New Delhi: Roshan Mathew’s initial response to Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage’s script for Paradise was a no. The Malayali actor was worried that it paralleled Anurag Kashyap’s 2020 Netflix hit, Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai, where he played an unemployed husband from Mumbai whose marriage and life unravel in the backdrop of demonetisation. Paradise unfolds in a Sri Lanka grappling with the economic crisis of 2022, when food, fuel and funds were scarce.
Once Mathew met Vithanage and went through the plot with him, he knew he had to be a part of the film. He plays a TV producer, who along with his wife, visits Sri Lanka for their fifth wedding anniversary.
Paradise, presented by Mani Ratnam and Siva Ananth, and produced by Newton Cinema, is Vithanage’s first India project. But it is moored in his signature filmmaking–a social and political commentary conveyed through human relationships.
The film is both multi-genre and multilingual. It’s a romance, thriller, and drama with dialogues in Hindi, English, Tamil, Sinhala and Malayalam. But the underlying tension of a country—and a marriage—in crisis and conflict is universal. The movie tries to look at this duality.
The film won the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award for Best Film last year during its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival. It also bagged the Audience Jury Award at the 23rd Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in Spain and was honoured with the Prix Du Jury Lycéen during its European premiere at the 30th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema. Its worldwide release is slated for 28 June.
“I wanted to show how economic changes affect middle-class life, not just in Sri Lanka, but also in other parts of the world. In Sri Lanka, that bubble burst with the [economic] crisis. As an artist, I have reacted to that through my art form,” Vithanage told ThePrint.
Malayali couple Kesav (Roshan Mathew) and Amritha (Darshana Rajendran) arrive at a hotel in Riverstone Riverstone two months after Sri Lanka officially declared bankruptcy. The region is part of the Ramayana trail, with sites that correspond to the locations mentioned in the epic. Kesav, a filmmaker, is gearing up to direct an important series commissioned by Netflix, and Amritha is a blogger. Initially, both appear to be the kind of shallow travellers who would rather shoot videos than experience Sri Lanka.