Samanala Sandhwaniya is about loneliness as a human condition and our yearning to connect with others. An adolescent boy accidentally picks up a love letter written by an unknown woman to an unknown man, and after reading it he tries to reach out to the woman who wrote it. He fails repeatedly to make contact with her, and the emptiness in him is consoled by his music compositions, which are enriched by his pain. After a battle with his alter ego, represented by his elder brother, he decides to let go of his yearning to reach her and to carry on with his life instead. But years later, he realizes that the emptiness has haunted him all the way into his successful music career and family life. Distraught and disappointed, he finally reconciles with his alter ego to make one last attempt to meet the woman whose writings have tormented him for so long, to conclude the unfinished business. And thereby hangs the finale.
Director Jayantha Chandrasiri brings us the truth that we reach fulfillment through our relationships, no matter how risky or painful they are, and not through avoiding them. He makes a poignant counterpoint to our contemporary society, where social media have made human contact 'safe' by introducing an electronic interface that can be switched on and off, promising to keep pain and risk at bay.
The crucial thread around which the story weaves is the interaction between the boy and his elder brother. This, unfortunately, is inadequately developed and nurtured, partly because the script is weak on this point and partly because of poor shot selections (which is more suited to the small, TV screen). The result is a lack of clarity or direction to the developing story, and the movie smolders, unable to absorb us. Furthermore, the mysterious woman could have been kept more at a distance, with tantalizing snippets of images and monologues; the movie could then have risen to a grander finale. The scene when the young boy briefly meets the woman in her boarding house is badly planned, biting too much to chew, and poorly edited. Its poignancy is lost.
Chandrasiri has taken a sprinkling of inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", another movie that rolls out as a journey to a meeting with a mysterious character. His opening scenes, with the woman's monologue, borrow from Coppola's monologue. But the 'journey' quality is lost because the central thread is weak. Whereas Coppola develops a strong journey by linking his protagonist to the characters around him, Chandrasiri fails to do so.
Some crucial 'takes' that are meant to portray emotive, private moments are shot inappropriately as full fronts, rather than from the side. The same can be said about the final shot – it is beautifully shot, but from the wrong angle! I think Chandrasiri has inherited these habits from his teledrama days. Ruwan Costa's cinematography is immaculate, but wrong shots and angles make his camera a recording device without much of its 'voice.'
The good aspects of the movie are Darshana Ruwan's brave music score, Amarasiri Peiris's flawless singing, and the acting by Yasodha Wimaladharma and Uddika Premaratne, both giving pain and depth to their characters. Punsiri Dayaruwan shows enormous potential.
Chandrasiri should be commended for making an effort to explore a human condition, bravely avoiding commercial trappings. The movie is a pleasant, interesting watch, a 'must-see-once.' Let us hope that he will get more chances to make full length feature films. It will be interesting to watch him outgrow his teledrama days and become an articulate auteur, like the boy in the film.
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