Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s service for the Sinhala cinema-by ISURU THAMBAWITA Source:Sundayobserver No wonder that Dharmasiri Bandaranayake is a national treasure. To understand renowned film director Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s cinema, one should read his childhood. Born on October 6, 1949 Dharmasiri Bandaranayake had his education at schools in Kelaniya. They had to move to Wadduwa after his father’s businesses collapsed. Dharmasiri’s two brothers attended Wadduwa Central College and Wadduwa Boys’ School. Later, he had his education at Horana Vidyarathana College. ...

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Looking back: Sagara Jalaya-By Uditha Devapriya Source:Island 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 is considered among her best work today. Yet, in another sense, it is hardly considered at all. While critics and writers are willing to ascribe to it the high place it occupies today, they do not pay to it the kind of attention they readily give to Sumitra’s other films, most prominently Gehenu Lamayi and Ganga Addara. That is hardly a fate suffered by Sagara Jalaya only, of course: critics also ignore her later work, in particular Sakman Maluwa, which to me shows Sumitra at her most mature. But in the case of Sagara Jalaya, a more difficult film, the omission seems more ...

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