Prasanna Jayakody

Prasanna Jayakody (born 1968) is a budding Sri Lankan film director.[1] His debut film Sankara (Introspection), won The Special Jury Prize The Silver Pyramid at the Cairo International Film Festival 2006 and the Best Debut Director Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala 2006.[2]

Prasanna Jayakody was born in 1968 to an artistic family which was strongly rooted in traditional Sinhala values and grew up in a Buddhist environment. He debuted at the age of 21, with Seveneli saha Minissu (Shadows and Men) a stage drama thematically woven around a thoughtful discussion on the reality of life and was a major critical success. He was immediately catapulted into the limelight, projected as the most promising among new entrants. His Teledramas which have won unprecedented number of National Television Awards are a result of work which is loved by the masses of Sri Lanka and honored by the intelligentsia. Visual allure has been his aesthetic trademark. But his great ability to articulate the Sinhala Buddhist ethos is the hallmark of his remarkable career. In this he remains unparalleled among his contemporaries. His maiden cinematic creation Sankara (Introspection) is a deep analytical study of mans inner soul. Just as all his other artistic works, Sankara too is inspired by and deeply entrenched in Buddhist philosophy. Text: Satyajit Maitipe

Sankara :A poem that moves

A young Buddhist monk, arrives at a temple in order to restore its paintings. These paintings depict the Thelapaththa Jathakaya, a moral story where Lord Buddha said that a man with a big target in life must not be swayed by passion (keles), the five senses and especially beautiful women. One day, Ananda picks up a hair pin belonging to a young woman. While attempting to return this object to its owner, his repressed, inner feelings are awoken as Ananda develops sensual feelings towards this woman. Hence, the young monks inner spiritual world is plunged into turmoil.Then one night, the paintings are destroyed. While restoring them for the second time Ananda begins to realize that he is trapped in a web of his worldly desires and attachments like that depicted in the paintings. At the end of the film, Ananda accepts that it is his own desire which has led to the defilement of his soul. In order to rid himself of his attachments, Ananda takes his astral being away from physical existence.

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