TV Times

TV Times

‘Samanala Thatu’ ready to fly
By N.Dilshath Banu
This time Somaratne Dissanayake, the Director of Suriya Arana has chosen to focus on the story of a street family, which make a living by singing and dancing on the street.

“Samanala Thatu” – Butterfly Wings will be the fourth film for Dissanayake, which is mainly shot in Kandy. And now it’s proceeding in the editing stage. The story revolves around a ten year old Sira portrayed by Dasun Madusanka. Sira has a younger sister who is disabled. His father (Suminda Sirisena) is suffering from a heart disease for a along time and he continuously ignores medical treatments, as he cannot afford to spend.

Although, Sira has been living in poverty, he has a dream- of buying a bicycle. After realizing that he’ll never get the required amount by helping his parents in street songs and dances, he tries to get of money from other sources by doing odd jobs. Sira didn’t understand that some of the avenues that he tried to move to make quick money are actually traps. Eventually falls into many troubles.

One day unexpectedly, he receives a large amount money from a foreigner. Knowing that his dream of riding a bicycle is finally going to become true, he returns home with a contented heart. Once he returns, he gets shocking news that his father has bee n admitted to the hospital after his condition got worse.

With the money in his hand, Sira spends all money to cure his father. Yet Sira’s generosity didn’t save his father’s life. Sira now becomes the head of the family and responsible to his sister and mother (Dulika Marapana). And he’s now left with no option, but to continue with his father’s job- a street singer, which he denied previously.

“Dreams are all same in childrens’ mind, whether they are in the palace or born into a street family. It all depends on the wealth and how much we can afford to make their dream come true” said Mr. Dissanayake, relating the issue dealt in ‘Samanala Thatu’.

Although, Mr. Dissanayake’s films are made up of child characters, he says that his stories are not for children, but children can also enjoy his films. “I think children are better human beings than adults.

When we grow up, we all divide ourselves into groups and be in our little cages. Through children we can learn a lot, specially adults” he said , adding “In my previous movie ‘Saroja’, I have used two children from different ethnic backgrounds mixing together. This questions the adults to think twice about the divisions they have in their minds. It’s like children questioning the adults. It is the same in my other films”

The disabled girl in ‘Samanala Thatu’ portrayed by Dulanjali Ariyathilaka, is a girl taken from an orphanage in Kurunegala. Mr. Dissanayake reveals that when he was writing the script, he visualized a handicapped child with no limbs. But when choosing for Sira’s crippled sister, he found Dulanjali to be very smart and he changed a little bit of the character portrayal in his script.

“It is a good exposure for the children like Dulanjali to reveal their talent. Although, this girl is physically a handicapped, mentally she is highly capable. She can draw and write from her feet and she’s into music as well” he added.

‘Samanala Thatu’ is edited by Ravindra Guruge, music by Rohana Weerasinghe and produced by Renuka Balasuriya. Upto now, it cost 80 lakhs for Somaratna Dissanayake to do the film and he adds that it might take another 60 lakhs to complete the project. ‘Samanala Thatu’ will be released in May for public view.

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