JULIA

JULIA is the story of a naïve girl who gets pregnant. It is the story of Dilru, a seductive and deceitful gold-digger. It is the story of Dev, a brother out for revenge but ends up becoming a knight in shining armour. JULIA is a story of impulsive decisions and its consequential heartaches.

JULIA stars veteran actors Robin Fernando, Sriyantha Mendis, Rex Kodipilli, Veena Jayakody and Ravindra Randeniya in a cameo appearance. The title character of Julia is played by Nadeesha Hemamali. The story and screenplay is by Sarath Samaranayake and   the two male leads are played by Charith Abeysinghe (Dilrukshan) and Sampath Sri Roshan (Dev) who also happen to be the film's producer and director respectively.

Since Sri Lankan cinema is technologically far behind when compared to American, European and Indian cinema it is essential to concentrate on distinctive stories or styles of storytelling. And since JULIA is a film made by two young Sri Lankan filmmakers, I dared to form a speck of optimism thinking this might be a good movie. Unfortunately for my wallet I was dead wrong. JULIA is nothing but some old rubbish covered in High-Definition gift wrapping. The plot in a nutshell is about a poor-little-rich-girl who gets the old "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am" treatment by a smooth operator and the subsequent repercussions of this act. The plot is so disorganized; it's difficult to articulate in a few sentences. Basically, Dilruskan (a.k.a. Dilru) is a manipulative player who loves 'n' leaves Julia. Dev has come to Sri Lanka in search of Dilru who happens to be responsible for the death of his sister, back in England. Meanwhile Julia's father unleashes his henchmen to find his daughter and her Romeo. And everything converges into an "Achchaaru" type plotline. It's as if the writer took the 5 most common plotlines from Lankan teledramas and jumbled it all up. This clearly created a number of potholes in the story that were painfully apparent. Such as; when an unknown guy knocks up your only daughter, the first words out of the father's mouth should NOT be "when are you going to marry my daughter?" After Dev gets tortured by the father's thugs for days and risks life and limb to escape, it's really hard to believe that Dev would forgive the father in a heartbeat and voluntarily agree to help him. In the second act the father is tearful and concerned about his daughter's unhappy life, I'm sure the idiot conveniently forgot that he only wanted to KILL his own daughter in the first act. These and many more noticeable blunders made the entire film absurd and amateurish.

The dialogue does not disappoint in its level of absurdity either. It is melodrama personified like only bad Lankan filmmakers can do. The mixture of English one-liners in the Sinhala dialogue is clearly a Bollywood fad that doesn't need to be imitated.

JULIA is another example of cinematic misdirection. If you can dazzle the viewer with shots of scenic or foreign locations, then they won't pay attention to the piss poor storyline. This is a strategy of mediocre filmmakers. With far too many aerial shots of London, crane shots of flower fields and song scenes similar to a Puff Daddy music video, the cinematography is simply trying too hard. The editing is no better, with its overdone split screen effects, the needless transition effects from one scene to the next and the annoying number of Fade-to-Black, it is evident that both the editor and director are beginners. The score is alarmingly disappointing because it sounds like a sample from an 80's Lankan flick, the chase scene is preposterous and the fight scenes are Charlie Chaplin-like.

The ensemble performance by the actors is certainly a sorry sight. Nadeesha Hemamali who is known for her roles in teledramas simply forgot that movie acting requires a degree of realism. Charith Abeysinghe's portrayal of Dilru is lacking in so many ways. He seems too concerned with posing than actually acting, modeling maybe a better career choice. Sampath Sri Roshan's performance as Dev is average but stands out in the sea of bad actors. What really blew me away were the three veterans who proved that acting is not like a fine wine; it doesn't get better with age. Statues carved in stone convey more vivacity than Robin Fernando. Sriyantha Mendis' performance for lack of a better word is LUDICROUS and downright stupid. He is unforgivably miscast as the leader of the henchmen; even his mannerisms appear fake and unnatural. But the Oscar definitely has to go to Ravindra Randeniya; his level of overacting, indicating and facial expressions is an all time low for the Lankan acting profession. It is just sad to see our so called professionals reduce performances to such miserable standards. Absolutely pathetic!

I have given some leeway to the pitfalls made by the director (Sampath Sri Roshan) because this is his directorial debut. But what struck me like a shock to the system was how haphazardly the story unfolded. It's as if these filmmakers have never seen a Hollywood or Euro movie. The lack of structure is clear, the recycled plot is unmistakable, but what sticks out like a sore thumb is the brazen disregard for character development or growth. Many characters just change their minds and opinions in a flash. Julia suddenly doesn't love Dilru anymore, but all of a sudden marries him? Dev is nearly killed by Julia's father but swiftly forgives and decides to help him? Dilru takes advantage of Dev's girlfriend but Dev forgives him for the sake of Julia and her unborn child? These are signs of infantile storytelling and the writer and director are solely responsible. If these guys are the so called future of Lankan cinema, then indeed the future looks bleak.

Rating: 1/5

S. V. Fernando