{"id":480,"date":"2011-10-16T18:37:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T18:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/?p=480"},"modified":"2011-10-16T18:37:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T18:37:28","slug":"vehi-dawasa-%e2%80%9crainy-day%e2%80%9d-a-review-by-lokubanda-tillakaratne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/news-on-bhadraji\/vehi-dawasa-%e2%80%9crainy-day%e2%80%9d-a-review-by-lokubanda-tillakaratne\/","title":{"rendered":"Vehi Dawasa (\u201cRainy Day\u201d) &#8211; A Review by Lokubanda Tillakaratne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Vehi Dawasa <\/em>(\u201cRainy Day\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Produced and Directed by Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka<\/p>\n<p>Story by Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka; Screenplay by Hemantha Prasad<\/p>\n<p>75 min.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last week I found myself transported to Nuwara Eliya through the brilliant and imaginative storytelling in Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka\u2019s <em>Vehi Dawasa <\/em>(\u201cRainy Day\u201d). On the strength of its versatile actors, equally complementary score, and the imagery created by none other than Donald Karunarathna (the dean of Sri Lankan cinematographers), <em>Vehi Dawasa<\/em> is sure to become a classic. Within its relatively short runtime of 75 minutes, the film transports the viewer to an astonishingly rich world full of harsh realities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Vehi Dawasa <\/em>shows the vicissitudes of daily life playing out in cruel harmony, ensconced in the majesty of Nuwara Eliya\u2019s misty hills.\u00a0 A colorful set of characters provides a window to this world.\u00a0 There is the passionless marriage of the lazy quarry worker and his wife, who are burdened with the illness of their child.\u00a0 In contrast, a young quarry worker and his wife are madly in love, and are happily expecting their first child.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, there is the local doctor, played by Jayatilaka himself, who provides for the small hospital while having to deal with his elitist and narcissist wife.\u00a0 On this day, a bus full of ebullient stage artists from Colombo descends on the town for a theatrical performance.\u00a0 When tragedy strikes the community just before the start of the performance, their hypocrisy and selfishness are revealed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Jayatilaka\u2019s artistry brings us to tears when he maneuvers us to witness the beauty and the depth of the human heart in a subtle but crystallized incident in the din of the city\u2019s Farmer\u2019s Market.\u00a0 He shows us the tragedy of trampled hope in the wilted white flags of the sad reality of the workers in this community.\u00a0 <em>Vehi Dawasa <\/em>reminds us that the pastoral hills of the Tea Country are in contrite contrast to the wails of life unraveling in their rainy vista below.\u00a0 His characters illustrate that the beauty and fun we embrace in a day\u2019s visit to this enchanting city is not necessarily the measure of the true nature of travails of the lives stranded in it.\u00a0 Donald Karunarathna employs his visual imagination without wasting a single frame.\u00a0 The coda of Jayatilaka\u2019s elegy is amplified by the cinematographer when he captures the moment when artists from the city riding a bus, songs and merriment in tow, pass through the somber neighborhood.\u00a0 All in all, <em>Vehi Dawasa<\/em> is a must-see for anyone who will appreciate the kaleidoscopic assimilation of disparities in one single, multifaceted rainy day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lokubanda Tillakaratne<\/p>\n<p>June 21,  2010<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vehi Dawasa (\u201cRainy Day\u201d) Produced and Directed by Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka Story by Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka; Screenplay by Hemantha Prasad 75 min. &nbsp; Last week I found myself transported to Nuwara Eliya through the brilliant and imaginative storytelling in Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilaka\u2019s Vehi Dawasa (\u201cRainy Day\u201d). On the strength of its versatile actors, equally complementary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-on-bhadraji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhadrajijayatilaka.com\/bud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}