"Swarnamaaya vu Manorani"
I watched "Dadayama" in 1984, when it was released, when I was a little school girl. My father, who was a film buff, took us to watch every film that was released at that time. Although I didn't remember much about "Dadayama" at that age, I still remember how the last scene was engraved in my heart. The scene where Swarna Mallawarachchi runs to attack the car driven by Ravindra with a stick has been etched in my heart like a picture since that first viewing. Even though I have watched all the films in which Swarna acted after that, that memory is what comes to the fore.
Ashoka Hadagama has presented that "Swarna" as "Manorani Saravanamuthu" in the film "Rani".
From the beginning to the end of the film, "Swarna" is the same. It feels like it is solely under her control...
To the extent that one thinks that Manorani is Swarnama, Swarna is Manorani...
Really, who else could portray that character other than Swarna.... (I think that only one other actress in Sri Lanka has the chance to come close to that.)
I feel that acting is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. In order to present a successful performance, one must have good knowledge and understanding of that character.
Swarna proves it brilliantly. If one can look at Swarna's acting as a mother who forgets the name Manorani and clashes with a society that has cruelly snatched away her only child, it will be well understood.
Swarna portrays the role of a woman who is struggling with all these things, including losing her child right in front of her eyes, then meeting her body, politics, work, friendships, love.. As mothers who have lost their children can vary depending on the social class they live in, the way they cope with it can vary. Swarna, as "Manorani", portrays the coping of a mother at a certain social level. She is not a mother who cries on the ground after losing her child, but she is in pain enough to make our eyes wet without shedding a single tear. Only Swarna has those feelings and expressions. That is why it is impossible to say that Swarna Mallawarachchi stands out above all the characters. However, almost all the other characters in the film are portrayed very successfully. Even for minor roles, talented veteran actors have been used, perhaps because each of those minor roles is an important one. Mayura Kanchanath as Karu, Sajitha Anuttara as Gayan, Bimal Jayakody as Mr. Rajapaksa, and Ashan Dias as Mangala stand out among them.
Rehan Amaratunga, who plays the role of Richard de Zoysa, whom we used to see on television in those days, also gives a good performance. His character is not given much space, perhaps because the film is not about Richard but about his mother.
The dialogues exchanged between the police team on the way to arrest Richard... and their behavior are a reflection of the gangster politics and political leaders in Sri Lanka. They are a group of actors who are seen more on television, and they present that performance in a very realistic way, and Hadagama has used it at the end of the film, so it can be said that even though the film ends there, that incident or similar incidents did not end there.
If you are interested in Sri Lankan cinema, "Rani" can be named as a film that cannot be missed.
