Would you be tantalized by the prospect of a marmite and kithul treacle sandwich? Seems like the most natural breakfast in the world to a man named Vishwa whose consciousness becomes an audiovisual trajectory that unfolds as a narrative unlike anything mainstream Sri Lankan cinema has offered before. So, how do you feel about the prospect of a marmite and kithul treacle sandwich? Could a hankering for such a bizarre combo lurk somewhere deep in the subconscious of your palate? It’s just a question, and possibly ‘food’ for thought?
On the evening of May 5 filmmaker Vishwanath Buddhike Keerthisena aka Boodee Keerthisena, hosted at the Liberty Lite cinema, members of the press as well as friends and well wishers to a screening of his film Nimnayaka Hudakalawa which carries its English title as –Alone in a Valley. Before I go into discussing the work itself, here are a few details stated by the director which would be of interest to film enthusiasts.
Nimnayaka Hudakalawa is Sri Lanka’s first digital film in Sinhala. This film shows the last performance in a film by the late great Dr. Tissa Abesekara. The film’s cinematographer is Channa Deshapriya, with art direction by Chandraguptha Thenuwara. And the script is accredited to Boodee Keerthisena and Chinthana Dharmadasa.
I don’t want to go into the details of the storyline and its (somewhat) elliptical path of narrating the consciousness of a man, who sets out one morning with hopes of securing employment in an advertising agency, is projected to the viewer which has little rhyme or reason. This film by Keerthisena is as much about the journey as about the destination, delivering a poignant epiphany that offers the ‘reason’ as to why the ends can justify the means, and perhaps hold a nexus that states, the means are as important as the ends themselves.
Nimnayaka Hudakalawa is unlikely to please the palate of the popular cinema entertainment seeker of today. It will, in my opinion, grip the cinemagoer who believes the worth of cinema in the lives of people is more than offering the thrills of laughter, horror, fight scenes and sex. What Keerthisena has accomplished for Sri Lankan cinema through this latest venture is no mean feat. It is innovative, fresh, and ripe, with directionality as to what a new age Sri Lankan cinema could speak of with not just theme and story content but style and narrative technique. I say ‘directionality’ with metaphorical idea imbibed to view cinema as ‘space’ created through elements that compose a fabric of communication addressing the primary human sense faculties of the eye and the ear. In a way, cinema is about the recreation of ‘space’ as a two dimensional phenomena within ‘space’ as we perceive in our three dimensional ‘reality’.
Indeed, what Keerthisena’s work propels the viewer to question within the enclosure of the human mind as the film unfolds is - what is reality? Nimnayaka Hudakalawa blurs (and perhaps merges) the boundaries between reality as a construct within the human consciousness and material phenomena as perceived by the human faculties of sight and sound.
With regard to the novelty of modernity of narrative technique visible about this film, on the one hand Nimnayaka Hudakalawa, one may say, gives something of a shot at giving an audiovisual rendition of how the literary (narrative) technique of ‘stream of consciousness’ (significantly introduced by writers such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce) may be portrayed via film. But the counter argument could weigh that the ‘stream of consciousness’ applies in portraying the mind of a character that is awake, and not a technique that ‘speaks’ the portrayal of a comatose mind, which is what is finally revealed as the basis of the narrative which appears moulded in abstractness. On this line of discussion one may wonder if there is also the possibility of looking at this work as a cinematic rendition of the literary technique of ‘collage’ which represents in one respect the ‘shattered consciousness’. A notable practitioner of this style is Sri Lankan born award winning novelist Michael Ondaatje.
As best as I can see, Nimnayaka Hudakalawa does not display facets of a collage style since the narrative runs as the unfolding of the consciousness of the principal character, Vishwa, and does not switch to multiple vantages.
