Cult serial heading for second season?
Cult Sri Lankan TV serial Koombiyo’s main star Thumindu Dodanthenna has been awarded the most popular actor’s honours at the Raigam Tele Awards festival held on Sunday night.
Accepting the award judged by the fan votes from veteran stars Ravindra Randeniya and Malini Fonseka, actor and university lecturer Thumbindu, in a hard hitting speech, criticized ‘dirty’ politics of the country while several distinguished ministers and politicians were watching the proceedings from the front row.
Veteran actor Mahendra Perera grabbed the honours for the best actor judged by a panel and I am sure this award may not have gone to Thumindu due to the controversial nature of Koombiyo which in a way glorifies violence, trying to shatter the religious hinges that the deeply Buddhist society is resting on.
Koombiyo (Ants) ended its successful run of 57 episodes just last week about the young, unemployed evildoer hatching hit plans for a smalltime mafia boss, partly for money, partly to get ‘an aathal’ – a thrill – out of seeing mayhem around him.
The drama has also inspired a video game by the same name by a Sri Lankan coding group whose Dave Danger with 4.3 star ratings has amassed 100,000 instals internationally via Google Playstore. The third ringtone based on its theme music is already being heard on millions of cellphones.
The surprise hit was languishing in a queue for four years without being able to find a channel to air it, mainly because of its violent nature and the anti-hero lead. Also the innovative theme with a mix of crime and poverty was anathema to many established actors obsessed with playing the good guy. Many turned down the role of Jehan till stage actor and university lecturer Thumindu stumbled on it and said ‘yes’ even risking career. The main actress rejected to play the love interest of the villainous hero initially. Recently, in a TV interview she said Koombiyo was instrumental in changing her career.
Gossip chats are abuzz with the news that the teleserial is heading for a second season. The hanging end of its last episode is considered as a clue. Seconds before a bullet pierced Jehan’s scheming brain, a mysterious call comes to the country’s prime minister’s cellphone. “You must answer this call,” says Jehan with his trademark smirk.
Producer Asanka Dodanthenna, Thumindu’s brother who lives in Australia, says on social media that they had to adjust the ending to make it interesting, without saying whether there will be a second season.
There is enough material for another season, the theme thick with newfound twists and turns – there is a newly-elected prime minister – his scandal-ridden secretary, a leftist leader with an ax to grind with revenge on his mind against the rich, an accidental politician on his way to Diyawanna Oya (where the Sri Lankan parliament is), a vengeful mafia cleaner (Tiran) serving a short jail term, in addition to a coterie of smalltime gangsters that Jehan can mobilize with a whistle.
Jehan has no romance or a family with a shoulder to cry on, two most essential ingredients in Sri Lankan dramas, making Koombiyo completely different from established traditions. That must be one reason for the massive popularity of this drama among the Lankans who are tired of imported fare from Japan, India and South Korea, recycled with Sinhala subtitles. The main actress who has a Japanese-sounding name, Yureni Noshika, in an interview with TV personality Kumar de Silva, says Koombiyo has a niche audience among the young people.
There are not many TV dramas catering to them and the younger generation is also frustrated with the political stagnation which Koombiyo is trying to draw our attention to.
One of the few Sinhala dramas to get into IMDb database
“The serial is popular among Sri Lankans living abroad and it has also got into the IMDb database,” Noshika said.
Jehan’s rootless character with no family connections except for a brief mention that his dad was a school teacher, his unfathomable evil grin which can unsettle every one around him and a scheming mind working overtime to sow anarchy in a country run by crafty politicians with the help of thugs are the correct ingredients to make it a cult drama.
The end of the first season may have shocked the populace as there is no pay back time for evil committed by the protagonist. Sri Lankans are usually fond of accumulating good karma, wishing for a better life after death with a firm belief of what is called Ditthadhamma Vedaneeya Karma, succinctly meaning the ability of a higher being to mete out punishment for a crime within one’s lifetime, which in Jehan’s case, doesn’t happen.
The only thing missing in the Koombiyo is love. Noshika, playing the character of Hiruni is in hot pursuit of Jehan who is not willing to accommodate love in his life, probably owing to his risky profession of messing with other people’s lives. Several months ago a gossip website revealed the alleged end of Koombiyo. According to that, Hiruni is a detective set up to trace the string of crime that the hero is linked to and prosecute him at the end. According to that report, Jehan is to go behind bars for a long time and Hiruni is to apologize at the end for playing a dangerous game with his emotions!
The 22-minute video of deleted scene released a few days ago doesn’t give us even a clue to this aspect of the drama. The producers have not denied, nor confirmed what was mentioned in the gossip site. There should be some truth in this because Hiruni disappears without a trace, probably allowing the producers to work out a different conclusion to pave way for another season.
Another reason for its massive popularity may be the acting of the whole cast that can be only described in superlatives. Veteran Peter de Almeida, a master of many fields, is a pleasure to watch as the suave, crafty bourgeois political manipulator in the last two episodes but if the drama goes on for another season we might see more of him. Sadly, this is the last television drama of the stage veteran Senaka Titus Anthony who plays the role of crime boss Austin. He died at the Singapore airport while coming home after performing in a drama.
Another couple of seasons of Koombiyo can be a shot in the arm for the stagnated local TV industry as it has beaten a new path by creating a refreshing genre, but the golden goose may have to be milked with utmost care! – Somasiri Munasinghe
