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Looking back: “Hansa Vilak”-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island After more than 40 years, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s Hansa Vilak reopened in theatres last Wednesday. Has it really been that long? My father was studying for his A Levels when it first came out; he remembers seeing it at the Lido theatre, in Borella. Hansa Vilak is one of possibly four or five films that can be described as epochal, or near-epochal, in the context of the Sinhala cinema. That it effected a transformation in the industry may be an exaggeration, though one believed by those who have seen it and liked it. But that it had an impact on my father’s generation is not. This is not the first time a restored version of Bandaranayake’s work is being shown to local audiences. It was screened at a festival dedicated to Swarna Mallawarachchi in 2017, and again that year at another festival dedicated to Premasiri Khemadasa. Not entirely ...