Thanamalvila Kollek is a Sinhala TV series of about 50 episodes depicting a story of people in Thanamalwila. The story is wrapped around a young man, ‘Deeptha,’ played by the actor Dhanuka Dilshan. The cast, the director, the screenwriter and the team that contribute in the making of Thanamalvila Kollek have been household names for their artistic work. This realistic fictional drama unfolds events in village life connecting them to the main character ‘Deeptha’ who fails the GCE (Ordinary Level)examination and eventually ends up in Paris.
The story begins with many students gathering at the school trying to find out their failed results at the exam and how they accept the outcome as the nameboard of the school shows where they are, Thanamalwila which is a Divisional Secretariat of Moneragala District, of Uva Province, like many other rural villages, where many students do not pass the O/L examination. Their adulthood begins at the age of 16 and life isn’t kind to most of them.
It is remarkable how this story is able to remind the audience about certain unfortunate historical events without naming and shaming them or instead of using made up dialogues to analyse things like the JVP insurgency.
The story shows a father who isn’t unable to come to terms with his grief after losing his son. That character portrays thousands of people who lost their children and loved ones during the violent political turmoil. There are many subtle characters, dialogues, events and symbols in the show to tell the multitude of stories without making the audience bored. The show offers what a modern busy audience expects.
The TV series talks to the hearts of the people who know what happened and who have no clue to what happened. Every single frame of the TV series will make people think about people and their suffering from their perspective.
In the end, politicians get reelected, people carry on with their life’s struggle without even having a chance to realise what is the reason that keeps them in a system which makes them not counted. Those who know what it’s to be a human to feel and understand what it’s to be victims of systematic violence should be the audience of Thanmalvila Kollek, to dig deep into matters and know that there is something wrong and it should be fixed.
Just like the tag line of the TV series, this show speaks in volumes about the unspoken chapter of the youth.