A Study on The Role of the Art Director in Building up the Reliability in the Film ‘Thun Man Handiya’

Abstract

The film ' Thun Man Handiya' which has been woven around the deterioration of a village painter in the highly commercialized society can be considered to be a film which touched viewers' hearts. The main reason for this is the reliability which had been built up in the cinematic creation. The characters , background scenes and sequences which the novel titled " Thun Man Handiya" had been based on , have been recreated in the motion picture naturally. Therefore , the readers who had to visualise the whole plot in minds after reading the novel , could view the whole story with their eyes. The role played by Dharmasena Hemapala as the art director is proven to be prominent. Mahagamasekara chose Dharmasena Hemapala as the art director for the film. Dharmasena Hemapala who entered the filed of Cinema through the film ' Sandeshaya' won the award for the best art director for ' ParasathuMal.' The objective of the study is to examine the contribution of the art director to the film ' Thun Man Handiya'. It was possible to obtain data through discussions with Dharmasena Hemapala, primary sources such as the " Thun Man Handiya' film and the secondary sources such as articles , journals and research papers. It was revealed that the art director had succeeded in building up the reliability of the film by using even the minor elements such as village environment , costumes , characters ,art works and etc. The significance of the study is to pave the way for directors.