobs." A Daily News review carried much of the same gushing praise. Righto.

BUT another review in The Observer left me in shock. The writer had clearly not understood that his job was to review the bloody film - and not make personal attacks on the actors. This review included asking Channa Perera to get beauty advice from his "beautician wife" and advice to Anarkali that acting "means a lot more than just showing off skin" and "cleavage." To think there are editors out there who feel justified publishing such utter rubbish.

Anyway, so off I went to watch the masterpiece. This is my take:

I quite liked the screenplay (by Channa Perera and Mahesh Sathsara Maddumaarachchi) cos it was quite well-written and the humour was actually funny without resorting to the under the belt type. The plot/ storyline I guess was keeping with this genre of film - complete with a twist at the end that was so twisted it was quite unreal (and did kinda come apart). However, the nature of the story required such a dramatic twist to keep with the 'happily ever after' end and I guess if one looks for a realistic end, then one cannot always expect the 'happily ever after' and so I will keep an open mind and accept the ending in the context of the genre!

The actors. Firstly, the main lead, Pooja, was simply brilliant. That's all there is to say about her. But the other female lead, Anarkali, quite tragic cos she just cannot seem to express any emotion. While her character in this movie actually gave her some room to bring out any talents she may possess - she unfortunately failed utterly - even her crying struck a false note. At the opposite end of the line is Sanath Gunatilleke - grossly over-acting as usual. One would have thought he was playing Macbeth on a stage! I don't understand how this man still gets employed. In contrast is the performances of the smaller roles - those of Anjalika's parents and NARADA (!!) himself! Very, very commendable. ;o)

I left Channa Perera's performance for last cos I found it the most diasppointing - not cos he wasn't good - he was - but cos he fell far short of his potential I thought he had (has?). The love scenes were fine, but the emotional scenes after Anjalika's death that were so disappointing!! His grief was just not heart-breaking. TPerhaps this was due to some rude interruptions to these potentially 'emotion-stirring scenes.' At the peak moment of grief after Anjalika's dead, the camera zooms in on the bloated, eyes-popping-out, flesh-melted-off face of the corpse. Any emotion one might have felt is very quickly turned in to a silent scream of horror. Then later there is a beautiful song (set in Malaysia), with a very "grief-stricken" Channa and while he's battling this grief (and you're kinda starting to feel sorry for him) he sees the Anjalika-look-alike in a temple and subsequently breaks into a very jarring rap/ Iraj-Ranindu song in some sort of club - coloured lights in the background, misty smoke, leather-clad. WTF?? I just did not get that. I haven't seen Channa in anything else (except for a occassional glimpse on a tv drama my mom was watching when I walked past), but I do remember him from a TV drama (maybe 10 years or so ago?) where he played a character called something like "podi aiya" - the brother of some sort of disabled boy. His character was stubborn, at times cruel, in it and he pulled it off well enough to have run the risk of getting shot on the street. So he has (at least had) potential. Unfortunately none of that passion or depth of feeling came thru in this movie. A good place to have brought it in was perhaps some silent crying when his love interest died - but this moment was passed up instead for a scream of "Annnjjjaaalllliiiiikkkaaaa!" resonating over the misty hilltops. ;o(

All in all, while my above comments may sound quite harsh, the film wasn't too bad and very far and above the crap the SL commercial film industry has churned out in the past. The photography was beautiful though I found some of it a bit contrived (but then again, perhaps this is in keeping with the genre).

If I ever meet this Channa Perera dude (who was also the director), and I could make one recommendation to him (cos of course the world always listens to moi!), it is this: he'd do well to stay away from these "popular" actor-types like Sanath and Anarkali whose only talent seems to be to magnify the talents of their colleagues in contrast to their own!

Finally, if anyone were to ask me if they should go watch the movie Anjalika/Anjelika, what would I say? Definitely go see it cos it made me realize that, whatever its shortcomings may be, there is hope for the Sri Lankan film industry!

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This is a post script to the above post. From some of the comments this post got I might have been misunderstood. I AM IN NO WAY SAYING DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE. The above is merely some of the things I liked and things that could be built upon. I don't see the point of praising a movie (or anything else for that matter) just in the name of "encouraging" cos that's being blind to the things that could be improved.

Like I said in my last comment, PEOPLE SHOULD GO OUT AND WATCH THIS MOVIE cos at the end of the day, this movie is very far ahead of a lot of SL movies at the moment. Therefore, other directors would need to meet this sort of standard to stay in the industry with some credibility. Channa Perera has lots of potential and I don't need to say that cos it's pretty obvious. Even more talent would be to learn from this movie's weaknesses and give us another movie of even higher standard. At the risk of sounding corny, I have faith he'll get get there at some point! ;o)

One thing I forgot to say though, when the movie finished ppl I was with walked out saying "oh, what a beautiful country we've left behind, nae?" and I thought "you, you, you!! cos I'm going BACK in 2 months! YIPPIE - DO -DAY!!" ;o) he he he