Samanala Sandhawaniya

Review

The latest addition to Jayantha Chandrasiri's brief, but impressive line up of movies, Samanala Sandhawaniya or The Butterfly Symphony is a love story. It is directed and scripted by Jayantha Chandrasiri while produced by Ruwan Jayasinghe and Palitha Gunawardhana.

Although I would like to move on to the review it would be unfair to pass on without saying a word or two about the director. If to say simply, Jayantha Chandrasiri is one of the best out there. He directed two other movies namely 'Guerrilla marketing' and 'Agnidahaya' both praised highly not only by the critics but also by the Sri lankan audience at large.

He also went behind the camera to create some teledramas. 'Akala sandya' and 'Dandubasnamanaya' are two cult teledramas included in his successful line of dramas. I never failed to be entertained every time they are played on television once again proving the talent of this movie maker.

But does his latest addition to this great collection of art pieces manage to earn a place among them? I think so.

Butterfly is a beautiful insect and certainly a wonder of nature. But there is a way to observe that beauty. If you get too close to it you might accidently touch it, which will damage it's sensitive wings hence causing it's destruction. Too far away, you might not enjoy it as it's very small. The movie proceeds explaining a lovestory which is just as eye catching as a butterfly.

Let's start off with the first half of the movie. To be honest this part is rather a disappointment. Maybe this was because my anticipation when I entered the theater was sky high as it was a Chandrasiri movie.

It didn't take much time for me to miss the usual battalion of actors and actress, Chandrasiri often use, except for Yashoda Wimaladharma. Buddhadasa Withanachchi's talents are wasted, giving him very small space to act.

Although Yashoda, Pubudu Chathuranga, and the newcomer  Surya Sandaruwan give decent  performances, same cannot be said to the rest of the cast in the first half.

Even the comedy scenes do not seem right at some points. Don't get me wrong. The usual odd jokes in all Chandrasiri movies are quite welcoming and they maintain the freshness of the stories. But some of the comedy scenes, in my opinion, are silly and unworthy for such a movie. 

The first half of the movie takes place in the beautiful hill country of the island with great cinematography. But some scenes failed to inspire me. I remember one such occasion where the young Vadeesha (the protagonist of the story) is in a dilemma whether to read the love letter which he accidentally comes across in the beginning. In this particular scene, his right hand goes for the letter while his left tries to stop the right hand from reaching. This, in my opinion, is poor picturization.  

The only card Chandrasiri plays right in the first half is managing the curiosity of the audience. With the soft voice of Yashoda explaining the letter and the deep voice of Amarasiri Peiris mixed with great music (I will be talking about the music later in this review), you feel that the story is building up to something that you still don't know. And the desire to understand that keeps you entwined to the movie.

But it's the second half that really shows the potential of the movie. Note that by second half, i am referring to the events happen after twenty one years later, which according to Chandrasiri, is called the 'sms era'. In the beginning of this half, we are introduced to an older version of the protagonist. And I have to say that I was a little taken aback when I saw what he has changed into.

It is shocking when we see the quiet shy boy turned into a rich drunkard playboy. I say this because the love, that this character has lost, isn't the usual love we see these days in movies. It is not the love that a person would die for or a person would face the destruction if it's lost. It's the kind of love that leaves an itch in your heart or a memory that you cannot forget.  So it was a little difficult for me to understand that shocking transformation. I'm not saying that it's impossible, just felt that the director should have spent a little more time showing the transformation of the character, so that the audience would be convinced enough.

Although Yashoda pulls out a natural and an effortless performance as Punya, for me, the real stand out performance in the movie was given by Uddika Premarathna playing the older version of the lead character. His deep eyes are capable of showcasing a wide range of emotions and feelings, specially in the songs.

All the songs in the movie are shot in stages as live performances reminding us that the movie is all about a symphony. Even though the songs are not visually dazzling or rich as a Hollywood or a Bollywood movie, they are well executed with the help of the lead actor and the brilliant music.

Jayantha Chandrasiri's movies depend highly on the performance of the actors. His lines(dialogues) changes from a whisper to a scream within seconds, making the actor literally dance on screen. But in this movie, it's the music that gets most of the credit for all the brilliance of the movie. 

It's most unfortunate that we didn't get to meet the music composer Ruwan Dissanayaka prior to this movie. But I hope we will see him more offently in future projects. Who knows, maybe we are witnessing the next Kemadasa in the making...

There are few moments in the movie that I felt more dialogues were needed to make it more compelling and natural. And speaking about the dialgoues, the use of english sentences doesn't work well for the movie. There is a scene in the movie where the protagonist enters a stage to sing, drunk, and shouts saying "Where is the f***ing applause" and then the crowd starts cheering. Really? If I was in that crowd I would have left the room immediately even if he's the best musician in the world.

It's is ending that impressed me the most. Jayantha Chandrasiri rounds up everythings happened in the movie in the end and present it to the audience with a magnificent conlcusion. The editing and the cinematography is out standing.

 The use of music is also brilliant and clever. The song 'Iki gasa handana' plays not once or twice but several times throughout the movie. This not only reminds the audience that the whole movie is a symphony, but also causes the words and the tune to get sunk into you as the story unveil itself, making the song more and more meaningful each time.

The movie ends giving a true and inspiring definition to what love and life are. Chandrasiri wraps up saying that artists get their ideas through pain and the movie with it's protagonist stands as the proof for that.

I didn't came out of the theater crying as some of the promotions promised, but I did came out thoroughly satisfied. When many other movie makers go on making so called commercial movies constantly plagiarising Hollywood, Bollywood or South Indian movies, Chandrasiri stands tall with quality movies like this, attracting a massive audience at the same time.