After sparking controversy in India, actor Vijay’s Mersal has found an unlikely supporter in Sri Lankan actor-politician Ranjan Ramanayake.
“#Mersal is a movie that every politician should watch, exposes the medical mafia & gives a great message, Healthcare is not a business,” he tweeted recently.
Mr. Ramanayake is currently the Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment, Welfare and Kandyan Heritage, from the United National Party. A popular actor, director and singer, he won critical acclaim here for his lead role in Maya , a Sinhala film based on Kollywood production Kanchana .
“Doctors, medical students and politicians in Sri Lanka must watch Mersal to understand how the health sector here has become all about money. It is a masala movie with songs and fights, but it has the best message. I salute director Atlee and actor Vijay” he said.
While Vijay has a huge fan base among Sri Lankan Tamils living on the island and abroad, his latest film seems to have won him many admirers among Sinhalese like Mr. Ramanayake. Some other commentators and writers from the south have also endorsed the film on social media, drawing parallels to healthcare in Sri Lanka.
“One scene really spoke about our problem here – where Vijay says that only when politicians go to government hospitals their condition will improve. Right from former Presidents to Health Ministers, so many of our top politicians go abroad for treatment, using people’s tax money. How will people have faith in our own government hospitals then,” asked Mr. Ramanayake, whose next film Dr. Nawariyan, an adaptation of Munna Bhai MBBS, is expected to hit the cinemas in December.
Sinhala remake on anvil
Mr. Ramanayake is also considering a Sinhala remake of Mersal .
Apart from Sri Lanka being a favoured location for Indian filmmakers, the island’s film industry has shared close links with its Indian counterpart for many years. While Sri Lankan Tamil film-makers, Batticaloa-born Balu Mahendra and V.C. Guhanathan from Jaffna peninsula made Kollywood their home, Sinhalese director Vimukthi Jayasundara, made Bengali art film Chatrak. Indian-Sri Lankan actor Pooja Umashankar acts in films made in both countries.
Technicians and actors in both countries have collaborated in the past, as in Pilot Premnath in 1978, an Indo-Lankan joint-venture starring Sivaji Ganesan and Malini Fonseka, popularly known as the ‘Queen of Sinhalese cinema’. Recently, Malayalam hit Drishyam was remade in Sinhala as Dharmayudhdhaya , which was directed by Indian filmmaker Cheyyar Ravi.
