Ape Principal (Our Principal) (Sinhala: අපේ ප්රින්සිපල්) is a 2023 Sri Lankan Sinhalese language drama film directed by Chris Antony and co-produced by Indika Wimalaratne and Upul Dharmasena for Kapture2 Studios. It stars Dilhani Ekanayake in lead role as Sathyangana along with Roger Seneviratne as Sathyajith, Politician as well as Jagath Chamila and Shyam Fernando in supportive roles. The film focused on drug use and abuse, which is a major social problem among Sri Lankan students.
The film revolves around the school Mihinpura Vidyalaya
which encompasses with 300 students and 15 teachers. The film seems to be an
adaptation of the Tamil movie Raatchasi is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language social
drama film, written and directed by Syed Gowthamraj. The opening is quite similar to the original
movie, but the rest has been adapted according to grossing issues related to Sri
Lankan system schools. Although there are several hiccups the movie brings
forward few of the most critical issues related to school children which need
to be taken into serious consideration.
Young children are curious and become the easy targets of
the corrupted forces of the society. Drug addiction and sexual abuse is
spreading among the school community as a result of social corruption which now
rapidly lurking into the school body. The movie tries to show the gravity of
this grossing social disaster by taking two incidents of two teenagers – a boy
and a girl.
The teenage boy has been a target of a drug dealer. He
slowly become addicted to drugs and ultimately ended up leaving his precious
life on a hospital bed. At the beginning he tries to discuss the matter with
his father who obviously has no time for his only son. The mother seems to be
too powerless to handle and understand her growing adult son. The son soon starts
stealing money and at the end he starts assaulting his mother to get money. When
everybody including the boy, himself understand the depth of his fall, it is
too late.
The girl on the other hand become victimized by the same
drug dealer. He is the boyfriend of the teenage girl, and he manipulates and
abuses her by threatening to public her nude photos or videos. Devastated girl
tries to kill herself. However, her parents are intelligent enough to stand by
her side. She is too intelligent to share this information with the trustworthy
principal.
The two incidents in a way eye open the parents and the
community of the responsibility of them and the vulnerability of children in a society
of absurdity as well as how to deal with such situations. In the matter of boy,
the parents and teachers do not take measures quickly to overcome the
situation. Had the boy been sent through a rehabilitation process, he could
have been saved. On the other hand, the parents should have time for their
children and must be vigilant of what they do. When they lose the protection
from the parents and teachers, they become easy target of the vicious people in
the society.
The situation related to the teenage girl is also the same,
the parents should be aware of her child and their age. However, they acted
wisely when they realized what had happened. This further raises the issue of sex
education related to the school syllabi. As the film instructs the policy makers,
the students should be educated about their sexuality and how to deal with
situations that might darken their future.
The two incidents are a lesson to the school children to
understand their priorities. As film educates, the childhood is a limited
period of time which allows them to shape up their future. Unfortunately, In
the present system of Sri Lankan schools, the drug addiction and abuse of
girl-children have become a major issue. The system of school has failed to
provide a proper answer for these crucial problems. The issue is more
socio-political, and the teachers are powerless to find answers. Therefore,
much responsibility is on the shoulders of parents and the law in this regard. The
movie shows this reality in a graphical way to open the eyes of the society. It
says it is high time to act to save our children.
The ill- effect of mobile phones on school children has also
been focused a bit. It could have been more productive as it is also a
debatable issue in the system of schools. Despite those, the movie is a bit
ordinary, and the addressing of other school situations seem to be quite
fictional. The intervention of the principal to the drugs issue is too dramatic
and seemingly impractical. As in the original film, it is not clear of the fact
how the power comes to the principal. In a social setting like Sri Lanka, to
deal with such situation there should possibly be a social protection to a
person to fight against something so powerful. As the topic, our principal, it
is expected to give answers to the other issues related to schools which is not
discussed enough.
It is true that in a single movie it is hard to cover up
everything. However, Ape Principal covers the most important unspoken and
untold issues related to the system of schools. Therefore, it is a must watch
film to everybody. It shows the behavior and responsibility of politicians
behind the destruction of social body. The movie as a whole shows the necessity
and responsibility of every person in the society to protect our children to
see a better future.
What is your view about the movie, if you are a teacher or a
parent, you must have a message to deliver under this post. If you have not
watched the movie yet, we highly recommend that it is a must watch movie. Share the post if you find it useful.
Source: Wikipedia.org (introduction)
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