Sri Lanka - A Cinematic Raw Nerve
Updated - 7/11/2008 - Dailynews.
The season of "Aba", the cinematic epic, amazingly and astoundingly enlivened and illuminated the Sinhala film tradition. While Sri Lanka’s film-goers continue to be under the gripping spell of compelling "Aba" - the new "Machan" has arrived, to assault society’s collective soul, by serving up a raw slice of Sri Lanka’s psyche.
"Machan" pressurises the viewer, to meet head on, a segment of society, from which most people would want to avert their gaze. The landscape of "Machan", precariously teetering at the edge of society, is inhabited mostly, by men, women and children, who cannot discern even a vestige of hope, wherever they turned. Abject poverty has atrophied their sensitiveness.
They sleep-walk through life - or a parody of life - picking up whatever they can, to keep their body and soul together. Though buffeted about relentlessly, by events, they have no control over, a ’gang-spirit’ sustains them.
Director Uberto Pasolini and Producer Prasanna Vithanage may have settled for the expression “Machan”, as the title of the film, perhaps because, it possessed the ring of an inner-cry of this group of fellow sufferers.
Incidentally, one just cannot trace the etymological roots of "Machan", which is an intimate form of address, prevalent mainly among members of youth groups, closely linked to one mother. It could very will be that "Machan" is an adaptation of "Macho" which denotes a person filled with “Machismo" - an exaggerated sense of masculinity.
In "Machan ", the desperate gang is kept alive by a dream they cherish. One day, discarding all this they will transit to a promised land, across the seas.
Their desperate bid to achieve this is material of semi-tragedy and full farce.
The process of putting a team together is high drama. Their personal relations are exasperatingly flimsy. In their lives, no emotions are left to move them. Hearts are parched. Dire helplessness dominates their daily existence. The film is narrated, with no attempt whatsoever to be didactic.
The director is keen to reveal the progress of the characters through a series of situations. If irony emerges, that is a by-product of the movement of the story.
The pace of the film’s movement, does not allow a pause to hesitate if something is right or wrong-proper or improper. What comes through vividly is the utter sense of desperation, brought on by soul-killing privation.
"Machan’, deploys an outstanding cast of talented and reputed players - Malani Fonseka, Iranganie Serasinghe, Jayani Senanayake and Mahendra Perera being some among them.
Most members of the Youth gang, have not yet achieved high-profile stardom. They go through the Mudras of assigned roles, portraying them with a highly plausible touch of realism. They impress with a street - savvy adeptness.
To my mind, the whole film is alive with a spasm of early Italian Neo-realism. When Vittorio de Sica created his classic “Bicycle Thief.” In the post-war social disarray, De Sica had no other alternative than to take to the streets of Rome with his camera.
He captured real men and women as they went about their urgent business of living. There was no room for fills and arabesques. The identical neo-realist temper is visible in "Machan", created by Director Uberto Pasolini and Producer Prasanna Vithanage.
The story moves through harsh terrain, realistically capturing the unadorned rawness of the lives of men and women, who cling on desperately to a form of life, that is absolutely pathetic.
"Machan" is a film, that will invariably nudge audiences towards keen and concerned soul-searching.
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