Talking about Sinhala cinema, I have never before seen what i call a "cinematic experience" quite so powerfully endorsed in a similar theme, which compelled me to write a movie review for the first time in life. I do not believe the story to inspire much suspense or twist unless you were expecting a thriller, which the movie is definitely not. The director and the script have done great justice to the soul-searching experience in the movie, by not spoiling it with a twist and also not building up unnecessary suspense to send the moviegoers home, disappointed. The story-line, theme and music blended with the performance of the two main actors Uddika and Yashoda, have delivered such a hypnotic cinematic experience, which the Sinhala cinema has been deprived of for decades. Being a new face in the big screen, Uddika put up an impressively sensitive performance, which aligned the movie with its theme through the depth of his emotions,with eminent support from the script. In fact, his performance and music, were the life of the movie from scene 1, which invited the audience to a rather spiritual experience since the very beginning, so that a lack of twist should not be felt a cheating. Yashoda, though well done, played safe in her comfort zone of the charming and feminine woman. On the down side, little attention to detail has been paid to the recreation of "before sms era". Posters, vehicles in the background, clothing, fashion etc looked too modern and little/nothing did the art direction do to make the audience feel it was 1992, hadn't the period been displayed. Further, inconsistent performance by Pubudu(though played well in the latter half), over-acted and over-written comic scenes, negative value additions by Roshan and Chathurika were the let downs that robbed the movie of its right tune. About the young protagonist, he had quite a complex role to play between "is it love", "is it guilt" or "what is it" could have been improved given more than necessary screen time given to him. I believe he failed to deliver the passion displayed by the older protagonist, which should have been more intense and lively during the younger years. Overall, the movie was hypnotic. Hats-off to Jayantha Chandrasiri, a genius in the Sinhala art field, for bringing in such a novel experience to a war-ridden and period movie-ridden cinema. However, i expected more perfection from him with respect to the above demerits, him being Jayantha Chandrasiri, whose pieces of work such as Dandubasnamanaya and Wedahamine practically defined a mini cinema in the small screen of the country. But one thing that remains as powerful to date, is his divine blend of music with a strong performance of the protagonist, which makes the viewers live it, than watch it. That's what makes this an experience rather than just a movie.
