Anjalika(2005)

Pooja Umashankar's Sinhala debut in which she plays a dual role as the title character and her lookalike, Uththara. I became interested in seeing this after reading about it on Pooja's Wikipedia page. The VCD appears to be available from the same site I discovered a few months ago while searching for an online source for Sinhala movies. The plot sounds like a 90s Bollywood flick, which isn't necessarily a negative, provided it falls into either the "awesomely bad" or "watchable timepass" category. (For some reason, I think it's the latter.)

Chamitha Kuruppu of the Sunday Observer online was very complimentary towards Pooja:

"...All the credit goes to pretty Pooja Umashankar from India who portrays the title character Anjalika. The film will no doubt be a commercial hit, thanks to Pooja's brilliant acting, superb dancing skills and of course her gorgeous looks. Young Pooja's performance as mischievous Anjalika living a carefree life hanging around with children in a village, deserves all the praise. Applause to you Channa for your sweet and worthy 'introduction' to the Sinhala cinema!..."

S.V. Fernando, on the other hand, was less than impressed:

"...Pooja Umashankar is clearly out of her element as Anjalika...why would you hire a foreign actress who cannot speak a word of Sinhala to play a Sinhalese village girl and then hire a Sri Lankan actress (Nadeesha Hemamali) to voice/dub the dialogue of the first actress?...The 'role of Anjalika' should have been given to the 'voice of Anjalika' Nadeesha Hemamali, this would have alleviated a considerable expenditure in the budget and also would have improved the film entirely."

Songs I found on YouTube: "Payana Era" and "Pamawee Pipunu Mal". Pooja looks gorgeous, which could possibly make up for any flaws the film may have. Then again, not even Sada's pulchritude could force me to watch Pranam beyond the first half-hour. **shrug** Oh, well. I'll try to check it out later tonight or tomorrow, and if I like it enough, I might order the VCD.

Unrelated: I typed the magic words "taking a break" and suddenly, I feel inspired to start posting again. It never fails.