Rekawa celebrates Silver Jubilee

'Rekawa', Lester James Peries' first direction brought dramatic and on-going changes to Sri Lankan celebrates its golden jubilee. To mark its premiere fifty years ago on December 28, 1956 at Ceylon Theatre's Regal cinema, Rekawa will be shown on this December 28 at the same theatre at 5 pm.

‘The long version of the film will be shown with its songs and sub-plots, rather 'than the short- export version, which was an international success first at the Cannes International Film Festival and then England and many European countries," said Dr. Peries, the pioneer filmmaker. "A few scenes are missing, as a result of the ravages of time. We just had no money to print a new copy and anyway the original negative may not be all in one place due to the appalling state in which our films are stored in this country," said this legendary filmmaker reminding us of his long unfulfilled appeal from all successive governments for a system to conserve films.

The re-screening is to be attended by everyone who was involved in the making of Rekawa. "I think the whole thing is going to be interesting. I of course hope that Willie Blake could come to take part in the celebrations but he is back in Canada because his wife is ill. I hope Titus Totawatte would be able to come because it is the three of us who left the Government Film Unit while the whole industry thought three mad men were going to do something impossible by trying to film the whole movie (Rekhawa) entirely out of doors," said Lester going back to the memories of his valiant experiment. "In fact the experiment has not been repeated even by us says much of this endeavour. It is not a question of shooting the entire film out of doors, but it's also recording the dialogue. And recording the dialogue fifty years ago when we hadn't the modern technological support was not an easy task. We had extreme confidence in ourselves and that alone was the secret of our success. Although we went out to the project almost like amateurs and we turned out something quite interesting and innovative " he said.

"When I think about how we did "Rekhawa" I doubt whether we are progressing backward. Filming 100% on natural locations at a time the filmmaking was limited to studios, there we used one of the advanced technology. Most importantly we did it in 1950s at a time the technology was not so advanced and we had to carry massive devices which are replaced today with tiny gadgets," the experienced director spoke at length.

The man behind the idea to recreate the memories of the film, to bring out the script in book form, gather as many people who were involved in the film and bring them together for a re-screening is veteran journalist and writer Mr. Ranjith Kumara.

All artistes who acted in Rekawa and now living will be felicitated on this day and songs in the film will be sung. The event is compered by lyricst Bandara Ehaliyagoda, organized by Sahurda Sanwada Kendraya. The festival is sponsored by the DFCC Banking Group.

Literary honours to Lester from father-son A. D. Ranjith Kumara and Nuwan Nayajith Kumara will released two books on 'Rekawa' and Dr. Peries.

"Adasiyawasaka Ridee Rekawa" (50 years of Rekawa) written by A. D. Ranjith Kumara. contains the screenplay of the film and various critical assessments on the film including a large number of photographs. The book contains long wonderful review s written by all leading journalists including Reggie Siriwardena, Mervyn de Silva, Jayantha Padmanaba, Tori de Souza, Mr. D.B. Dhanapala, Fr. Noel Crusz and Basil Wright's long wonderful review in his book "The Long View". The keynote address on the book will be delivered by Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne. This is a Surasa (Fast Publishing) publication.

The other book to be launched is "Lester Wirachita Lekana Sanhita" written by a young film critic and journalist Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara Nayanajith which contains Sinhala translations of critical essays by Dr. Lester James Peiris in English during the last 60 years.

Nuwan a sub-editor a 'Sarasaviya' film magazine is making a pioneer attempt to introduce Lester's little known role to the Sinhala readers of this country. It is the first time that a large number of essays written by Lester Peiris in English is translated into Sinhala and preserved. Nuwan has classified this gamut of Lester's work into 6 sections as self-assessment of his work, cinema as an art form, critical essays on the industry, international

Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara cinema film reviews, book reviews and critical assessment of veterans in the field of cinema is no secret. The book also contains essays written by Lester on the need of a conservation laboratory for the Sinhala film industry. The book is published by Sarasavi Publishers, Nugegoda. The key note address will be delivered by reputed media person and film personality Jakson Anthony.

Appreciative of the two literary works Dr. Peries says "I am certain Mr. Ranjith Kuniar's book will be a most valuable contribution to the literature of Cinema in this Country. The book by his son Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara is also going to be an important milestone relating to Sri Lankan film history,".