rapa
02-26-2008, 10:24 AM
There was a time that number of film directors was busy producing films to fulfill the demand of NGO funding and foreign awards rather than target towards the common people of the country. Most of the film festivals in the west were eager to see misery of people, tear drops, and reflection of the eastern society as a primitive one. The people like Asoka Handagama, Prasanna Withana and Satyangani were busy grabbing NGO funds and producing films to full fill the aspirations of their masters and grabbing few awards as a consolation for empty galleries in local theater. It is in this backdrop that Jayantha Chandrasiri immerged as a lotus in the mud.
The greatest and the best of Jayantha Chandrasiri was seen on his last film ‘Gurilla Marketing’ which was an eye opener for the drowsy society under the influence of ineffective and indifferent politicians.
Jayntha Chandrasiri has been a journalist with the good accompany in ‘Divaina’ news paper for long time. He has seen the reality of politics in Sri Lanka in the last two decades and importantly the mechanism of politico-marketing mafia. Being a gifted film director, he has reproduced this realty in an aesthetic media in the name of “Guerilla Marketing”.
‘Gurilla Marketng’ is presented as a love story between two cousins. In the background it is the story of tragic reality of youth and true face of political culture in Sri Lanka. With the introduction of open economy in raw manner in 1977, the Sri Lankan society was made up side down. It was not only the economy, but culture and other value system of the society was forced to erode and the result was a society striving for mere monetary success.
Why do people run, even when there is no real pleasure?
It’s because someone or something is chasing after him. It may be Cholesterol, …
Stronger the enemy, faster we run.
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
The common people of the country have been made to compete with each other and run hard, but it is for the benefit of all of us? As a result of aimless running and competing with each other, we all have become tired and it is this privileged segment holding the political and economic power that has been benefited.
Allying of media and politics
In “Guerilla Marketing” Gregory Maha Adikaram represents the privileged comprador society that the emperors left behind in 1948. He has been brought up with colonial values and studied in institutions in the west. He comes back to the country to serve their masters and not for the common people of the country. But he faces a challenge under the West Minister democracy.
The aspirations of Gregory Maha Adikaram and the common people are different. But he has the power of money and control of other key sections in the country including the media. It is ‘Marketing’ that comes to bridge the gap for him.
Reality of marketing/media
Under the open economy every one is being sold. It includes skills and even the creativity of people. It is marketing that is dominated in the society and it decides what we eat, what we wear and even what we should think. It is no longer supply for demand, but vise versa. The businessman supply whatever they can produce with lowest cost and highest profit margin and they in turn market it to the society. If there is no real demand, they can even create an artificial demand by means of marketing campaigns in the public media. This is a great stress for the society and we all are victims of it. But the system has been formed such that we are forced to live with this unfortunate reality. Ethics is no longer a subject of concern for marketing people. Since we all are made to run with this trend, we are not even aware that we all (common people) are victims of this system.
The new partners of power: Politics and Media and Marketing
“Public opinion is like a ghost in an ancient bungalow. No one has seen it, but everyone fears it. I do not fear it anymore, because now ‘Public opinion’ can be formed by advertising firms as well.”
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
It is marketing and media that come to rescue Gregory Maha Adikaram in his election campaign. He selects the best of the marketing companies and the best of talented youth to organize his campaign. Gregory Maha Adikaram has no roots in this country or real personality. It is a talented youth Thisara who had been working for a marketing firm (Thisara) that is hand picked to sphere head the campaign to sell mere character of Gregory Maha Adikaram as a great personality, one who love the country and a people’s man. The politician is so much depend on these marketing and media that they are willing to sacrifice any thing in front of them, that is why Gregory Maha Adikaram even dance in front of the marketing personals to help getting artificially dynamic photos to be used in the campaign. It clearly shows the way individuals from media and marketing segments become influential characters in the society. The more the politicians depend on the media, more power these media agents become.
