''Anantha Rathriya'' ''(Dark Night of the Soul)'' is a 1996 Sri Lankan

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Prasanna Vithanage Udaya Prasanna Vithanage ( si, ප්‍රසන්න විතානගේ) (born 14 March 1962) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is considered one of the pioneers of the third generation of the Sri Lankan cinema. He has directed eight feature ...

. It is loosely based on the 1899

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

novel ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

''.

Plot

Suwisal (

Ravindra Randeniya Liyanage Boniface Walter Perera (born 5 June 1945), popularly known by his stage name Ravindra Randeniya, is a Sri Lankan actor and former politician. He rose to fame in Lester James Peries's film ''Desa Nisa'' in 1972, and was a popular actor d ...

) arrives at what seems to be an old family house in the middle of the night. The housekeeper explains that the rebels have asked everyone in the village to keep the lights off, and that for all, times have been bad. Suwisal recalls brief memories of the piano and a young girl shyly peering out behind the drapes at him and his aunts. Several days earlier, Suwisal's fiancée (

Yashoda Wimaladharma Yashoda Wimaladharma ( Sinhala: යශෝධා විමලධර්ම) is a Sri Lankan actress in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. Often referred to as the "innocent on the small screen", Wimaladharma excelled in cinema, telev ...

) calls to remind him of jury duty. He is to spend the next three days listening to a theft/murder case. The defendant, Piyum (

Swarna Mallawarachchi Swarna Mallawarachchi (born 1 August 1948: si, ස්වර්ණා මල්ලවාරච්චි), is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema. Often known as the "Golden star of Sinhalese cinema", Swarna began her acting career whilst still a scho ...

) has been charged with the murder of John Wijesinghe. She is a prostitute and Wijesinghe, a client. He did not have enough money to pay her, so instead of continuing with her work, she slipped sleeping pills into his drink. Piyum left the room and Wijesinghe died. Decades before, a young Suwisal goes back to the village and ancestral home to work on his thesis called, "The Possible Result of Disillusioned Rural Youth and the Impact of the Free Education Policy". He encounters the servant woman working at his aunts' home. He sleeps with her, and soon thereafter, leaves to go back to the city. Through letters, he learns she is pregnant, and stops all communication with her. During the second day of the trial, Suwisal goes to his lawyer friend Vicky (

Tony Ranasinghe Deshabandu Ranasinghe Hettiarachchilage Ignatius Anthony Silva (31 July 1937 – 16 June 2015 as ටෝනි රණසිංහ), popularly as Tony Ranasinghe, was an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, theater and television. He is known as the Lov ...

) and explains that he knows Piyum. She is the former servant at his aunt's house. Vicky advises Suwisal to keep quiet and wait for the trial to finish. Piyum does not indicate that she knows Suwisal, which causes him to question his actions and character. At the end of the trial, the jury convicts Piyum and sentences her to 10 years in jail. Suwisal's guilt overtakes him and he goes to the jail to help Piyum. She informs him that she gave birth to a boy, who lived for a week, then tried to find Suwisal in the city, and "lost her way." She tells him to stop contacting her, and the last he sees of her is while she walks out of jail.

Cast

, as Piyumi *

, as Suwisal *

, as Suwisal's fiancée *

, as Vicky *

Veena Jayakody Virginia Sandhya Peiris (born 27 November 1952 as වීණා ජයකොඩි) inhala, better known as Veena Jayakody, is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. Jayakody started as a child artist and has played critic ...

, as Loku Amma *

Thalatha Gunasekara Abeykoon Mudiyanselage Thalatha Abeykoon (born 17 July 1937 – died 17 September 2003 as si, තලතා ගුණසේකර) inhala, popularly as Thalatha Gunasekara, was an actress in Sri Lankan cinema. She is the mother of popular actre ...

, as Narmadha's mother

Acclaim

The film won Sri Lanka Film Critics Forum Awards for the outstanding film, the best director and the script writer in 1996.

References

External links

Sri Lanka Cinema Database
* {{Resurrection 1996 films 1990s Sinhala-language films 1996 drama films Films based on Resurrection Films set in Sri Lanka (1948–present) Sri Lankan drama films Films directed by Prasanna Vithanage Films about murder Juries in fiction 1990s legal films Films about families Films about marriage Adultery in films Films with screenplays by Prasanna Vithanage