Dharmasiri Bandaranayake Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake
Directing
Biography
Kala Keerthi Dharmasiri Bandaranayake (born 06th of October 1949) is a Sri Lankan film director and playwright. Particularly work as a playwright, Bandaranayake is an artist who attempts to connect the sociopolitical environment with civil society through art. Bandaranyake's debut Hansa Vilak in 1980 dealt with facets of a society at odds with itself. His other films like Thunveni Yamaya (1983), Suddilage Kathaawa (1984), Bawa Duka and Bawa Karma (1997) followed similar themes. Two films Bawa Duka and Bawa Karma challenged the repressive dogma of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Common arcs in Bandaranayake's films follow the conflicted lives of men and women, the transformation of private lives into public affairs, the unpleasant reality of marriage and society and the dark side of human desire. He produced many stage plays such as Eka Adhipathi, Makarakshaya, Dhawala Bheeshana, Yakshagamanaya and Trojan Kanthavo have all dealt with current issues of national and political importance. In 1999, Bandaranyake first staged the play Trojan Kanthawo which adapted Euripides' Greek drama The Trojan Women for a Sinhala and Tamil audience. It is meant as an anti-war statement and proved to be controversial with the Sri Lankan government despite critical acclaim. Bandaranayake received several death threats in 2001 after he made plans to stage the play in predominantly Tamil areas.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Scent of the Lotus Pond
Three rural, working class garment factory girls - a pampered prima-Donna (Mangala), a safe runner (Swineetha) and a tormented vixen (Gothami) go through trials and tribulations of their bitter sweet youth in a liberalized industrial zone in the city. Lovelorn Gothami makes life difficult for everyone around her and creates her own tragedy by obsessively falling in love with her pretty friend Mangala's sexually frustrated lover, Vipula. The carefree existence of the three girls end in catastrophe and gothami disappears. An accidental meeting of the two girls after several years results in a confession by the ever winning Mangala. the revelation shocks Gothami. Perhaps for the first time Gothami sees life, winning and losing, suffering and salvation in a completely different perspective, which she never thought existed.
HansaVilak
A married man (Nissanka) and woman (Miranda) find their lives disrupted after their affair is exposed by the police. Leaving their respective families, the two decide to live together. Shortly afterwards, Miranda secretly goes back to see her former husband. As paranoia mounts, Nissanka disintegrates psychologically to point where reality and fantasy are blurred.
Rebellion
Weera Puran Appu (වීර පූරන් අප්පු) is a 1979 Sri Lankan film. Directed by H.D. Premaratne. Language: Sinhala. Runtime: 115.0 minutes. Historical Country of origin: Sri Lanka.
Tears In Paradise
"Tears In Paradise" is a poignant documentary film directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, a follow-up to the docu-film 'In Search Of Paradise', which he also directed. Continuing its exploration of Sri Lanka’s socio-political landscape, the film delves deeper into the human cost of conflict, displacement, and the enduring search for identity and belonging. Through intimate narratives and reflective storytelling, Tears In Paradise captures the emotional aftermath of a fractured past while questioning the meaning of paradise in a land marked by both beauty and struggle.
Production
Bawa Duka - The Sorrow of Existence - Part I
Set during the British colonial reign in Sri Lanka (1905), this powerful drama follows Peduru who descends from a line of traditional drummers, crossing over to three generations. Peduru's struggle for survival in this harsh rural hamlet exposes the repressive Buddhist institutionalization of the locals, and the hierarchical structure backed by the British colonials.
Bawa Duka - The Sorrow of Existence - Part I
Set during the British colonial reign in Sri Lanka (1905), this powerful drama follows Peduru who descends from a line of traditional drummers, crossing over to three generations. Peduru's struggle for survival in this harsh rural hamlet exposes the repressive Buddhist institutionalization of the locals, and the hierarchical structure backed by the British colonials.
HansaVilak
A married man (Nissanka) and woman (Miranda) find their lives disrupted after their affair is exposed by the police. Leaving their respective families, the two decide to live together. Shortly afterwards, Miranda secretly goes back to see her former husband. As paranoia mounts, Nissanka disintegrates psychologically to point where reality and fantasy are blurred.
A Woman in a Whirlpool
Set in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, Suddi is married to a notorious criminal in the village, Romiel. Convicted for a murder Romiel is jailed. Miserable Suddhi has to depend on Sirimewan Mudalalie, a shrewd businessman from town.
Thunveni Yamaya
Thunveni Yamaya (Third part of the night) is an attempt to delve deep into, and cinematically depict a series of terrifying and tormenting experiences of a young man (Percy), during a nightmare honeymoon. These experiences appear to be a catharsis of traumatic experiences of a bewildered childhood. And in their eructation they engulf all around them, his wife (Princy), his mother, his servant, and all who come in contact with him, the most cruelly persecuted being the image of his own innocent childhood.
Bawa Karma - The Sorrow of Existence - Part II
A continuation of “Bawa Duka”; via Peduru’s family, the narrative exposes the social stasis/class discrimination encouraged by the local Sinhalese Buddhist clergy, while the arrival of the Christian missionaries signals a more progressive mindset, though at the cost of conversion to a monotheistic faith. Tyranny is not only practiced by the British colonials but equally facilitated by local traditional institutions--thus, the resultant suffering (Duka) of Peduru is a combination of the two.
Bawa Karma - The Sorrow of Existence - Part II
A continuation of “Bawa Duka”; via Peduru’s family, the narrative exposes the social stasis/class discrimination encouraged by the local Sinhalese Buddhist clergy, while the arrival of the Christian missionaries signals a more progressive mindset, though at the cost of conversion to a monotheistic faith. Tyranny is not only practiced by the British colonials but equally facilitated by local traditional institutions--thus, the resultant suffering (Duka) of Peduru is a combination of the two.
HansaVilak
A married man (Nissanka) and woman (Miranda) find their lives disrupted after their affair is exposed by the police. Leaving their respective families, the two decide to live together. Shortly afterwards, Miranda secretly goes back to see her former husband. As paranoia mounts, Nissanka disintegrates psychologically to point where reality and fantasy are blurred.
Tears In Paradise
"Tears In Paradise" is a poignant documentary film directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, a follow-up to the docu-film 'In Search Of Paradise', which he also directed. Continuing its exploration of Sri Lanka’s socio-political landscape, the film delves deeper into the human cost of conflict, displacement, and the enduring search for identity and belonging. Through intimate narratives and reflective storytelling, Tears In Paradise captures the emotional aftermath of a fractured past while questioning the meaning of paradise in a land marked by both beauty and struggle.
Gallery
