Mayi Mara Prasangaya – a novel woven around an eternal love story with thoughts of love as pure as the petals of Mayi Mara flowers stirred our feelings, planted the seeds of love in our hearts and awoke our curiosity.
Absorbed by the poetic words found in Masimbula’s literature creation, we felt the true fragrance of love. If you are blessed with a lover like Samida or Sancharani, it is undoubtedly a miracle of your destiny. But, seldom do we encounter with suchfortunate ones in this harsh society. It is exciting to know that ‘Mayi Mara Prasangaya’ – the love story you read through Masimbula’s heartfelt and appealing words will soon be brought to you on the silver screen.
The Youth Observer spoke to veteran writer and film director Mahinda Prasad Masimbula, veteran actor Roshan Ravindra and the film producer Kumari Panditharathna to share with you their views about the cinematic creation.
Directed by Masimbula himself, Mayi Mara Prasangaya will take you on a journey of eternal love, touching the deepest corner of your heart. Interestingly, both veteran actors and young actors and actresses including Roshan Ravindra, Umali Thilakarathna, Nita Fernando, Xavier Kanishka and Vishwajith Gunasekara play roles in the film. Surprisingly, the plot of the story revolves around true incidents.
“When I was freelancing to newspapers such as ‘Youn Janatha’, I had a dream of entering the field of journalism professionally. At that time, most freelancers wanted to start their career life in the journalism field,” said Masimbula.
His poems adorned many columns of national newspapers and thousands of newspaper readers were in the habit of reading his poems in one breath.
“When I wrote ‘Mayi Mara Prasangaya’, I did not have any idea of making a film. Kumari Panditharathna, upon reading the novel, wanted to capture the story with the cinema lens with the intention of bringing a new cinematic experience to movie buffs. She has rendered a great service to our artists and their creations within her capacity,” Masimbula said.
Choosing actors and actresses for characters is the most challenging task for any film director and producer. Already, they have navigated all challenging situations. Masimbula said that Roshan and Umali will re-build both the characters Samida and Sancharani for the silver screen, ensuring the naturalism of characters.
“I am sure that both Roshan Ravindra and Umali Thilakaratne will do the maximum justice to the characters because they have showcased their thespian skills by playing a wide range of roles in different movies,” he said.
Speaking of the limits and spaces, Masimbula stressed that veteran film director Sudath Rohana brought his novel Manikkawatha to the small screen without making any changes to the plot.
“He adapted my novel Manikkawatha into a teleplay in a brilliant manner. We spent days and months talking about the characters and the plot with the actors and actresses. Therefore, they could play their roles naturally with a profound understanding of their characters,” said Masimbula.
Roshan Ravindra – Samida
It is veteran actor Roshan Ravindra who breathes life into Samida. As noted by Roshan, he is studying the character of Samida in depth these days.
“I read the novel to understand Samida well. It is a big challenge as I felt. But we are ready to take up the challenge to recreate the character for the cinematic creation,” he said.
When asked about the future of the Sinhala film industry, Roshan said that our film industry remains stagnant without any progress. There is no doubt that the Indian film industry has become the main source of revenue in India. Realizing the value of cinema, their government has uplifted the film industry up to an international level. Regrettably, in our country there is a big gap between politicians and artistes.
“Our politicians are not sensitive to art, literature, stage plays, teleplays and films. It is better to call them financial vampires. If we focus on other countries, film directors plan the budget according to the requirement of the ccreation. On the contrarily, in our country directors confine their creations to an inadequate budget. This is why we cannot expect great creations from our film directors. Some film directors, while hero-worshipping politicians, live high on the hog. However, those who contribute to the development of our film industry are going through difficulties and troubles without help. This situation is really unfortunate,” Roshan said with a sigh.
Kumari Panditharathna – producer
Kumari Panditharathna who lives in the United States has produced films such as ‘Adisi Nadiya’, ‘Hapannu Api’ ‘Game Rajje’ and ‘Crow’. She has opened many sources of income for our artistes by organizing musical shows for them to perform in America. She wants to bring good and artistically rich creations for people.
When asked about ‘Mayi Mara Prasangaya’, she said that the film will be screened in America, Australia and Germany before being screened in Sri Lanka.
An untold message
Socio-economic issues have compelled individuals to be selfish and merciless. Love, kindness, affection and compassion have been discarded and become insignificant.
In this backdrop, the film serves as a source of inspiration for us to rethink about love.
