Gaadi: History from below – By UDITHA DEVAPRIYA Source : sundayobserver Prasanna Vithanage’s Gaadi opens with a meeting between Ehelepola Adigar and John D’Oyly in 1814. The two of them are negotiating the deposal of the Kandyan King, and the issue of who is to follow him. The British have their motives: D’Oyly tells the Adigar that all they want is to access the region for trade. The Adigar has his: he tells D’Oyly that he and the other native chiefs wish to get rid of the “Vaduga king”, but want to preserve the social order in their realm. The Adigar grants D’Oyly permission to do what he wants, then makes him swear upon the Bible that he will protect that order. By this point, the Kandyan Kingdom was facing a blockade by the colonial Government, which had established control in the Maritime Provinces. As Gananath Obeyesekere has observed in his ...

Read More →

PRASANNA VITHANAGE ACCLAIMED PIONEER IN THE THIRD GENERATION CINEMA MAKERS EXCELLED TO UNPARALLELED TALL ALTITUDES WITH MANY AWARDS – By Sunil Thenabadu Image Source : hindustantimes Udaya Prasanna Vithanage born 14 March 1962 is an acclaimed Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is considered one of the pioneers of the third generation of the Sri Lankan cinema. He has directed many feature films including Death on a Full Moon Day (1997), August Sun (2003), Flowers of the Sky (2008) , With You, Without You (2012) had won many prestigious national and international awards , had  also been commercially successful  director cum producer of films in Sri Lanka. Prasanna’s parents in Panadura had instigated and stimulated him, the duo’s only child to like films not having any intention of making him a monthly wage earner in a government department. When Prasanna was taken to watch films , he was in the second standard at ...

Read More →

NITA FERNANDO INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AWARD WINNING ACTRESS DEBUTED IN 1966 CONTINUED ACTING AFTER A SOJOURN OF EIGHTEEN YEARS TO BE STILL A CELEBRITY – by Sunil Thenabadu Image Source : sundaytimes Nita Beatrice Fernando was born on 5th September 1947,in Katuneriya close to Negombo, Sri Lanka is an actress, Kandyan dancer  in the Sri Lankan cinema. She has starred in her ambition initially  was to become a dance teacher as her paternal ancestors all had been dancers .Nita had studied at Holy family convent Wennappuwa eldest among  four siblings, two brothers and a sister. Reminisced that she and siblings had to get up early to attend to six o clock Mass at mother’s school on her insistence. Nita had studied ‘O’ levels but only halfway in the Advanced level as she was invited by sheer quirk to portray roles in films. In school she had been involved in drama and dance events actively. Mother had ...

Read More →

SAMANALEE FONSEKA A PHENOMINAL ACTRESS ,SOCIAL ACTIVIST, ENJOYING A CONTENTED LIFE ON PATH TO EMULATE AUNT MALINI FONSEKA – Sunil Thenabadu Charisma is one of the real surface qualities that one would expect in any actress. Obviously, a performer has to be exclusively charming, expressive, and charismatic.  This is because of performing on camera, which undoubtedly requires a certain amount of expressive energy, so those individuals with high-octanes of energy with the ability to transform that energy on-screen should go without saying. Hard work and commitment are other traits needed to be classified as a successful actress like Samanalee Fonseka We so naturally talented with her hereditary affiliations to her Aunts. Of course hard work, commitment, confidence and passion are the other traits embedded in the personality of Samanalee  who bring one hundred percent of herself to each role she portrays though could obviously be mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. Samanalee is one who could whole-heartedly commit herself ...

Read More →

Asia Pacific Screen Awards – Prasanna Vithanage’s “Gaadi” wins Cultural Diversity Award Source:Brisbane 4EB Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – December 2021 Well known Sri Lankan movie director, Prasanna Vithanage’s Gaadi (Children of the Sun) was awarded the Cultural Diversity Award at the recently completed Asia Pacific Screen Awards in the Gold Coast. Set in the dying days of Kandyan Kingdom in Sri Lanka, the movie revolves around the relationship between an aristocratic woman and a man from the ‘rodia’ community, considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy. When a British supported rebellion against the King of Kandy by the noblemen fails, the King orders the wives of the noblemen to be given to the rodiya men. Women who do not want to lose their honour drown themselves except one – young Tikiri. She is declared the property of the rodiya caste Vijaya and becomes an unwilling member of the ...

Read More →

World of Prasanna Vithanage-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island The films of Prasanna Vithanage come back to you long after you’ve seen them. They move you, chasten you, sometimes make you angry, and frequently make you question life. The characters in them are usually ordinary people: It’s the situations they are placed in that are extraordinary. As with the crusader in The Seventh Seal and the priest in Diary of a Country Priest, they encounter a moral dilemma that ends up testing their very souls. Vithanage’s characters often fail these tests, though sometimes they win. Yet the payoff in these films comes from seeing not how they win or lose, but from how the world at large responds to their moral dilemmas. In Anantha Rathriya, to give just one example, Suvisal ends his friendships, even with the girl he intended to marry. He does so not just because he wants redemption for the sin of violating ...

Read More →