Film: Paradise Cast: Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran, Shyam Fernando, Mahendra Perera, Sumith Ilango, Azer Samsoodeen Director: Prasanna Vithanage Rating: 3/5 Runtime: 110 min Internationally recognized Sri Lankan auteur Prasanna Vithanage’s first Indian language film, ‘Paradise, ’ winner of the Kim Jeseok Award at Busan 2023 is being released in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Sinhala. It’s a simple film about a middle-class Indian couple Keshav ( Roshan Mathew ) and Amritha/Ammu (Darshana Rajendran) celebrating their 5th Wedding anniversary by holidaying in Sri Lanka during the acute economic crisis of 2022. Sri Lanka was then engulfed in massive protests due to mounting discontent against the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his mismanagement of the Govt coffers.
ADVERTISEMENT Keshav opines that the country is welcoming tourists because they need their Dollars for an economic turnaround. But that doesn’t really explain the couple’s reasons for choosing their anniversary destination. An economically struggling Indian couple is unlikely to go in for Dollars when the Indian Rupee itself has a high valuation in that country.
That intrinsic flaw aside, this film derives a little heft from a parallel analogy detailing Sita’s trials following her kidnapping by Ravana who is revered as a God in Sri Lanka and, Amritha’s counter-questioning of beliefs as put forward by their local driver and guide Mr Andrew (Shyam Fernando). In a smooth flowing narrative we see Keshav .
