The Singing Pond (2014)

9/10

hlpvinod21 January 2016

This was honestly one of the best films ever made in Sri Lankan history. This has a very simple story line about a bunch of primary kids and their aspirations. It is filmed in a rural village in Sri Lanka and shows how "hope" can change lives of a bunch of children. Filled with joy, sadness and mostly bravery! The young lady who acts as the new school teacher is superb. She is so positive and never lets down. The child actors are very good and so genuine. Songs are superb and the composing is excellent. Although the story revolves around a primary school the film can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. It is a must watch.

14 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Underlying Politics

jattanayake14 August 2016

On the surface, Indika Ferdinando's Ho Gana Pokuna (Singing Pond) seems like a children's movie. If you look beneath the surface, however, you might realize that it's not. The underlying politics is so profound and no Sinhala movie before it has projected it in such a creative manner. Indika's buried symbolism is a treat to watch (teacher = the movement, kids = ordinary people, trip= the struggle, Ocean = the desired future). The movie clearly demonstrates that we have miserably failed at linking these elements in the real world. The movie hugely benefited from casting a new face (Anasuya Subasinghe) as the lead role. She does a splendid job at letting us take a fresh view into Sinhala Cinema. For these reasons, to me, Ho Gana Pokuna is the best movie in the Sinhala Cinema by a mile.

10 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

8/10

Intelligent movie making - resets standards

mithun-738-24378329 December 2015

Warning: Spoilers

"Singing pond" aka "Ho gana Pokuna" comes out to be a relief for the Critical Sri Lankan movie viewer, following an exhausting series of poor quality commercial movies based on religious and historical themes during last few years. Apart from being a children's movie in it's essence it address's a much deeper context. I think much of the credit should go to Ajith Ferdinando - the director of the movie. Having almost 30 years of experience in theater, yet with his debut the craftsmanship resets the standards reminding even acclaimed Sri Lankan filmmakers who failed to achieve expected results with their latest movies.

The film crew had succeeded in brilliant use of cinematography, sound, costumes ( for an instance, boyish denims and shirts worn by the teacher sheds lights on the character at a glance ), music, lyrics etc. Particularly the opening scene caught my attention which is a "Tarkovskyish" long continues still shot and may be the director is indirectly commemorating his precious work at theater too.

There may be use of symbolism, for an example this whole scenario may be a depiction of invasion of traditional society by liberalism. But of course this is subjective. However the main theme of the movie turns out to be how micro- revolutions change peoples lives and yet go unnoticed in contrast with macro-revolutions. This idea is openly discussed in the movie through the phone conversations between the teacher/protagonist and her boyfriend. In fact considering the above, though the "grama sevaka" is the seemingly antagonist in the movie the principle represents the true antagonist in the theme.

The character of the teacher/protagonist is well written to carry qualities of a real hero and well acted by Anasuya Subasinghe(?? debut). Although I'm not fully convinced if Jayalath Manorathna did his job up to the expectations but he does make an impression at the end.

The feeling of unreality you feel throughout is deliberate (apart from more obvious things- one might expect child characters to be not too posh and undernourished and neutral optimistic villagers etc) and that is what makes this a great children's movie and shows director skill at his theatrical work.

5 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

One of the most amazing sinhala movie ever!

sasanka_mb9731 May 2020

Every single time I watch this It feels like the first time and it makes eyes wet with tears those every singletime❤

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Dream big

rajinda2221 October 2016

One of the few Sinhalese movie which is based on "Dream big" concept. strongly we need some kind of radical change to bring hope and achievement through positive thinking. I think this movement can be change whole Sri-Lankan in a psychological way. We could not achieve this through politically. Educated people must be serve this country. Most of the Sri-Lankan are having poor grasp of the movement of this society. This movie will lead them beyond the horizon. spirit of the beautiful childhood and village giving clear example how ample to follow our dreams. Mr. Indika Ferdinado done a great job to make a such a positive thinking movie. Love this.

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

10/10

Really nice movie

gihangamage29 March 2020

This is one of the best movies I have seen in Srilankan film industry. I highly motivate to subtitle this to English(do not dub) so that it can reach greater audience.