The first Sinhala film I saw was “Chandi Shyama.” It did not, I confess, leave much of a good impression on me. The second, “Madol Doowa”, caught my fancies. The third did not catch my fancies, but it left a better impression. This was “Sagara Jalaya.” — Sumitra Peries’s fifth film, Sagara Jalaya Madi Handuwa Oba Sanda, is considered her best work today. Yet in another sense, it is hardly considered at all. While critics are willing to ascribe to it a high place, they do not pay to it the kind of attention they give to…

Mahagama Sekara died on January 14, 1976. On January 15, 2023, at 6.30 pm, Bandula Nanayakkarawasam will be presenting the latest “Rae Ira Pana” show at the New-Fangled Auditorium of Holy Cross College, Gampaha. Featuring Sunil Edirisinghe, Uresha Ravihari, Shashika Nisansala, Rohana Siriwardena, Raveen Kanishka, and Sarath de Alwis, it…

When I look back at 2022, what strikes me above all else is how agonisingly slowly it passed. The early days of COVID-19 had been slow enough. But 2022 broke that record. From day one, we were hurtled into one crisis after another, from which there seemed to be no…

A recent World Food Programme report underlies the magnitude of the food crisis in Sri Lanka. The report shows that 36% of the country’s households are effectively food insecure, while 76% are engaging in “food-coping strategies.” 35% of the country’s households are “facing insufficient food consumption”, while female-headed households (44%)…

The past three years have been exhausting and frustrating. When COVID-19 swamped the country and the world, I wanted to be done with it. I thus ended 2020 with the hope that 2021 would bring better news. But 2021 only carried forward 2020 to much worse heights. All bad things…

The Sri Lankan government has tasked the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute with a review of the country’s foreign relations. While officials have not yet come out with details, the review will include a reconsideration of Sri Lanka’s ties with various countries, in light of recent developments. The Executive Director of the…

The face of Sri Lankan films changed in the 1970s. This was due to a number of reasons. The most important of them would be the rise of the Sinhala Buddhist rural petty bourgeoisie. Initially represented as side characters, they eventually became protagonists and antagonists in the films which featured…

The three films that Lester James Peries directed for Ceylon Theatres — Golu Hadawatha (1968), Akkara Paha (1969), and Nidhanaya (1970) — stand out among the finest ever made in this country. They are an affirmation of life, sweeping fables that seem to tell us about ourselves, who we are…

There are two senses in which one “becomes” a book collector. The first is that of a hoarder, an undiscriminating bibliomaniac who empties shelf after shelf before the dust begins to settle. He indulges very few literary tastes, yet craves for more titles to add to his collection; as his…