Koombiyo (2017-2018)

damithudaya (79)modAtlas Ambassador - LKin Steem Sri Lanka • last year (edited)

Koombiyo ("Ant")! Is it the greatest Sri Lankan TV show of all time? Well, maybe one or two slightly pass this, but in the twentieth century, it has won the hearts of Sri Lankan audiences and brought back a new standard.

I know this hasn't become a worldwide sensation, but from what we experience here, and when the youth is running away from the TV, Laka and the crew made a cult, and a trend that's still talked about. The excellence in writing with plot twists, scams, cinematography, and Strong Acting makes it stand out from the rest.

Koombiyo is a Sinhala crime thriller with a political touch created by Lakmal Darmarathna and telecasted from 2017 - 2021.

General Details

Genre - Political thriller
Written by - Lakmal Darmarathna, Damitha Chandrasiri
Directed by - Lakmal Darmarathna
Composer - Achala Solomons
Executive producers - Asanka Dodantenna
Country of origin - Sri Lanka
Release - August 26, 2017 – March 17, 2018
No. of Seasons - 1 (57 Episodes)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koombiyo

The show has received 9.1/10 from 18K ratings on IMDB. As you can see in the image below, every episode has a good number. I know it has reviews from Sri Lanka, but this is a whole new experience for us.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7450814/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rat

The Main Cast

Thumindu Dodantenna as Jehan Fernando
Kalana Gunasekara as Priyantha Mahaulpathagama
Yureni Noshika as Hiruni Jayawardena
Senaka Titus Anthony as Austin
Andrew Pulle as Tiran
*Jagath Manuwarna as Jude
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koombiyo#Cast

The story centers around Jehaan Fernando, a con artist and a mastermind. He is living alone in an abandoned building in Colombo in his own way, challenging the system. In the first episode, he met Priyantha Mahaulpathagama, the next main character of the show, an innocent pal from the village who was looking for a job. And also Hiruni Jayawardena, which led to a complicated love story later.

Jehan offered Priyantha to be his helper and partner at his company, Purchasing Lanka Limited, where he delivers goods to rich people, which are taken wholesale from markets. With time, their relationship grew stronger, and later revealed that Jehan was using him in a bigger play.

With a few scams and games at the start, we see the real character of Jehan when he successfully planned and stole expensive cars at the request of a local gangster, Austin. These two were close and had a long relationship; Jehan had helped him with some schemes and advice.

The story advances when Adhikari (Opposition leader Maldeniya's Secretary) comes to him to stop the journalist Padmakumara Kasthuri from exposing Politicians' dirt. He planned it, plotted it for weeks, and successfully executed it, and balanced both parties without coming back to him.

The climax of the show is when a left-wing political party seeks his help in creating a union in a factory named Shakya Holdings. He sent Priyantha to the inside as a worker, and with that, Priyantha's life changed completely, and step by step, it reveals the bigger plan.

So, I am gonna stop here without spoiling the show. After 57 episodes, he was successful in executing his mastermind and ended the season, hinting at the next season.

After all, I have to appreciate the cast here, especially the performance from Thumindu and Kalana. They were new artists at the time, but delivered one hell of a performance. The raw emotions, the delivery, and the depth given to the character were exceptional.

So, as I said earlier, it built a fanbase across age groups. People started to think creatively, especially in the Political context it opens our eyes about the deeper games in real life.

So, I invite you to give this a try. You will love it.