ලඉප් එක පුල් මාවලර්ස් - The story of a fidgety youth

“Gappiya” a very famous name now on internet. Tharindu Wijesekara aka Gappiya doing a YouTube channel and posting videos from Australia. According to Tharindu His experiences in an alien country makes him do this videos. His roots of Sri Lankan middle class and matters he faced helps him to create such stories that can reach most of Sri Lankan hearts.

The Story of Mr. Marvelous is one of Gappiyas resent works. For me it has a sense of humor and underneath that a true story of a fidgety youth.

It’s a Story about a boy comes to the city from a rural area and how he bullied by the society.  The story is slightly different from Tharindus other works. Mainly it was done by a sequence of pencil sketches. “Mr. Marvelous” the main character, finds his way to the Colombo city for a job. From his child hood he lives a messy life with always shouting mother, an alcoholic father, messed up brother and a sister. The drawings are done by scrappy pencil sketches witch helps to show his mixed up life.

Thought of having a marvelous life he always wanted to be perfect but always ended up being bulled. In school, office and his village he ended up being a fool. After selecting to the Colombo school he thought his life would be marvelous but it didn’t and after he got a job and met Anji he thought his life would be Marvelous. In this scene gappiya use colors to show how Anji affects his life. But it too went wrong after Richira came to office. When he cought anji and Ruchira at office he still says “දැන්නං මගෙ ලඉප් එක පුල් මාවලර්ස්“ but with an angry phase and with a rain and thundering background sounds.

Talking about the sound use of Gappiya. He use lots of nat sounds to establish the place. Change of audios to change the feelings and to change the scenes are done cleverly. Also the accent of Mr. Marvelous helps to enhance the story structure. It is well fit to the character and it creates a bond between the viewer and the character. Words such as “ඉංගිස්” “ලඉප් එක” makes us to understand what kind of a person is this “Mr. Marvelous”.

The structure of the character carries the whole story of a fidgety youth and how the society effects to the matters they face. This is a thoughtful story of social and political effects on youth.
The unique style of drawings completes the story by connecting each character to the story and some notable changes brings some verity to the story line such as using colors to the “Anji’s” introduction.  And this verity balance the whole rhythm of the story.

The unique accent and the hair style of Mr. Marvelous gives the special attention to the character.

For me Tharindu creates a story of many Sri Lankan middle class restless youths with simple pencil sketches.  Unemployment, social ignorance, botched sex life and many more pointed out in a humorous way of storytelling.