Bhawatharana Weaving the past and present of Crossing Samsära

Diverting from the mainstream storytelling cinema, ‘Bhawatharana’ - Devinda Kongahage’s directorial debut takes the audience through a philosophical narrative of Sri Lanka’s history and Buddhism. The film revolves around a failed coup led by monks in leading temples to kill Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe, the reigning king during the Kandyan period. Alternating between the past and present, the story reflects on the social and political instability that prevailed during this period. The movie blends Buddhism, politics and egoistic human instincts, hence the name ‘Bhawatharana’ which translates to ‘Crossing of Samsära’. 

“The film speaks about the historical background of the Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe’s tenure between 1747 and 1782,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mirror Life. “It is not a typical storytelling piece of cinema but more of an epic that alternates between Buddhism and humanity.”

But people shouldn’t confuse themselves with ‘Bavatharanaya’ the story written by Martin Wickramasinghe which speaks about the life of Siddhartha. “Historical cinema in Sri Lanka is mostly storytelling cinema. Even though our film industry dates back to 1901 we are not conversant in diverse cinema platforms practised across the globe. In most instances we see a story being narrated in a film and oftentimes, it is a known story. Cinema and filmmaking are two different subjects. Cinema has other different dialects when it comes to language. In Sri Lankan cinema we always tend to appreciate the storytelling part. In historical cinemas we would watch the story we already know and sometimes the audience will be happy or disappointed about it.”

Having started his film career as an actor back in 1990 when he starred in Dharmasiri Bandaranaike’s ‘Bhava duka, Bhava karma’, Kongahage had always wanted to give something different to the audience. He then moved into producing political and entertainment programmes including reality shows.  Thereafter I joined Sirasa TV as a producer and I was involved in political and entertainment programmes. After leaving Sirasa I continued my studies in cinema and film making. Then during 2007-2008 I directed ‘Sadisi Tharanaya’ which was my first tele-film series and the music scores for the production were Dr. Premasiri Khemadasa’s final creations. The series also won five national awards including Best Director. In 2008 I came across a book written by Dr. Lorna Dewaraja and it was about the Kandyan Kingdom. What is quite unfortunate is that even though there’s written history in the Mahavamsa the verbal history has been manipulated according to various political views. Thereafter I started an extensive field research, speaking to various temples and gathering ground level information. I wrote the script in 2010-2011 and started filming in 2013.” 

When asked about cinema literacy among the audiences Kongahage said that we have been associating with cinema and filmmaking since 1901. “From 1947 onwards this was known as Sinhala cinema. So within this 74 years or 120 years of cinema, we haven’t been able to develop an educational background among viewers or those who make films. Most filmmakers do not have an educational background as it is mostly self taught. Successive governing bodies haven’t considered the film industry as an area that informs society. It was mostly considered as an entertainment industry and was therefore largely neglected. There are no film schools, acting schools or no proper policies in place to develop standards with regards to cinema and as such, the literacy on cinematic language is rather low.” 

Doing a directorial debut isn’t easy, especially with prevailing challenges. “The production was done eight years ago and at the time there was a lot of field politics and country politics. Ruling bodies kept changing and there was no proper distribution method. There are some 140 films which are yet to be released. Some of these films have been censored and the censor board too hasn’t been a standard judging entity. Releasing the film again was a challenge. The government, creators and distributors should come to a common ground and draft a national policy to improve the standards of films and the industry as a whole. We have a narrow industry. Even though we have a population of 22 million, only around 3-3.5 million people have watched a movie or associated cinema in theatres throughout the past. Therefore distribution and releasing was a great issue,” he added.

Kongahage is in the process of working on his second movie titled ‘Girivasipura’ which is also an epic, based on the last period of the Kandyan Kingdom. 

‘Bhawatharana’ features a stellar cast including Malini Fonseka, Mahendra Perera, Roshan Pilapitiya, Sriyantha Mendis, Roshan Ravindra while introducing Sajeev Rajaputhra, a new face to the local film scene. The film also grabbed three international awards including the award for the Best Film at the Delhi International Film Festival and two other awards including the Most Outstanding Film at the Asia Tourism Induced Film & Television Awards Festival 2018 held in China. It was also adjudged as the Best Film at the Golden Kite Film Festival also held in China. “The film therefore goes down in history as the first Sri Lankan epic movie to win international awards.  The world has seen heavy historical epics that reflect Indian, Egyptian and Mayan histories and in that context, Sri Lankan history is a minor subject. The movie’s content and language was appreciated and awarded.”

The film is now being screened in Ridma circuit cinemas around the country.