TV Times

TV Times

Young girl faces social conflicts
By Susitha R, Fernando
‘Sandawathaka Waruna’ is a tale of a young girl who had to face challenges and hardships that were too much for her age. ‘Sandawathi’ is a girl from a remote village. Cheated by a man she gets pregnant at her young age. But she loses the child at delivery and a twist of fate she had to become a mother to a child of an affluent family whose mother dies at birth. She becomes a wife to a wealthy businessman and gives birth to another child from him. Growing up in an urban background her children turn to modern culture.

Coming from a village and imbued with its culture she is worried about her children and their way of living. In fact she herself is forced to join this new life style. Isolated between the rich cultures she inherited from the village and her religious background and the urban surrounding where she is living now she had to decide her future. Would she be strong enough to swim against the current?

Dee. Ga. Somapala the director says ‘Sandawathaka Varuna” is about a courageous journey of a girl with her limited experience in life. “We usually think that the women in villages who grow up with Buddhist religious background are uneducated and incapable of facing life. But this story shows how positive and open their way of thinking when they face the realities of life.” Mr. Somapala disclosed.

Speaking on the discovery of the story he said how the scriptwriter Nimal Navaratne had written it long ago and how he revealed it to him. “When he related it he was not very sure of its success. But when I read it fully I realized that it was really a very rich script.”

“However we had certain limitations with regard to the budget. So we had to make several alterations to the original script,” Mr. Somapala said. The background for the original script was upcountry. As it was difficult and expensive to find a location in Kandy we decided to adopt the story to a low country background. The miniplay was shot in the locations in and around Matugama.

He also said that it was a problem to find two artistes for the main role to be played as a young girl and as an old mother. “While I decided on Nadee Chandrase-kara for the first part of the story I could not get the actress whom I had in my mind to play the latter part. However Sunitha Wimalaweera whom I found later did justice to it,” he added.

The talented cast in the teledrama ‘Sandawathaka Waruna’ included Douglas Ranasinghe, Sunitha Wimala-weera, Dulkeeka Marapana, Nadee Chandrasekara, Roshan Pilapitiya, Chandra Kaluarach-chi, Harsha Bulathsingheala, H. A. Perera and Deepani Silva.

Scripted by Nimal Navaratne, art director is Ranjith Silva and edited by Jagath Weerathunga. Camera handled Manoj Ranasinghe and music director is Luxman Wijesekara, Sanda-wathaka Varuna is directed by Dee. Ga. Somapala.

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