On Sunday evening, the people of Toronto were treated to an amazing cinematic experience as the Guyanese movie ‘Brown Sugar too Bitter For Me’ held its premiere performance in Canada at The AMC Theater on Interchange way.
Doorga Entertainment, headed by Vashtie Doorga, presented the movie to viewers, who were spellbound by the presentation. The theater was decorated with sugar cane stalks set to the theme of a sugar plantation on which the movie was based.
In attendance were lead actor and producer/director Mahadeo Shivraj, Executive producer George Subhraj, lead actress Radhika Olarte, and writer and creator of the ‘Brown Sugar too Bitter For Me’, Somnauth Narine.
The movie theater was packed to capacity and the audience were held entranced, as the principal actors Shivraj and Olarte, transported them in time and place to a sugar plantation in Guyana.
The stellar performance of Shivraj as ‘Ram’, the maudlin cane cutter and his optimistic wife ‘Leela’, played by Olarte, held the audience mesmerized, as they took them on an unbelievable emotional journey.
The audience laughed, cried, and reflected, as they watched this remarkable film of sacrifice, devotion, and suffering.
The movie was such a revealing and awesome experience that a member of the audience, perhaps filled with nostalgic memories of life on a sugar plantation, retorted that “the movie touched my soul”.
‘Brown Sugar too Bitter For Me’ presents storytelling at its finest and was complimented by the music of Terry Gajraj, Anant Hansraj, Nadeer Bacchus, and Princess Anisa. For the West Indian diaspora, this movie bridges the past with the future and will never be forgotten.
