Sarigama is a clever Sinhala remake of Hollywood blockbuster Sound of Music. Directed by Australia-based Sri Lankan film maker Somarathne Dissanayake who has a way with directing kids, the film has not one, not two; there are seven children, ranging from three years to the teens.
Sinhala critics who frown upon remakes and copies have taken a lukewarm response towards Sarigama. I think Dissanayake has shown a keen interest in this American classic due to its enduring popularity in the world cinema and also because it is a children’s story. Most of Dissanayake’s films, from his remarkable debut Saroja, featured kids in lead roles. He, like Iranian great Majid Majidi, sees adult problems through the innocent eyes of children.
Lester James Peries’ Madol Duwa, loosley based on Tom Sawyer, and Titus Thotawatte’s Handaya remain two of the most popular children films made in the 70s. Ariyarathne Vithana made a couple of notable kids’ films in between, till Dissanayake rekindled a wider interest in the genre. Two of the most popular children films made in the recent past are Indika Ferdinando’s Ho Gana Pokuna and Five Samath directed by Jayaprakash Sivagurunadan.
Sarigama is not totally out of sync with the Sri Lankan culture though the story is borrowed from an American film. Maria is from a Catholic background. The action takes place in an elitist family background and the only native connection is a few glimpses of passing village life but I have not come across any serious charges levelled against the director from film pundits. It is a story of the ‘haves’ who do not have to worry from where the next meal comes from, unlike the majority of the island’s population. But such people do exist in Sri Lanka.
It is also interesting to note UCLA alumni, California-based Salinda Perera’s film Dheevari is concentrating on poor fisher folk living on the Catholic sea belt of the island’s west. Catholics comprise of only 7 per cent of the island’s population. The main character of the first homosexual film in Sri Lanka (Malata Noena Bambara) hails from the middle class Catholic background. When, in early 80s, I reviewed the film in The Sunday Observer there were criticisms aimed at me. Homosexuality has no race or religious barriers but what I meant was that the script writer may have selected Christian background mainly to avoid a backlash if the protagonist happened to be a Buddhist. Like in other major religions same sex relations are a sin in Buddhism. More than 70 per cent of the population are Buddhists and Sri Lanka still has laws to jail a person guilty of homosexuality for ten years, according to Canadian writer Shyam Selvadurai’s novel The Hungry Ghosts. It is also interesting to note that the elitist characters in Lester James Peiris’ trilogy, beginning from Gam Peraliya, are Buddhists, who are seen as a byproduct of the rising middle class untouched by Christianity.
Many Sinhala commercial films can be broadly classified as musicals like in Bollywood and South Indian cinema but the difference in Sarigama is that the songs are not forcefully squeezed into the action of the film.
The film is faithful to the original and ends with the marriage of navy captain to Maria after breaking the heart of rich heiress Sandra (Gayani Gisantika) who voices the iconic line uttered by Baronness Schraede: “Good bye, Maria. I’m sure you’ll make a fine nun” without ever thinking that the governess would bounce back to steal her lover for whom she can only offer expensive cars and foreign tours, but not genuine love.
The backdrop of the encroaching military power in the original is absent in Sarigama. Dissanayake could have integrated the Sri Lanka war to have the same effect, but he is known to shun overtly political themes. On the other hand, any attempt in that direction would have been distracting in a way because the action of the film takes place on beautiful, breathtaking upcountry mountains and meadows, standing in for the European Alps, glistening far away from the action of the war. A military confrontation which compels Van Trops to flee Germany would look unreal in the Sri Lankan context as the hilly country was barely untouched by the ethnic war.
Dissanayake is a director who knows the right mix of art and money and most of his films are box office hits. In a media interview he said Sarigama did not make money but could break even at the box office. He attributes that to the poor distribution system of the National Film Corporation which, according to many professionals in the industry, is run by people who have no experience or knowledge in film making. The director has also criticized the film corporation for not taking an interest to modernize theatres. He said his HD film was screened in theatres with 1940s technology. Frustrated by dubious, meaningless policies of the Corporation he actually thought of retiring from films a few years ago. But he did not. He worked as the head of the state television for a brief time but quit to make movies.
My suggestion to the party that came to power on a landslide in local polls a few days ago is to have ministries to work for the development of the film industry on a regional level. The centralization of the industry in a single body has done nothing to improve Sri Lankan cinema for more than 40 years.
Pooja Uma Shankar, a South Indian actress whose mother is Sri Lankan, plays the lead role of the governess who wants to be a nun owing to her personal reasons we don’t know. She carries much of the burden of Sarigama projecting the motherly instincts to protect an adoring brood of seven kids in the care of a father obsessed with rigid military discipline. She is not a singer like the original Maria. Maestro Rohana Weerasinghe’s haunting music, Dissanayake’s lyrics and playback singing by young Uresha Ravihari, Nanda Malini, Edward Jayakody and several children complete what can be described as one of the best musicals in the local film industry.
Pooja is an Indian-Sri Lankan actress, who has primarily appeared in Tamil films as well as Sinhala, Malayalam and amateur films. Following a series of successful commercial ventures, Indian Tamil film Naan Kadavul saw her performance as a blind beggar earning praise from the critics and securing major awards, including the South Filmfare and Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. She was part of several successful Sinhala films. Her mother is Sinhalese while father hails from Karnataka, India. She is married to a Sri Lankan businessman and speaks perfect Sinhala.
This is the first time I see Ashan Dias in a film. He handles the demanding role of the navy captain pretty well, lost between the unemotional tyrant and the love-struck single father tamed by a young woman who, at one time, saw a life beyond a convent impossible. He looks like an actor who had his beginnings on the stage. Malini Fonseka, known as the Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema for her legendary contribution to Sinhala cinema from her teens, plays the role of Mother Superior. She has now settled down to play motherly roles as age catches up with her.
The Hollywood’s Sound of Music itself was not an original. It is a remake of 1956 German film The Trapp Family. It also had a sequel titled The Trapp Family in America, which was released in 1958.
The perennial appeal of the American film has not waned even after 50 years. A stage musical directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien toured Canada last year. – Somasiri Munasinghe
