Asia Pacific Screen Awards – Prasanna Vithanage’s “Gaadi” wins Cultural Diversity Award

Source:Brisbane 4EB Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – December 2021

Well known Sri Lankan movie director, Prasanna Vithanage’s Gaadi (Children of the Sun) was awarded the Cultural Diversity Award at the recently completed Asia Pacific Screen Awards in the Gold Coast.

Set in the dying days of Kandyan Kingdom in Sri Lanka, the movie revolves around the relationship between an aristocratic woman and a man from the ‘rodia’ community, considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy.

When a British supported rebellion against the King of Kandy by the noblemen fails, the King orders the wives of the noblemen to be given to the rodiya men. Women who do not want to lose their honour drown themselves except one – young Tikiri. She is declared the property of the rodiya caste Vijaya and becomes an unwilling member of the group.

Period dramas make sense only if they speak to the present, Vithanage observed. He described Gaadi as an exploration of the polarisation over identity that has driven Sri Lanka over the years and continues to vex vast parts of the world. “There’s no point making a period drama just for the look and the costumes – it must shed light on the present world and the situation in your country,” Vithanage told Scroll.in in an interview from Colombo. “Most of us in the subcontinent are polarised over the issue of identity, whether Buddhist chauvinism or Hindutva.
The film was my way to understand the meaning and validity of identity, which has been playing out across the world too.”
Courtesy: https://scroll.in/ and https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/