Tragedy of youth in the current system
Thisara and Suramya grew up in a village under our traditional cultural values. Being products of village, both are highly talented and multi skilled. However when they reach their youth they become victim of the open economy and fall in to the trap of competition. Suramya decides to leave the country for higher education, leaving behind her boy friend in the country. Thisara on the other hand is also extremely talented and he falls into the same trap. It was a fast track for him in the marketing industry. He is given targets and ethics has no room achieving those. In the hustle and bustle, he lost his values and become part of the rotten system. He forgot Suramya and found a new girl friend from the new society.
Multi-personality syndrome of media/marketing personals
Thisara is talented youth with creative ideas. He is hired by a leading marketing firm and the cooperate reality force him to use his talent even for unethical campaigns. When Thisara is assigned the election campaign of Gregory Maha Adikaram, he has no time to think of politics of his client or the effect of this on the country. Thisara plan and initiate a campaign to sell the political character to the country. He uses creative ideas to boost and inflate mere character into an image of a giant who love the country and people. While working with Gregory Maha Adikaram, Thisara finds the true intentions and character of the politician and his inner self start to repent foreseeing the subsequent result. The personality of Thisara that is molded by the rotten society is conflicting with the person brought up in the village with our traditional values and bonds. The result is a psychotic person with multiple personality disorder. In Sri Lanka, there may be hundreds of persons in media and marketing sector having the same disorder with varying degree.
When Thisara see the reality of his career, it is too late and Gregory Maha Adikaram has already extracted Thisara’s skills to win his own destiny. He no longer seriously cares about Thisara.
Politicians and our culture
“If we want to preserve our culture and heritage, we should sell those”
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
Since these politicians come from comprador society which values the culture of their colonial masters, they hate our own eastern culture. They not only hate, but fear it as well. They know that in reality, our traditional Sinhala Buddhist culture is rich and stronger than the artificial western system. This is strongly symbolized by Gregory Maha Adikaram’s fear psychosis mentality against hearing our traditional drum (bera) beat, which he called as ‘bera-phobia’. If one open the eyes and see around, we can see handful of politicians who suffer from same Sinhala/Hindu cultural phobia. In the light of our traditional values and culture, these politicians are Lilliputians and therefore they fear it and therefore hate it.
Defeating the devils
It is ultimately the loving kindness and touch of his ex-girlfriend Suramya that heal the ailing mind of Thisara. Thisara’s wife Rangi is from the new upper middle class society that is a product of open economy. At the end she has to seek help from Suramya who has not lost her roots in the village. When Thisara and Rangi ultimately find the reality of their lives, they are forced to get back to the village and get help to build their lives again. This strongly symbolizes the fact that it is by extracting our strengths and values from the village that we can come out of the mess created by the open economy. And it is the traditional drum (bera) beat and kind touch of Suramya that chase away Gregory Maha Adikaram from the mind of Thisara and heal him.
These drums are not beat for the request by others. But when these drums are beating, devils will find there limitations in running away.
- Suramya (Guerilla Marketing)
Drums are now beating
We all Sri Lankans inherited strong cultural values for more than 2500 years. The irrigation systems, the mammoth dams, large dagoba in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, the aesthetic and engineering marvel in Sigiriya etc speaks out our past development. It was a sustainable development in harmony with the nature. It was a developed culture and society against bunch of unrest people running after financial success alone which is the current reality. It was neither branded as capitalism nor socialism which are two extreme concepts evolved in the West.
It is living your life based on Buddhist values. It is living in harmony with the nature and each individual in the society. There is no competition among each other. People identify their real needs against the needs artificially created and promoted by marketing forces. It is a society that people live on earth and held their head high. They are no loner tired of competing each other. They are not exposed to exploitation. Even the entrepreneurs are brought up with our ethical and cultural values that can treat each other fair and equal manner. They invest their profit back in the mother country and actively involve in developing the country.