Less than half way into the film I was wondering (to myself in the valley of my own solitary thoughts) as I watched what unfolded on the screen, whether Keerthisena was dishing out ‘artsy abstract’ to pass off as ‘serious art’ and was resorting to the ‘abstract’ for the sake of being abstract and thus try to bamboozle the audience. But, how wrong my preconceived impression proved to be towards the end! If one sees ‘complexity’ as the defining characteristic of this film it is because this work deals with the complexity of the mind and its limitlessness for mental proliferation. What Keerthisena offers through Nimnayaka Hudakalawa is in my opinion a sharp reflection (through the art of cinema) of what the Buddha expounds about the nature of the mind and consciousness. I believe, the film has at its core the following revelation about the human mind as described by the Buddha, which I cite here from the section of ‘Cittavagga’ in the Dhammapada compiled by B. Siri Sivali (1985).
“Sududdasang sunipunam, Yaththa kāmanipātinang
Chitthang rakkhetha medhāvi, Chiththang guththang sukkhāvahang.”
“The mind is very difficult to perceive. It is extremely subtle and wanders at will. Let the wise man guard it. A guarded mind brings happiness.” (Translation)
Durangamang ekacharang, Asareerang guhāsayang,
Ye chiththang sangmessanthi, Mokkanthi Mārabandanā.
“The mind travels far and wanders alone. It is incorporeal and seated in the cave (of the heart). Those who restrain the mind are free from the fetters of death.” (Translation).
It is interesting to note that the director’s first name is Vishwanath (which translates to the ‘lord of the universe’) and the protagonist in the film is named Vishwa which means universe. Through the film Vishwa unfolds his world, ripe with his egoistic ambitions, hidden desires and secret fears, all cocooned within the folds of his mind. This film speaks of how the ‘world’ is a conception based on the mental perceptions within human consciousness, which rests after all within the physical frame of the body, and thus I wish to cite the following from the Buddha’s teachings which resonates well with the idea that ‘within Vishwa’ was his world.
“It is in this very fathom long physical frame with its perceptions and mind, that, I declare, lies the world, the arising of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world.” Rohithassa Sutta (Samyuththa Nikaya), extracted from the publication The End of the World by Ven. Katukurunde Nānananda thera.
Through technique and the storyline of Nimnayaka Hudakalawa Keerthisena seems to challenge the concept of ‘chronology’, and the notion of ‘time’ as a phenomenon measurable through the sequential progression of events. The film further seems to deal with the purported western belief of the ‘human unconscious’ in a manner to debunk it as a myth and not fact. As I understand the teachings of the Buddha explain the human consciousness as the essential for being ‘alive’. Consciousness ceases only upon death.
Therefore, the term ‘unconscious’ can at most only mean a state where consciousness does not interact and perceive external stimuli (as when in a coma) and not the total ‘absence’ of consciousness altogether. For only the dead can be truly unconscious.
Veteran actor of the stage and screen, Saumya Liyanage plays the lead role of Vishwa and presents a brilliant performance that is compelling and evokes empathy. The film has a noteworthy cast of seasoned actors with several cameos played by amateurs as well.
Among the more key roles in this film played by a newcomer to screen acting is Cannes award winning director Vimukthi Jayasundera. Bearing a reputation as a talented director doesn’t automatically validate a filmmaker’s ability to act. But, when watching the film it is evident Jayasundera does a fair job onscreen. The man can act. Keeping these attributes in mind it must be noted that overall acting is appreciable in the fabric of performance. A special mention is due I feel to the twins Ruwan Jayanath and Rohan Chandranath who play a duo of lookalike policemen with a comic vein which immediately reminded me of the characters –Ludwig and Oscar played by Keith Allen and Simon McBurney in the film Kafka directed by Steven Soderbergh in which Jeremy Irons plays the eponymous protagonist.
Keerthisena and his team must be saluted for what they have offered the arena of Sri Lankan cinema. Nimnayaka Hudakalawa is a work to be celebrated. If you are the sort of filmgoer whose palate demands a roller coaster of popular entertainment abound with laughter and action, I cannot sincerely say that Nimnayaka Hudakalawa is the ideal show for you. But, if you believe film can serve the purpose of stimulating our mind to search deeper about what we are and what composes this ‘world’ we inhabit, then, do not miss this film.