Malaka Dewapriya’s ‘The Undecided’: Tragedy of a generation floating on the surface

The movie posits the tragedy faced by young people in Sri Lanka who float on the surface with so many life aspirations but fail to have them realised due to the hostile social, political, and economic circumstances. Being frustrated about what the extant Sri Lankan society could offer them, they choose to leave the shores of the country for greener pastures elsewhere, specifically, in the Western world which has been shown to them as a live heaven on the earth. When their dreams become illusive and elusive, like the youth in the rest of the world, they seek solace in drugs and sex. In that way, they become a distinctive subculture within the mainstream culture of the country

A film waiting for screening for seven plus long years

Sri Lankan film maker and visual artist, Malaka Dewapriya’s movie, reported to have been completed some seven plus years ago, ‘The Undecided’, was screened for a selected audience in Colombo last week. It had been sponsored by the Colombo University’s Alumni Association of which university, Dewapriya has been an alumnus himself. 

According to the story that unfolds before the viewers, all the characters have been ‘those failing to decide’ for themselves. Hence, its English title in the plural form is more apt to the story than the Sinhala title, Bahuchithavadiya, which refers to a single person failing to do so. Though the movie has not been screened for public view in Sri Lanka, it has won at least a half dozen international awards. Therefore, the fame of the movie comes well ahead of the public screening for diverse audiences in Sri Lanka.

Young people drifting on the surface

The movie posits the tragedy faced by young people in Sri Lanka who float on the surface with so many life aspirations but fail to have them realised due to the hostile social, political, and economic circumstances. Being frustrated about what the extant Sri Lankan society could offer them, they choose to leave the shores of the country for greener pastures elsewhere, specifically, in the Western world which has been shown to them as a live heaven on the earth. When their dreams become illusive and elusive, like the youth in the rest of the world, they seek solace in drugs and sex. In that way, they become a distinctive subculture within the mainstream culture of the country. 

This reminds me of the storyline in the historical novel ‘The Drifters’ authored by the American writer James A Michener and published in 1971.1 Michener covered in his novel the life of the disillusioned young people in the West in 1960s who had developed for themselves a distinctive subculture called the Hippy culture which objected to and was divergent from the cultural, economic, political, and social norms of their parents. They drifted across the world in search of an elusive solace for their mental downturn by living like wandering ascetics in ancient times but fully engorged in all the rebellious activities like drugs and sex.2 At the end, they all had failed in their newly adopted counter-social movement for attaining the expected solace. 

However, in 1970s and 1980s, this Hippy culture became extinct, and most of the former Hippies were seamlessly absorbed into the newly emerging mainstream cultural habits. A classic example for this unusual social absorption is the story of Steve Jobs who wandered in South Asia like a practicing Brahmin in early 1970s in search of mental happiness through Eastern mysticism but could suddenly wake himself to the worldly ground realities and co-found what is now known as the Apple empire.3 Thus, in USA, the Hippy movement was restricted only to a single generation. But in Sri Lanka, as Dewapriya’s movie tells us, it seems to be a never-ending recurring cycle.

Malaka Dewapriya

Taking risks in fleeing the country

The unhappy young people seeking to break away from their family and cultural bonds in search of greener pastures elsewhere has not been a new development. Throughout human history, this has been the case. In 1950s, the South Indian Tamils, thinking that Ceylon at that time had offered them a better and comfortable living, sought to illegally enter the island and it was known as the problem of illegal boat people or ‘Kallathoni’ menace.4 Now with growing social and economic hardships, the flow is from Sri Lanka to elsewhere. 

Sri Lankan youth in multi-day fishing boats seek to illegally enter Europe on the Western side and Australia on the Eastern side prompting the Australian authorities to advertise ad nauseum in local media that it would be fruitless to try to enter Australia illegally since they would be returned to Sri Lanka. Now the flow as well as the planning ingenuity of these boat people has increased multifold.5 Therefore, though Dewapriya had shot this film nearly a decade ago, its relevance is more valid to contemporary Sri Lanka.

Dual tragedy: youth as well as movie makers

Thus, The Undecided takes us through the tragedy of contemporary Sri Lankan youth. However, in my view, it is not the tragedy of only the youth; it is also a classic example of the tragedy of young movie makers in the country. Dewapriya had invested his time, money, and efforts in making this movie, but the country’s limited theatrical openings had not permitted him to offer it for public viewing for so long. This is a tragedy because now Sri Lanka is trying to boost its foreign exchange earnings by developing the export of services. For a small island nation with so much of human talents and capacity, exporting entertainment services is one such source of diversifying its export earnings. 

The rebellious movie maker Asoka Handagama tried to break these barriers through his movies produced for international markets. But one of his movies, Aksharaya was killed beyond resurrection by Sri Lanka’s unofficial cultural police with overt and covert support of authorities.6 Since then, no Sri Lankan movie maker attempted to penetrate the global markets though there are massive opportunities available to them. Handagama tried to redevelop this by proposing a Sri Lanka style Oscar system in 2013, but it also was received by deaf ears of the country’s authorities.7

A movie fitting for global markets

Dewapriya’s creation, The Undecided, has all the qualities for penetrating the global entertainment market. Its theme, as explained earlier, is about the frustrated Sri Lankan youth who are ready to leave the island for a better life in a Western country at the slightest bidding. The main character, Sasitha, played by up-and-coming actor Kalana Gunasekera, employs various ploys to have his dream fulfilled. He works as a temporary delivery boy for a loss-making online delivery company for a frugal pay or on most occasions no pay at all. His family background is also pathetic with an unmarried spinster at home. 

