One of the most prominent Sri Lankan filmmakers Prasanna Vithanage’s much awaited cinematic venture ‘Gaadi’ (Children of the Sun) will hit the screen from January 20 at Scope cinemas island wide.
‘Gaadi’ is a period drama set in 1814 during the era of British colonial rule in Sri Lanka. The film portrays what has happened after a collaborationist English agent John D’Oyly convinced the local Sinhala Buddhist nobility to attempt to oust the Tamil king Sri Wickrama Rajasignhe from power which subsequently led towards a military disaster that Sinhala noble women forcibly left with no choice rather suicide or get married to Rodiyas (outcast) who considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy.
The film revolves around the relationship between two persons - an upper-class woman who fights for her individuality amidst oppression, cruelty and rejection, while a man from the Rodiya community who tries to win over by taming her. But the most important thing conveyed by the director is depicting the strength of the spirit of the people in the struggle for their freedom.
Gaadi is with powerful imagination and coherent sensitivity, tells us the brutality of feudal system that led to an inconceivable crisis of individuality that the world still fights for. The story reveals the horrible price that had to pay to win over one’s individuality.
“Gaadi relates to me in both political and personal levels. In this historical epic journey, two people from two different social strata are brought together against their will and struggle to co-exist refusing to lose their identity. When pushed to the limits of survival, they finally come to realise that life doesn’t exist on identity itself. I thought of using this theme as an allegory to question this illusion, in a world where humans constantly wage wars in the name of national or religious identity. The movie questions identity in a world where people are polarised on various lines, in a time when identity politics has come to the foreground,” Prasanna said.
“On a personal level, this story is about a man trying to win over a woman by taming her. But during the journey, they are challenged by the circumstance beyond their control and forced to come to accept that the most important things in life are love and self-respect. I believe the same struggle for superiority still exists in a relationship of a man and a woman even at present in post-modern society. I felt strongly to make a film to counter that,” Prasanna added. Indian technicians and film crews are quite familiar in Vithanage’s cinema. A. Sreekar Prasad edited and co-produced Vithanage’s award-winning Akasa Kusum in 2008. In 2012, Prasanna With You, Without You, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s A Gentle Creature, which starred Indian actress Anjali Patil. In 2015, Vithanage’s first documentary, Silence in the Courts, was part of the human rights-themed Justice Project, which also featured Indian filmmaker Rahul Roy’s The Factory.
“Filmmaking is a collective work. My Indian collaborators have always given me their best. For me, it is important to keep coming to India and be a part of the destiny of its people.”
Vithanage was able to get clever performances without a single false moment out of his lead pair of the film Dinara Punchihewa and Anuththara Anthony, with excellent production values and through his fine delicacy of directorial excellencies.
Gaadi had many successful international festival screenings and premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019. As Vithanage said Gaadi was his most challenging production out of nine films he produced before, because of its complex theme and the period setting.
The film was well received by its audiences and critics around the world and received three international awards including Cultural Diversity Award (UNESCO) at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Gaadi is a picture perfect, eminently watchable movie, rated for all audiences.