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Flying with one wing - Review Part I
Thursday, 15 March 2007 - 8:47 AM SL Time | | |
I wish all my friends are like Asoka Handagama. Even after me saying that I do not like most of his creations at all (for entirely different reasons than the critics from the Taliban camp) he still feels obliged to send me two invitations whenever there is a media launch of a film or a tele drama. (Last time I spent eight hours watching 13 episodes of his latest `East is calling` tele drama played back to back for 8 hours!)
I like only three creations of his. `Dunhinda Addara` was excellent and so was `East is calling`. As for `Flying with one wing` though I liked it, I have reservations. `Aksharaya` could have been good, but he missed the opportunity to do a good film by making it unnecessarily complex. The rest are not worth discussing about.
This review was written in 2003.
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`Flying with one wing`, by Asoka Handagama, is a new South Asian film, with a difference. I purposely refrain from calling it by its original Sinhala name `Thani thatuven piyabanna`, for the simple reason that I do not see anything particularly `Sinhalese` about it. It depicts a stream of events, which can take place in any South Asian society. (I was glad to follow it with English subtitles, which were definitely more pungent than the original colloquial Sinhala dialogues.) The film is shot entirely within the Galle Fort, among the blackened and dilapidated buildings of the Dutch era. These surroundings indubitably break the umbilical cord between the creation and its placenta, the Sinhalese Buddhist society. Handagama has no intentions of showing us a typical Sinhalese Buddhist village, with a tank (Veva) on one side and a temple (Dageba) on the other. The non-descriptive streets and buildings successfully veil the actual environment this bizarre story unfolds.
In this regard, I am afraid I cannot help agreeing with one of Handagama`s harsh critics. Dr. Nalin De Silva, the champion of the Sinhalese Buddhist cause, prefers not to watch any of the `thuppahi` movies by Handagama because he fears it might result in him losing his self control and destroying the projector. It is a different question why an intellect like Dr. De Silva, who is said to have cultivated the virtues of Buddhist thinking, loses his self control so often, but he is dead right calling this a `thuppahi` movie. The Sinhala word `thuppahi`, literally, `three languages` - is frequently used to represent an object or a person that crosses the mere boundaries of a single culture. That is exactly what `Flying with one wing` is. Turn off your ears, and you will watch a Pakistani, Bangladeshi or an Indian movie. There is no `Sinhalese` watermark at all in it.
As a person who disliked, nay hated, some of the previous creations of Handagama, including his much commended `Me mage sandai` I was surprised to find myself enjoying `Flying with one wing`. Handagama still shows some of his initial weaknesses in translating the harsh reality into an artistic cinematic expression, but no doubt this is a movie worth watching. Not the least because it is one of the extremely rare, probably the first, South Asian film to have a frontal nudity scene, in fact two, a male and a female, but many will remember the last one which is remarkably poignant. That is definitely not something anyone would have expected Rukmani Devi to perform for `Kadavunu Poronduva`.
It is again a different question whether Gangodawila Soma Thero or Henry Jayasena like it or not, but as a director Handagama gets the best out of Anoma Janadari, something Jayantha Chandrasiri had not been able to get from Yashodha Wimaladharma (in Agnidahaya) and Wasantha Obeysekera from Sangeetha Weeraratne (in Salelu Varama). In fact, Handagama effortlessly extracts the best out of almost everybody, from Gayani Sudharshani, the new comer who makes a sturdy mark in the sliver screen in her first attempt to Mahendra Perera and from the nameless mechanics to the equally nameless football players in the street. Sweetened with Rohana Weerasinghe`s cheerful music, this is a movie, which brings back the congenial memories of Deepa Metha and her unforgettable `Fire`.
The movie is based on a true incident that involved a Sri Lankan woman who lived as a man. Trans-sexuality is nothing uncommon in the west, where an individual can change his/her gender according to his/her wish by a surgical operation. The environment in South Asia, where such a transformation is impossible and where men and women have predefined and stereotyped roles, the situation is entirely different. So here is Manju, the young and radiant mechanic who prefers to conceal her gender to live like a male. The equation is complete with her `marriage` to another woman. So everyone lives happily till an unexpected accident that triggers the drama.
Surprisingly, Handagama gets his wires crossed here. There are no GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgender) issues in the movie. The protagonist is NOT a transsexual. (Instead of loathing them, she enjoys wearing women`s clothes and jewellery in camera, in the closed surroundings of the bathroom.) Neither she is a lesbian. She performs the act of having sex with another woman (with an artificial penis) but that is only because it is essential to play her selected role. No hints are given whether she likes it or not. Probably not, as throughout the entire episode she does not show any attraction towards any other girl. True, she/he exhibits a genuine desire to be a hero in the eyes of the girl next door, whom he accompanies to home from the night bus, but that too is more to warrant her/his masculinity than to impress her. The only gay character in the movie can be safely eliminated from the story if not for his remarkable last words. (`You are a real bitch!`) So let me deviate from the view of the jury of the St. Sebestian International film festival that concede `Flying with one wing` with the award for the movie reflecting the reality about GLBT issues. Probably I see it through a different eye, but no matter how hard I try, I cannot find even a single GLBT issue in `Flying with one wing`.
With this mask torn off, Handagama turns out to be the naked rebel he actually is. He is nothing short of the commonplace jholawallah Marxist we all know so well. In that role, he is only a typical Sinhalese film director who fights for the rights of the oppressed women (quite proletarian ones at that) in the traditional male dominated society. He can be a Parakrama Niriella (Ayoma), a Dharmasiri Bandaranaike (Suddilage Kathawa) or even a Wasantha Obeysekera (Dhadayama). However, there is still one major difference that makes Manju different from Ayoma or Suddi. Unlike the latter two, Manju is a women oppressed by her own class. It is not just the dirty capitalists (the garage owner, doctor etc.) who torment her. (A Marxist might have chosen the word `exploit`, but I abstain from using it as Manju never wants to be exploited by anyone till the end of the film.) Here is a proletarian women denuded by the members of her own class. (the mechanics, neighbours etc.) Marx probably would not have liked it, and Trotsky would even have termed the whole act as `reactionary`, but then they knew so little about the South Asian societies.
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Source(s)
NR |
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