Our traditional drums have started to beat again. The devils are feared of it. Some devils wear socialist suites and others in capitalist attire. But they all fear it and united against it. They will get the support of their colonial and theoretical masters in the west. They will fight back in all avenues to defeat us and win back their privileges that have been passed to them since colonial time. It is all the responsibility of all of us to keep our traditional drum beat active in local politics until the last devil is chased away from our country to the lap of their colonial masters.
uhyewgPLIuc
The greatest and the best of Jayantha Chandrasiri was seen on his last film ‘Gurilla Marketing’ which was an eye opener for the drowsy society under the influence of ineffective and indifferent politicians.
Jayntha Chandrasiri has been a journalist with the good accompany in ‘Divaina’ news paper for long time. He has seen the reality of politics in Sri Lanka in the last two decades and importantly the mechanism of politico-marketing mafia. Being a gifted film director, he has reproduced this realty in an aesthetic media in the name of “Guerilla Marketing”.
‘Gurilla Marketng’ is presented as a love story between two cousins. In the background it is the story of tragic reality of youth and true face of political culture in Sri Lanka. With the introduction of open economy in raw manner in 1977, the Sri Lankan society was made up side down. It was not only the economy, but culture and other value system of the society was forced to erode and the result was a society striving for mere monetary success.
Why do people run, even when there is no real pleasure?
It’s because someone or something is chasing after him. It may be Cholesterol, …
Stronger the enemy, faster we run.
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
The common people of the country have been made to compete with each other and run hard, but it is for the benefit of all of us? As a result of aimless running and competing with each other, we all have become tired and it is this privileged segment holding the political and economic power that has been benefited.
Allying of media and politics
In “Guerilla Marketing” Gregory Maha Adikaram represents the privileged comprador society that the emperors left behind in 1948. He has been brought up with colonial values and studied in institutions in the west. He comes back to the country to serve their masters and not for the common people of the country. But he faces a challenge under the West Minister democracy.
The aspirations of Gregory Maha Adikaram and the common people are different. But he has the power of money and control of other key sections in the country including the media. It is ‘Marketing’ that comes to bridge the gap for him.
Reality of marketing/media
Under the open economy every one is being sold. It includes skills and even the creativity of people. It is marketing that is dominated in the society and it decides what we eat, what we wear and even what we should think. It is no longer supply for demand, but vise versa. The businessman supply whatever they can produce with lowest cost and highest profit margin and they in turn market it to the society. If there is no real demand, they can even create an artificial demand by means of marketing campaigns in the public media. This is a great stress for the society and we all are victims of it. But the system has been formed such that we are forced to live with this unfortunate reality. Ethics is no longer a subject of concern for marketing people. Since we all are made to run with this trend, we are not even aware that we all (common people) are victims of this system.
The new partners of power: Politics and Media and Marketing
“Public opinion is like a ghost in an ancient bungalow. No one has seen it, but everyone fears it. I do not fear it anymore, because now ‘Public opinion’ can be formed by advertising firms as well.”
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
It is marketing and media that come to rescue Gregory Maha Adikaram in his election campaign. He selects the best of the marketing companies and the best of talented youth to organize his campaign. Gregory Maha Adikaram has no roots in this country or real personality. It is a talented youth Thisara who had been working for a marketing firm (Thisara) that is hand picked to sphere head the campaign to sell mere character of Gregory Maha Adikaram as a great personality, one who love the country and a people’s man. The politician is so much depend on these marketing and media that they are willing to sacrifice any thing in front of them, that is why Gregory Maha Adikaram even dance in front of the marketing personals to help getting artificially dynamic photos to be used in the campaign. It clearly shows the way individuals from media and marketing segments become influential characters in the society. The more the politicians depend on the media, more power these media agents become.
Tragedy of youth in the current system
Thisara and Suramya grew up in a village under our traditional cultural values. Being products of village, both are highly talented and multi skilled. However when they reach their youth they become victim of the open economy and fall in to the trap of competition. Suramya decides to leave the country for higher education, leaving behind her boy friend in the country. Thisara on the other hand is also extremely talented and he falls into the same trap. It was a fast track for him in the marketing industry. He is given targets and ethics has no room achieving those. In the hustle and bustle, he lost his values and become part of the rotten system. He forgot Suramya and found a new girl friend from the new society.
