It has taken 40-odd years for Sri Lankan cinema to produce a loose remake of popular Hollywood horror film The Exorcist. Udayakantha Warnasooriya’s Bandhanaya (Binding) which has borrowed some techniques from the Hollywood blockbuster had a decent run in Sri Lanka this year.
The character of the little girl in the film is played by Saheli Samarasinghe who is afflicted with a similar kind of demonic illness reminds us very much of Linda Blair who played the lead in The Exorcist.
The victim under the control of evil spirits vomits, growls like an ogre, eats rodents with blood trickling down her mouth, tries to free herself from physical bondage while her bed rotates in the air, her body cracks and bugs creep under skin.
This is the first time talented director Warnasooriya is trying his hand in the horror genre and if he wants to scare people he does it quite well in a country where many are hesitant to pass a graveyard alone after dark without reciting a Buddhist gatha!
Black magic, witchcraft, ghosts and zombies are not something alien to the island’s supernatural beliefs from our parliament to a humble village abode. That gives the film some semblance of reality. There were reports saying that the film is based on true events but the producers say it is purely fictional. The action takes place against the backdrop of 1930s Sri Lanka.
Bandhanaya, made in black and white 3D for maximum effect with its eerie darkness even at noon, curling smoke enveloping grim landscapes, furious midnight chanting in graveyards which wakes up dead people from their eternal sleep, scary snakes, fights between humans and evil spirits, fearsome bird calls, violent decapitations and to inject some reality to the film it is all meshed into a story of family squabble mired in a land dispute among members of a family who are not willing to part with an inch of land. Resorting to black magic to settle such petty family squabbles is not something new to us.
The film, which has a religious slant like The Exorcist, features some well-known Sri Lankan stars and, warhorse Cyril Wikramage is excellent in carrying much of the burden of the film as the evil-hearted village shaman bent on destroying his own relatives over a plot of land.
The cast includes Hemal Ranasinghe and Dulani Anuradha who are unable to bring out their best in their limited roles. Supporting cast includes talented Leoni Kothalawala, Suwinitha Weerasinghe and Nilmini Thennakoon. – SM