His work at the online delivery company gives him an opportunity as well as the technical knowhow to seduce older Sri Lankan women working abroad and who want to send parcels to their relatives back at home. He becomes a flirting Casanova8 expressing his love for each of these women and trying to get a job abroad with their support. 

In addition, he conducts sexual relationships with two Sri Lankan women, one whose husband is in the UK and the other, an unmarried old lady whose younger brother is Germany. His goal is to get into either the UK or Germany through those relationships by offering carnal services to them in return. When the dream becomes elusive and his sister becomes a nuisance rather than a support, he gets into drugs with his friend who also had left his wife and child and living on his own.

The unhappy young people seeking to break away from their family and cultural bonds in search of greener pastures elsewhere has not been a new development. Throughout human history, this has been the case. In 1950s, the South Indian Tamils, thinking that Ceylon at that time had offered them a better and comfortable living, sought to illegally enter the island and it was known as the problem of illegal boat people or ‘Kallathoni’ menace. Now with growing social and economic hardships, the flow is from Sri Lanka to elsewhere

Unfulfilled dreams and addiction to sex and drugs

The scriptwriter of the movie gives a hint that Sasitha has had an affair with his friend’s wife too because she is in the business of sending people to Japan illegally. Meanwhile, he has an affair with a girl working in a communication centre and that relationship is also nurtured by the ambition of the girl to get out of the country for a job abroad. Hence, it is a relationship for the mutual benefit of both which economists call a ‘win-win’ contact. One by one, Sashitha’s dream gets shattered and finally, he is left by all these female associates who come to know his seductive ploys. 

His life gets into a dramatic moment when he loses his job, comes to know his family-value worshipping and prudish spinster sister is made in the family way by his friend and his boss starts an illicit affair with his girlfriend at the communication centre by promising her to deliver the heaven by arranging for both to leave the country. Any other person would have either gone insane or taken his life when faced with such multiple catastrophes. But Sasitha restarts his seductive game with a new set of girls by delivering his fake love through internet in the hope that at least one of them could help him realise his dream. Therefore, for Sri Lanka’s youth, unlike their Hippy counterparts in USA, it is a recurring event going through multiple cycles with no prospect for rejoining the mainstream social echelons. 

They live eternally in unfulfilled dreams practicing all sorts of anti-social activities and disappear one day from this world with the same unfulfilled dreams packed into their hearts. That is the tragedy of the young generation in Sri Lanka. It is also a tragedy which has not received the attention of the country’s authorities. It is, therefore, a puss-filled and painful festering wound that does not heal because there is no social support system to rescue them from the economic and social calamity they are facing. This is the underlying message conveyed by Dewapriya to his viewers.

Innovative experiments

The movie has several innovative experiments which have upped its creative value. It is free of background music and viewers are treated only to natural sounds. Those sounds, like the thundering sound of a booming motorcycle, make the scenery unfolding with each event more realistic. The viewer feels as if he is living in the scenery and it helps him to get fully absorbed into the movie. Music is played aloud in the last scenery in which the flirting Casanova is trying to hook his new victim denoting that a new cycle of living in dreams but naturally susceptible to failure is to begin. 

Unlike their Western counterparts, lip-kissing by lovers is still an anathema to Sri Lanka’s movies. Dewapriya breaks this unwritten cultural taboo by getting his flirting Casanova and his girlfriend to get into a deep embrace in public, while engaged in equally deep lip-kissing. This is something new to Sri Lankan movies and, in my view, it constitutes a bold experiment done by Dewapriya ready to face the outcry that may be made by the country’s informal cultural police against him. 

It seems that the whole movie has been shot by a cameraman who has held his camera manually. This can be clearly seen in scenes containing the main character riding his motorbike. The wobbling picture on the screen makes the viewer feel that it is he who is riding the bike in the scene. It is certainly a new experience for the movie-viewer. These are plus points for this young movie maker.

Developing Sri Lanka as a global entertainer

The debut of the movie in Colombo had been attended by a crowd filled from one corner to the other of the PVR Theatre in One-Gall Face Mall. It shows the recognition which Dewapriya had got as a movie maker from his friends, well-wishers, fellow artists, and so on. In the crowd, there was a former President, a presidential bidder, and a dozen of bigwigs in the present NPP government led by its minister of cultural affairs. These VVIPs have a role to play: that is, to help Sri Lankan artists to penetrate the global entertainment market and develop the country as an important centre of entertainment production. This was how South Korea developed its entertainment industry to become a world leader attaining a record earning of $ 13.24 billion in 2022 by exporting movie contents, almost equal to Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports.9 This is still peanuts of the global entertainment market amounting to about $ 3 trillion but it represents a significant penetration by Korean artists. This should be the goal of Sri Lanka too.

In my view, it is time to support Malaka Dewapriya and all other Sri Lankan artists to penetrate the ever-expanding global entertainment market.

Footnotes:

1Michener, James A, 1971, The Drifters, Random House.

2https://www.britannica.com/topic/hippie

3Isaacson, Walter, 2011, Steve Jobs, Simon and Schuster.

4https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-story-of-a-smart-sri-lankan-child/?tztc=1

5https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-boat-people-come-ashore-in-vietnam-after-initial-resistance-102326/

6For details see: Wijewardena, W.A, 2024, A Death in an Antique Shop: Challenge to Our Cognitive Capacity, in https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/a-death-in-an-antique-shop-challenge-to-our-cognitive-capacity/

7See for details: Wijewardena, W.A, 2013, Killing Two Birds with One Sri Lankan Styled Oscar, at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/killing-two-birds-with-one-sri-lankan-styled-oscar/

8https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giacomo-Casanova

9https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/k-pop/20240206/culture-ministry-aims-to-make-korea-global-cultural-power

(The writer, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, can be reached at [email protected].)