''A Common Man'' is a 2013 Sri Lankan

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n filmmaker

Chandran Rutnam Chandran Rutnam is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and entrepreneur. Rutnam has hosted numerous Hollywood films for their location shoots in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. He was the Line Producer/Production Supervisor on several international productions inc ...

, starring

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ben Kingsley, various accolades throughout Ben Kingsley on screen and stage, his career spanning fi ...

and

Ben Cross Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film ''Chariots of Fire'' and for playing Billy Flynn in the or ...

. The film is an official remake of the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n film, ''

A Wednesday! ''A Wednesday!'' is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Anjum Rizvi and Shital Bhatia under UTV Motion Pictures and Friday Filmworks. The film stars Naseeru ...

'' (2008). A Common Man won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor awards at the Madrid International Film Festival and bronze medal in the Feature Films category at the New York Festivals’ International Television and Film Awards, three of the 119 Gold World Medals, 145 Silver, 104 Bronze, and 327 Finalist Certificates awarded that day.

Plot

The film starts in a room full of bomb making material and newspaper articles about

LTTE The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam ...

bombings in

, the screen then cuts to a typical busy morning in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. "The Man" (

) plants five bombs around the city; on a public bus, in a shopping mall and the Polgoda police station, on an intercity train, and at the Katukurunda Airfield. The man then establishes his mini control station on top a skyscraper in

Dehiwala Dehiwala is a suburban area in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It lies within the administrative boundaries of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council. It is known for the zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is ...

and calls the police chief Morris Da Silva (

) and informs him that if four prisoners are not released, the bombs will be detonated.

Cast

as "The Man" *

as DIG Morris Da Silva * Patrick Rutnam as IP Mohideen * Fredrick-James Koch as IP Rangan Jayaweera *

Wilson Gunaratne Wilson Gunaratne (born March 9, 1949, as විල්සන් ගුණරත්න inhala is an actor and comedian in Sri Lankan cinema, stage drama and television. He is most notable for the role of ''Kodithuwakku'' in television comedy sitc ...

as Prakash Kumar *

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 Vegetable vendor *

Ashan Dias Ashan Dias ( Sinhala: අෂාන් ඩයස්; born 31 May 1981) is an actor in Sri Lankan cinema. Started as a newscaster in MBC Networks, Dias became a character actor with several critically acclaimed roles in films including ''Alimanka ...

Sando Harris Sando Harris (18 May 1963 – 11 June 2021; ), popularly known by his stage names Sando Harris and Sergeant Nallathambi, was an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, theater, and television. With a career spanned more than three decades, Sando was a po ...

as D. Gopinath *

Teddy Vidyalankara Ganwari Teddy Vidyalankara (born December 16, 1955, as :si:ටෙඩී විද්‍යාලංකාර, ටෙඩී විද්‍යාලංකාර inhala is a Sri Lankan actor, and stunt director. Vidyalankara contributed more t ...

as Pithala Nihal * Numaya Siriwardena * Jerome de Silva * Wilmon Sirimanne * Dushyanth Weeraman * Mohammed Adamally

Production

''A Common Man'' was filmed in 2012 in various locations in

. A production of Asia Digital Entertainment, the film was produced by Manohan Nanayakkara, B.S. Radha Krishnan and Rutnam. Executive producers are Paul Mason and Jon Sheinberg. The deal with Myriad was arranged by Mason and The Movie Machine’s Sheinberg.

Release

''A Common Man'' was released worldwide on 21 May 2013 in Blu-ray by

Anchor Bay Films The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...

and

Myriad Pictures Myriad Pictures is an independent entertainment company in Santa Monica, California founded in 1999 and specializing in production, financing and worldwide distribution of feature films and television programming. History President and CEO Ki ...

Premiere

The movie had its

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

at the Laemmle Music Hall Cinema in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on 15 March 2013.

References

External links

the scenes of A Common Man''
* *
A Common Man wins bronze at New York Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Common Man, A 2013 films 2013 psychological thriller films English-language Sri Lankan films Films shot in Sri Lanka American psychological thriller films Sri Lankan thriller films Films about terrorism in Asia Films about the Sri Lankan civil war Films scored by Ramesh Vinayakam Sri Lankan remakes of Indian films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language thriller films