‘Love is the prescription’

By D.C. Ranatunga

It’s not often that we get a chance of talking about a top quality Sinhala film. ‘Premaya Nam’, now being screened, is such a rare product. A bold theme. Perfect casting. Good acting. Clever photography. Meaningful theme song. Superb entertainment.

For the first time two brothers get together to direct a film. The Ariyawansas – Kalpana and Vindana – studied in the USA. While Kalpana’s interest was in filmmaking and went on that path, Vindana decided to do engineering. Later he too moved on to cinematography. ‘Premaya Nam’ speaks for their knowledge and training. Cutting their teeth in helping renowned director Prasanna Vithanage in his last film, ‘Oba Nethuva Oba Ekka’, they decide to try their hand in their maiden venture.

A batch-mate of Kalpana’s – an American lad, had mentioned that any day he decided to do a film he would come and do the photography free. The friend, Jaan Shenberger thus directed the photography and also co-edited the film with Kalpana. 

The two brothers did the script together. The bold theme in the film is based on a mental condition one of them were hit with. In Sri Lanka people don’t like to talk about mental illnesses. It’s a cultural issue. There is a stigma attached to it. They refuse to accept that a mental disorder is perfectly normal and a person who suffers from such a condition can get over it.

‘Premaya Nam’ is about a young couple. Vishwa, the young man is an executive in an advertising agency. His pretty wife Samadhi is tolerant when she learns that the husband is suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with a mania to be ‘extra clean’ all the time. She is extremely patient and tries her best to help him get over the problem through medication. Their relationship breaks up. She goes back to her parents. He is helpless and as a last resort decides to enter the mental hospital. A nurse understands his problem and is sympathetic. He comes back, decides to follow his doctor’s advice. The young wife is still hopeful.

The structure of the film has been summed up in one of the trailers very cleverly: Meeting. Uniting. Separation. Loneliness. Crazy. Solace. The theme is summed up as ‘Love is the prescription’. 

Shyam Fernando and Samanalee Fonseka play the lead roles to perfection. They are not merely acting. They live the characters as the youthful duo. The determination on the part of both to save their wedded life is so convincing. The rest of the cast are playing their roles equally well. 

The film, first to be shot in the country’s State Mental Health Institute, is a boost for the institution. It’s being well maintained and is spotlessly clean. The staff had been most supportive during the shooting. The film strengthens its image and many feel it will help to change the attitude of people towards it and towards the inmates. A word about the theme song. ‘Nivee giya sanda pahana – Dalvanna yali peminenna’ – Sunil Ariyaratne’s meaningful lyrics is an invitation to light the lamp that has blown away. It is beautifully rendered by Dimul Warnakulasuriya (the first time I heard him). As usual, Rohana Weerasinghe provides a lilting melody. 

Having done its round of international film festivals – 15 in number – for three years, ‘Premaya Nam’ has got step-motherly treatment in its own country as regards distribution. Imagine it being screened at 4:15 in the afternoon in the leading cinema in the city! It has not got a full circuit for screening. It’s being unfair by the filmmakers as well as the filmgoers. Under whose purview does it come? I remember the Observer fighting for an equitable distribution of local films way back in the 1960s. It resulted in the ‘distribution mafia’ stopping advertising in the Lake House papers.

We read about increasing numbers of young filmmakers getting interested in entering the industry. An encouraging sign indeed. But making a film being so expensive, can anyone take the risk of spending money unless there is some sort of a guarantee that at least they can break even? Isn’t it the responsibility of the National Film Corporation to move in and find a solution?