A Challenge to the Patriarchal Society: Women Representation in Prasanna Vithanage's Films

The research seeks to find out how women are represented in Prasanna Vithanage's films, what kind of characteristics of women are represented, and how does the director show the women using their characteristics of negotiation and survival in a patriarchal society. The research was focused on women representation in Prasanna Vithanage's films in Anantha Rathriya (Dark Night of the Soul, 1996), Pauru Walalu (Walls Within, 1997), Akasa Kusum (Flowers of the Sky, 2008). Both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were performed. As the focus was on women representation, the unit of analysis was the individual character which emerges as the film unfolds from scene to scene, from sequence to sequence. The liberal feminist theory formed the theoretical framework for the study. Findings of the research suggested that the director, Prasanna Vithanage, has represented women more in non-traditional ways and less in traditional ways in his films. Female protagonist of the Pauru Walalu, Violet, and female protagonists of the film Akasa Kusum, Sandhya Rani, have more non-traditional behaviours than traditional behaviours in contrast to female protagonist of Anantha Rathriya, Piyumi. Furthermore, it was suggested that Prasanna Vithanage has not shown women as victims. Female characters have been negotiated and survived without being destroyed in the patriarchal society. This is the significance of the director, Prasanna Vithanage. For the first time, these findings provided qualitative evidence that women in Prasanna Vithanage's films were represented as they negotiate and survive in patriarchal society.