Who then, is the prostitute in this story? Is it Piyum who was raped by Suwisal who abused his position to disguise an act of rape as an act of seduction? Or is it Suwisal himself. Who prostitutes his three aunts who loved him as a boy, the young girl he is engaged to, the whores he reversal in sex roles forms the essence of Anantha Rathriya, a reversal so subtle that is takes you by surprise when you realize its strong presence.

With this film, Prasanna, who is self-taught in the art of direction, demonstrates his mastery over the art and craft of the medium. Sound effects reflect social class. The lighting defines the mood of the protagonist and is enriched with the alternate use of blue and amber filters to do depict the past and the present or to demonstrate the bright and dark moods of Suwisal. These characteristics invest the film with a texture not easily seen in a film by a young director like Prasanna. Silence too, forms one of the highlights of the film, which uses body language to compensate for needless like a prostitute. The only scene, which shows her practicing her trade, underscores her tragedy with the cheap perm, the smudged lipsticks and the eyeliner she wears. The director's skill is evident in a number of scenes like one where the sound in the dingy room effected by the shower running in full force is juxtaposed against the sound of the table shaking with the bottle of scotch threatening to fall off it, as Piyum is engaged in the act of love with a client.

Lal Piyasena's editing needs special mention for the rapid-cut shots in close-up, of the two pairs of hands, Siwisal's and Piyum's, that express the degeneration of the relationship between the two, notwithstanding the fact that is was a relationship that never was. Mahindapala's camera closes in on hands opening letters, closing letters, crumbling up letters into a ball, discarding them and ending up in a close-up of the two faces.

Anantha Rathriya is a beautifully orchestrated film with all the pieces of music fitting into each other in a harmony of rhythm, sound and music, enriched by the high-powered histrionics of Swarna Mallawarachchi as Piyum and Ravindra Randeniya as Suwisal. The film has rightly bagged nine awards this year from the Sri Lanka Critics Forum for the most outstanding film, the best director, the best screenplay, the best cinematography, the best editing, the best music (Harsha Makalande) and the best performances by Swarna and Ravidra.

The violence in Anantha Rathriya is subtle and therefore threatening, full suspense, taut and expressive. The murder is not violent because it is not a murder at all. The violence is within Suwisal, simmering under the surface, ready to explode and extinguish him and all that he stands for. Or, alternately, about to suck him into its vortex, in a time-wrap that traps him in his own guilt for eternity. By inflicting violence on Piyum, it is Suwisal himself who turns victim in the end, defining the strange paradox of a situation in which the perpetrator of violence is himself the victim.

Source: DIGNITY Magazine