Ho Gaana Pokuna

I easily cry but not many movies can make me cry, even if it’s just a tear or two. Ho Gaana Pokuna did make me cry and it was one of those rare movies that make you feel all these emotions. The movie is beautiful and amazing but there are a few issues I have with it.

This post contains major Ho Gaana Pokuna spoilers!!!

The plot is simple. There are so many movies like this. Someone is sent to a rural area and teaches at the village school. The villagers are at first skeptical and critical but the teacher manages to do something life-changing for the children and even the village.

In Ho Gaana Pokuna, the teacher is a female in love with the university student union rebel type. She gets the opportunity to teach at a rural village and takes on the challenge. When she gets to the village, the students don’t expect her to stay for long. No teacher has been with them for long. She introduces a morning assembly where each student gets to speak about any topic they like. At first, the principal is opposed to the idea but soon, he too realizes the importance of the morning assembly.

During these, we learn that one child doesn’t like being called Ukkung and wants to be called by his real name. Another child’s father is in prison and his mother is expecting another child. The son of the Grama Sevaka pretends to be sick on the day he has to speak at the assembly because his father has written his speech for him.

There is also a girl who is blind. She talks about the sea or the ho gaana pokuna. Her grandfather had described it to her and while she will never see the sea, she makes the others curious too. None of the kids, nor most of the villagers have seen it. All they have to compare it with is the wewa and the sky but they can’t grasp the idea of what the sea or ocean looks like. The teacher gets her boyfriend to send a picture of the sea but that’s not enough. They must see it.

So a trip is organized and the teacher takes the kids to Colombo. They play in the beach and there the film ends.

As I said before, I loved the film. It made me laugh, like literally, laugh out loud. But it also made me cry. It made me realize that there are so many things we take for granted. For us, we’ve seen the sea. We know what it’s like. But there are people who have never seen it and they can’t even understand how such a great and beautiful thing can exist.

The film is full of beautiful moments that show the innocence of children and the wonders of life.

But I had my issues with it.

When the teacher comes up with the idea to take the kids to Colombo, they face quite a few issues. The Grama Sevaka is opposed to it and since he’s the only one who owns a bus in the area, they need his help. But his wife pretends to be possessed by his father or grandfather (I can’t remember) and gets him to cooperate.

Then they find out the bus driver doesn’t have a license. So they teach him the road signs and somehow he passes the exam. He gets his license the day before the trip. To celebrate the event, he gets drunk and eats a lot of meat and falls sick on the day of the trip.

The kids are obviously disappointed. I mean, their parents got new uniforms stitched for them. But the teacher says she can drive the bus and takes the kids to Colombo. She drives a rackety bus and even manages to sing and turn around to look at the kids while driving the bus.

Sure, I understand that a film can’t be completely realistic but driving a bus can’t be easy. And you can’t just figure it out, all on your own. Right? I can’t drive so I don’t know how hard it is, but driving a bus doesn’t seem that easy.

Then the police stop them… They check her license and the kids plead with the police and the police let them go. Now I may be wrong but if I remember correctly, you need to take a separate test to drive buses. The police let her off though.

While I was telling my brother about the film, he reminded me that these little things can’t be excused, especially since it’s a children’s movie. When it comes to a children’s movie, the director needs to be careful.

The bus driver comes home drunk every night. His wife doesn’t complain. And the kids even make a joke about it. Since it’s a children’s movie, I feel that they shouldn’t have taken his drinking that lightly. And if they didn’t want to focus at all on alcoholism, they needn’t have portrayed the bus driver as a drunkard. It’s such a small thing and maybe most kids won’t think much about it but it can have a negative effect too.

Even the scene where the policemen let them go can give kids the wrong idea.

I’m not saying all children’s movies should be about teaching children a lesson in a direct way. But lessons can be taught in subtle ways. For instance, the principal hits the children but after the teacher joins the school, we don’t see such scenes. But the film makes it seem like hitting kids is nothing out of the ordinary. Sure, most of us have received a wewal paara in school but that doesn’t mean it’s okay.

And it's not like the film doesn't have its direct 'lesson learned' moments. Thanks to some government program, the school gets a piano. When the kids ask the principal what the 'big, black box' is, he tells them there's a fire-breathing dragon inside. One boy decides to find out for sure. The next day, he, along with another boy, gets hold of the keys to the music room and opens the door. He knocks on the piano but the dragon makes no sound. He looks inside and finds there is no dragon. He gets his share of wewal paara but he says that even though he was punished, he learned that there was no dragon.

So it's not like the film didn't want to carry those lesson learned moment, and these small issues made it a bit difficult for me to truly appreciate and love the movie. The only way I can describe how it felt watching the movie is as follows:

"Ho Gaana Pokuna is like... Okay, so you know how you meet someone and they are amazing? They are perfectly awesome and have the best and most interesting ideas, thoughts and opinions. And you thank your stars or whatever for making them part of your life. But then they say something incredibly stupid and you are shocked that such an amazing person can be so stupid, even if it was for a moment. And even though they continue to be as amazing and brilliant as they were, you just can't get past that one moment when they were so stupid...
Ya, that's what Ho Gaana Pokuna is like."

Despite this,
Was Ho Gaana Pokuna good: Yes!

Would I watch it again: Yes!

Should you watch it: Yes!