First time actress Nilmini Sigera playing the lead role in Asandhimitta
Asoka Handagama says his latest film Asandhimitta is not exactly based on the novella of the same name written by Saman Wickremaarachchi though he has bought the rights for, the book.
Speaking during an interview while travelling in Europe screening his tenth film, the director of Let Her Cry and Tamil language Ini Avan, says the novel is a different kind of work in Sinhala literature with psychoanalytical elements and he says he took liberty to enhance the plot to suit the modern times where the truth gets distorted.
The film which will be screened in Toronto on Saturday, June 28 at Albion Cinema in Etobicoke took only 11 days complete, according to the director. “I work as an assistant governor of the Sri Lankan Central Bank and the time I can spend doing films is limited and also as the main actress Nilmini Sigera is a school teacher by profession the shooting schedule had to adjusted to fit the school vacations” Handagama said adding that the movie was made on a sizeable budget, ‘not too low and not too high’.
Nilmini was named the ‘Brilliant Performer’ for her character at the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) held this year from February 25 March 17. It was also screened at Busan film festival in South Korea earning rave reviews.
The actress who is a newcomer to cinema and has been praised for her exceptional acting skills, said that she may have been given the role mainly for her physical features. Introduced as a ‘300-pound romance’, the plus-size love story is about a twice married woman who had been linked to several murders.
Handagama mentioned in the interview that the film is about the hazy gap between what is real and unreal in this age of increasing use of social media. “My movie is about a film maker shooting a film and half way through the project he opts to give his own interpretation to the plot. Like that I also gave my own interpretations to the film taking some liberties to make Asandhimitta relevant to today’s society and I also expect the audience too to give their own versions of the truth. This is how truth travels these days creating confusion between the real and fictional.”
Listening to the interview and how the director described his subject matter, we cannot help noticing some parallels with Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashoman which is also about different people interpreting the truth in different ways.
The official of the Pimedate Oode Filmfestival who conducted the interview mentioned that the Asandhimitta is difficult to be categorized into a particular genre.
Handagama who has a gift for selecting the ideal cast for his films has used a host of talented Sri Lankan actors like Shyam Fernando, W. Jayasiri, Yashoda Wimaladharma, Dharmapriya Dias, Gayani Gisanthika and Anula Bulathsinhala in his film. According to reliable sources Asandhimitta has been bought by Netflix. – newstrails.com
