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A BOOK THAT EXPLORES THE SOUTH INDIAN INFLUENCE IN THE EARLY SRI LANKAN CINEMA

Aditya Sunday March 10, 2013

(AshleyRatnavibhushana and M.L.M.Mansoor present a first copy of the book – Early SriLankan Cinema and its association with the South Indian film industry – toDr.Ms.Aruna Vasudev (India).Mr. Wong Tuck Cheong (Malaysia) also in thepicture.)

A publication titled "The Early Sri Lankan Cinema and its Association with the South Indian Film Industry" launched on the 24th February, 2013 at the Auditorium of the National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka. A joint publication of Asian Film Centre, Sri Lanka and NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), this book makes an effort to trace the exciting history of the early period of Sri Lankan cinema through  interviews conducted with the surviving directors  of the early Sinhala films including  A.B. Raj and K.S. Sethumadhavan, It also includes lengthy interviews conducted with Film News Anandan and Randor Guy, the noted historians and archivists  of South Indian cinema. Rare photographs that throw light on a forgotten  era of the South Indian and Sri Lankan film industries also adore this publication.

When the first Sinhala talkie ' Kadavunu Porunduwa' (Broken Promise) was released in 1947 in the then colonial Ceylon, the  critics of the time  rather than welcoming the maiden venture of the Sinhala Language, labelled it  'A Broken Promise in the true sense of the word’. However, if not for the involvement the South Indian directors and technicians in the early Sri Lankan cinema, a further delay would have been taken place in the advent of the Sinhala films, because at that time, when compared to the South Indian film industry, in terms of technical skills and infrastructure facilities required to produce films remained at a very low level in Sri Lanka. In this context, the services rendered by the South Indian directors , technicians and musicians to the birth and growth of the Sinhala cinema cannot be undermined .

In this publication, the contribution made by South India to the early Sri Lankan cinema is analysed in an objective manner. This  authors of this publication  are Ashley Rathnavibushana and M.L.M. Mansoor. Ashley, a well known critic and writer of the Sri Lankan cinema functions as the President of the Asian Film Centre and General Manager/Jury Coordinator of NETPAC. M.L.M. Mansoor earlier worked as an Editor of the Tamil version of Economic Review, a trilingual journal published by the People's Bank since 1975. An authority on Asian cinema Dr. Ms. Aruna Vasudev was the Chief Guest at this function and Guest of Honour was Mr. Wong Tuck Cheong (Malaysia) Honorary Secretary of NETPAC.

Ranjanee Rathnavibhushana, Sri Lanka

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1. I entered the cinema through the theatre. I was an actor in our local theatre called Kanibadam, named after Tuhfa Fozilova. After working for five years, I decided to do a theatre director course. I graduated with honors and became a director. We successfully staged performances at international festivals.

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