Sankara

Unless you’re familiar with (and attracted to) all things mystical, you may find Jayakody’s meditative meander through the mindset of a Buddhist monk a difficult one to get a handle on. Charged with restoring a religious mural, Dodantenna’s character’s eye soon alights on a beautiful girl, causing him great inner turmoil as he struggles to come to terms with his spirituality. This writer’s patience was stretched to the limit by the film’s excruciatingly slow pace, its airy fairy trance-like sequences, the poor lip-syncing on the review disc and, most prominently, by the vacant, irritatingly expressionless performance of Dodantenna, surely the dullest actor ever to walk the earth. In the film’s favour, however, the imagery is often exquisite and the ethereal music relaxing.