MARUTHAYA

The untimely death of a defeated politician leads his wife and two teenage daughters spiraling into a world of poverty, shame and humiliation. The trio is shunned by friends and family and without a proper income the mother's only course of action is to become a prostitute. Lacking the formal education and training required for an administrative job, the mother sells her body for the betterment of her two daughters. But ironically the ill-fated daughters will follow in their mother's footsteps. This is the story of their tainted lives.

MARUTHAYA (The Storm) is written and directed by Vasantha Obeysekera and stars Sangeetha Weeraratne (the elder daughter), Yasoda Wimaladharma (the younger daughter) and Veena Jayakody (the mother) in the three main roles. The supporting cast consists of Asoka Pieris, Lucky Dias and Kamal Addaraarachchi.

Obeysekera seems to be a feminist at heart due to the reoccurring theme of

'The Plight of the Woman' in many of his films. It is commendable that he is one of the few Sri Lankan film directors who champion the fairer sex because it is apparent that sexual equality although preached in Sri Lanka is seldom practiced. Obeysekera uses this film as a tool to voice his opinions on prevalent sexual double standards, the hypocrisy of the religious institutes and the double-edged sword that is Sri Lankan politics. But unfortunately when directors focus on preaching, they tend to forget to pay attention to the all important plot. The story at times is truly ridiculous, are we to believe that the mother has absolutely no alternative but to become a prostitute? And didn't the daughters have more options besides following in their mother's path? It seems that logic in the plot has been replaced by far-fetched ideas. I felt as if the filmmaker was purposely leading me through increasing stages of depression. Although I did sympathize with the three female characters at the beginning of the film, towards the end I just felt annoyed with this boring self-pitying bunch of hookers. Surprisingly, Obeysekera has a knack for realistic dialogue, which is what made the plot tolerable. 

Cinematography is second-rate with dimly lit shots and pedestrian frame compositions. The only thing out of the ordinary is the shots where the actors are in the foreground with a completely black background as if they are being interviewed.

Yasoda Wimaladharma and Veena Jayakody offer agreeable performances in their respective roles. But Sangeetha Weeraratne's performance is debatable. Although Weeraratne seems natural as her character's teenage version, it is during the scenes when she plays her older self that sheer absurdity comes into play. She can pull off a naïve but head strong teenage girl but lacks the depth to portray the disenchanted madam (her future self).

The only originality in direction is the use of overlapping dialogue while the actors look directly at the camera. It gives a documentary style to this narrative film. But that's the extent of this film's uniqueness. Obeysekera excessively uses the voice-overs of the two daughters, to a point where he simply begins to tell the story instead of actually showing it to the viewer. Cinema is fundamentally a visual art, this is forgotten. Deeper questions like, which is the lesser of two evils, political corruption or prostitution fall on deaf ears due to the two sisters constantly complaining about how bad and horrible their lives are. The mother's funeral scene was just absurd, why bring the deceased home if you are not going to let anyone into the house to pay their final respects? The entire modeling sequence was nonsensically inappropriate and unnecessary. I'm sure the director has his reasons for including these scenes but looking at the whole picture (no pun intended) this is yet another film that needs to be locked in the vault of Depressionism.

Rating: 2/5

S. V. Fernando