MAMI 2023, IFFK 2023: Prasanna Vithanage’s exquisitely realised ‘Paradise’ is a story about how every story has various versions

The film, set in Sri Lanka, stars Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran. The gifted director, as always, leaves enough room for ambiguity, and every viewer will come away with their versions. 

The text review was published on December 6, 2023, after festival screenings. This movie is now in theatres, hence the video review.

It’s 2022. Sri Lanka has declared bankruptcy, the people are up in arms (sometimes literally so), and this is when an Indian couple decides to visit the island nation to celebrate their fifth anniversary. They are Keshav and Amritha, played by Roshan Mathew and Darshana Rajendran. Their driver, Mr. Andrew (Shyam Fernando), takes them on a “Ramayana tour”: he points out places where Ravana imprisoned Sita, the place where Ravana is in a slumber, and so on. “Now might be a good time for Ravana to wake up from his slumber and save Lanka, “Amritha says. It’s clear she is mildly amused by the “legends” being narrated by Mr. Andrew. She has read many versions of the Ramayana, and knows that, in the Jain version of the epic – for instance – Sita fought Ravana with Rama as her charioteer.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galatta.com/special/movie/review/paradise/

And you can watch the trailer / video review here:

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Posted in: Cinema: English, Cinema: Malayalam, Cinema: Sinhala, Film Festivals