We had reported earlier that Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran are the principal cast members in Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage's new film, Paradise. Produced by Anto Chittilappilly of Newton Cinema, the film is presented by Mani Ratnam's banner, Madras Talkies.
A rep for Newton Cinema touts Paradise as an "edge-of-the-seat film" that traverses the thriller, investigation and romance terrain. Like Prasanna's last film, Gaadi (Children of the Sun), Paradise will premiere first at the upcoming edition of the Busan International Film Festival. A formal release plan is yet undecided.
Interestingly, the technical team of Paradise features some of Indian cinema's consummate craftsmen: Rajeev Ravi behind the camera, Sreekar Prasad on the editing table, Tapas Nayak designing the sound, and K composing the music.
Speaking to us, Rajeev Ravi describes Paradise as an "engrossing" film. Rajeev, a longtime friend of Prasanna Vithanage, had shot the latter's Gaadi as well. "It was Tapas who introduced me to Prasanna, who happens to be a very accomplished and respected veteran filmmaker in Sri Lanka, with a lot of films under his belt which are sharply political," says the Gangs of Wasseypur cinematographer, who cites Prasanna's adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Meek One, titled Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka, as "by far the best" he has ever seen.
Paradise also stars noted Sri Lankan actors Mahendra Perera and Shyam Fernando.
Rajeev laments the way in which Sri Lankan cinema is not paid heed by many and calls attention to the lack of resources for the few gifted Sri Lankan filmmakers such as Prasanna. "First, it's difficult to find money to make it, and then it's even more difficult to get distribution for it outside; for this, they have to depend on a lot on Indians, actually. Paradise is set completely in Sri Lanka and shot with a budget that's small by our standards but big for them."
Scripted by Prasanna Vithanage and Anushka Senanayake, Paradise is a multilingual (Malayalam, English, Sinhala) feature.