Multi-personality syndrome of media/marketing personals
Thisara is talented youth with creative ideas. He is hired by a leading marketing firm and the cooperate reality force him to use his talent even for unethical campaigns. When Thisara is assigned the election campaign of Gregory Maha Adikaram, he has no time to think of politics of his client or the effect of this on the country. Thisara plan and initiate a campaign to sell the political character to the country. He uses creative ideas to boost and inflate mere character into an image of a giant who love the country and people. While working with Gregory Maha Adikaram, Thisara finds the true intentions and character of the politician and his inner self start to repent foreseeing the subsequent result. The personality of Thisara that is molded by the rotten society is conflicting with the person brought up in the village with our traditional values and bonds. The result is a psychotic person with multiple personality disorder. In Sri Lanka, there may be hundreds of persons in media and marketing sector having the same disorder with varying degree.
When Thisara see the reality of his career, it is too late and Gregory Maha Adikaram has already extracted Thisara’s skills to win his own destiny. He no longer seriously cares about Thisara.
Politicians and our culture
“If we want to preserve our culture and heritage, we should sell those”
- Gregory Maha Adikaram (Guerilla Marketing)
Since these politicians come from comprador society which values the culture of their colonial masters, they hate our own eastern culture. They not only hate, but fear it as well. They know that in reality, our traditional Sinhala Buddhist culture is rich and stronger than the artificial western system. This is strongly symbolized by Gregory Maha Adikaram’s fear psychosis mentality against hearing our traditional drum (bera) beat, which he called as ‘bera-phobia’. If one open the eyes and see around, we can see handful of politicians who suffer from same Sinhala/Hindu cultural phobia. In the light of our traditional values and culture, these politicians are Lilliputians and therefore they fear it and therefore hate it.
Defeating the devils
It is ultimately the loving kindness and touch of his ex-girlfriend Suramya that heal the ailing mind of Thisara. Thisara’s wife Rangi is from the new upper middle class society that is a product of open economy. At the end she has to seek help from Suramya who has not lost her roots in the village. When Thisara and Rangi ultimately find the reality of their lives, they are forced to get back to the village and get help to build their lives again. This strongly symbolizes the fact that it is by extracting our strengths and values from the village that we can come out of the mess created by the open economy. And it is the traditional drum (bera) beat and kind touch of Suramya that chase away Gregory Maha Adikaram from the mind of Thisara and heal him.
These drums are not beat for the request by others. But when these drums are beating, devils will find there limitations in running away.
- Suramya (Guerilla Marketing)
Drums are now beating
We all Sri Lankans inherited strong cultural values for more than 2500 years. The irrigation systems, the mammoth dams, large dagoba in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, the aesthetic and engineering marvel in Sigiriya etc speaks out our past development. It was a sustainable development in harmony with the nature. It was a developed culture and society against bunch of unrest people running after financial success alone which is the current reality. It was neither branded as capitalism nor socialism which are two extreme concepts evolved in the West.
It is living your life based on Buddhist values. It is living in harmony with the nature and each individual in the society. There is no competition among each other. People identify their real needs against the needs artificially created and promoted by marketing forces. It is a society that people live on earth and held their head high. They are no loner tired of competing each other. They are not exposed to exploitation. Even the entrepreneurs are brought up with our ethical and cultural values that can treat each other fair and equal manner. They invest their profit back in the mother country and actively involve in developing the country.
Our traditional drums have started to beat again. The devils are feared of it. Some devils wear socialist suites and others in capitalist attire. But they all fear it and united against it. They will get the support of their colonial and theoretical masters in the west. They will fight back in all avenues to defeat us and win back their privileges that have been passed to them since colonial time. It is all the responsibility of all of us to keep our traditional drum beat active in local politics until the last devil is chased away from our country to the lap of their colonial masters.
uhyewgPLIuc