COLOMBO: ‘Orey Naalil’ (In a Single Day), which was released recently, is the first Lankan Tamil film to be made entirely by Lankans (with no input whatsoever from India) in the last 18 years.
‘Mann’ (Earth), which came out in 2006, was not an indigenous effort, but was done by Lankan Tamil expatriates living in the UK. And some of the artistes and technicians were Indians from Chennai. The last entirely indigenous Lankan Tamil film was ‘Sharmilavin Idhaya Raagam’ (Sharmila’s Song of the Heart) which was released in 1993.
Since ‘Sharmilavin Idhaya Raagam’ had bombed at the box office, other Lankan film enthusiasts developed cold feet and refrained from making a Tamil film with local talent. But, Ashraf Ali, a Colombo- based businessman with a penchant for film production, and film enthusiasts ARM Razim and P Sivakanthan, were a different kettle of fish.
Razim’s passion for film making goes back to 1989, when, even as a high school student, he had made a video on the Tamil-Muslim conflict in Eastern Lanka. “We were determined to make a completely Lankan Tamil film, come what may,” Razim told Express. “Shooting for ‘Orey Naalil’, a gripping social drama about how two loving brothers became bitter enemies, began in 2007, even as bombs were going off in Colombo,” he recalled.
The small budget film took three years to make, but thanks to the National Film Corporation, it was released at the posh Cinecity complex in Colombo and also at Jaffna and Batticaloa. However, to Razim’s dismay, Cinecity took the film off after the first day, to accommodate an Indian blockbuster.
‘Orey Naalil’ had come a cropper in Jaffna and Batticaloa too, because of the simultaneous release of ‘Vedi’ starring Vishal.
“We tried to awaken the peoples’ nationalistic sentiment, but failed,” said an official of the Shanthi Theatre in Batticaloa. But Ashraf and Razim are unfazed. They are planning to tap the Tamil Nadu market, where, they believe, the film will be patronised by Tamil nationalists.