Author: Google Scholar, ORCID

Abstract: »This paper critically assesses Prasanna Vithanage’s Gaadi (2019) and Asoka Handagama’s Alborada (2021) as sites of uncontested reproductions of caste hierarchy, which reestablish hierarchical caste and gender relations, unraveling the nexus between patriarchy and caste. It investigates how Vithanage and Handagama have employed myth and history in film, in a context where Sri Lankan film makers have used historical discourse to validate hegemonic Sinhala nationalist formations. It examines to what extent Vithanage and Handagama succumb to nationalist ideology and thereby legitimize caste, class, and gender inequality, or whether they unravel the violence and coercion inflicted upon women for the maintenance of caste and patriarchy. Drawing upon postcolonial feminism which examines the linkages between caste and gender, this paper contends that despite the films’ move to romanticize caste and reinforce and validate existing caste stereotypes, they nevertheless demonstrate the ways in which women resist, contest and negotiate patriarchal power, however minimal.« (Source: South Asian Review)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Sri Lanka / British Ceylon, History of Sri Lanka (1948–present) | Film: Cinema of Sri Lanka / Alborada (film), Gaadi | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in Sri Lanka