CHENNAI : It had to happen someday; for the popular Sri Lankan herbal drink, Samahan, to make its way into a movie, that too a US-Sri Lankan indie rom-com. Extremely popular in India, for immunity building and keeping cough and cold at bay, the very mention of Samahan in writer-director Shaun Seneviratne’s debut feature Ben and Suzanne’s Reunion in 4 Parts makes one feel at home. The film itself very briefly touches upon the idea of belonging or never fully becoming an insider in an alien culture.
Sathya Sridharan plays Ben Santhanaraj, an Indian American high school teacher, who journeys to Sri Lanka from the US to spend some quality time with his partner Suzanne Hopper (Anastasia Olowin) from whom he has been separated for a long time. The idea is to go on a road trip across the country and try to rekindle the dying spark in their long-distance relationship. However, the beginning itself proves inauspicious. Suzanne, who is working in a microcredit NGO called Economic Integrity, is out of town on a job and can’t welcome Ben at the airport. It’s her elderly boss Priyanti who picks him up and brings him home. Even the couple’s road trip together later turns into a work-from-home routine for Suzanne, bringing their relationship to the verge of a breakdown. Ben feels Suzanne is prioritising work over their relationship while she feels Ben is being selfish and is making her feel unnecessarily guilty.
The film harks back to Richard Linklater’s The Before Trilogy in how it is structured around conversations between its lead players—spontaneous and candid. In fact, the indie feel of Linklater gets even indie-er here. It is evident in the marked-down frames, the jagged, home video look and the many rough edges. The couple has none of the starry allure of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. However, Sathya and Anastasia are likeable for their eminently regular ways. Their exchanges are also no less ordinary, and their romance is more raw than dreamy or whimsical. The dynamics of their relationship are as real and natural as can be. It is ironic then that their cat, back in the US, should be called Ernest Lubitsch; the renowned filmmaker known for elegant comedies like To Be Or Not To Be and The Shop Around The Corner.
For a change, Sri Lanka is not about the incredibly green landscapes but neat homes, bustling markets, bus stands, kitschy vans and cars. It’s a country on the verge of a larger economic collapse but where a few are making a quick buck with the illegal sale of morning-after pills, hash, acid, and cocaine.
The drama, tension and propulsion come from the chatter—the constant shift from healthy discussions to acrimonious argumentations to sweet nothings. From books to dietary choices and life decisions—everything is up for heated debates. Ben and Suzanne even get down to arguing on whether optimism is pernicious or not, if life is all about a quest for happiness and enjoyment or about work, misery and suffering.
It all gets framed in the ambit of the recent economic downturn. Suzanne who once empowered female-owned businesses finds herself turned into a debt collector and loan recovery agent. No wonder she can’t see life as anything more than bleak. As fissures start appearing in the relationship, it is for a film—Starship Troopers—to bring them close again even if their ways of seeing it might be entirely different. It helps them negotiate a new turn in the relationship and makes them realise that at the very end lies a fresh start.
For a film pivoted on dialogue, my takeaway has been a phrase. Pent-up anger we all know. I am going to use an expression whose copyright rests in the film with Ben and Ben alone: pent-up tenderness.
Cinema Without Borders
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Film: Ben and Suzanne’s Reunion in 4 Parts Cinema