Honoruing a legend in cinema literature
K. S. Sivakumaran
Honouring his contribution to the arts and letters and to world of cinema in Sri Lanka,
Lifetime Achievement Award of the 6th JaffnaICF was presented to Kailayar Sellanainar Sivakumaran.
In the past five years, Jaffna International Film Festival has recognized and felicitated great personalities who had made invaluable and long lasting contributions to Sri Lankan cinema, by bestowing on them lifetime achievement awards. In the sixth edition of the Jaffna International Film Festival of 2020 we felicitate a pioneering figure in the world of arts and letters, a person who helped to introduce the Tamil speaking literati to the Sinhala speaking world, wrote on the cinema as a journalist and a critic and enriched the understanding of it in the Tamil world and helped build bridges: Kailayar Sellaninar Sivakumaran, popularly known as K. S. Sivakumaran.
“I am very happy and elated to receive this recognition. It is a double honour for me as I received it in Jaffna, the Northern peninsular,” said Sivakumaran, who has contributed to cinema and literature writing seven books.
“This cultural bridge between the North and the South and communities should be continued. We may be Tamil, Muslims, Sinhalese, Malay or Burgher, but this country needs cultural unity.
For more than 55 years Sivakumaran has been writing about cinema and various other issues to newspapers and other media.
Born on 1 October, 1936, Mr. Sivakumaranborn hails from Puleeyantheevu, Batticaloa and had his early schooling there, and on moving to Colombo studied at Colombo Hindu College, and St. Joseph’s College, Colombo. He graduated with a BA in English, Tamil and Western Classical Culture from the University of Peradeniya and possesses an MA from the University of Madras, along with numerous Diplomas in the arts and in film studies.
Sivakumaran is a veteran journalist, broadcaster, translator, and literary and film critic; an English teacher both in Sri Lanka and abroad. A multi-faceted personality, he has been engaged in the artsfor over 65 years authoring more than 45 books in Tamil and English. As a journalist he worked in both English and Tamil newspapers such as The Island, Daily News, Virakesari. He was senior editor of the newspaper Navamani. In the SLBC, he was a relief announcer in both English and Tamil, and Duty editor (Tamil) in the newsroom. He has worked as a translator in various capacities, in advertising and in other places of the private sector.He has also been a visiting lecturer in journalism at the University of Colombo, Aquinas College, and visiting lecturer in translation studies in the University of Kelaniya and the University of Jaffna.
From a very young age, Sivakumaran demonstrated a keen interest in cinema. He was a member of the “Cinema 16 Society,”“Film Critics and Journalist Association,” and “OCIC.” He was a radio film critic in the 1950s and 1960s in Tamil and English. The OCIC too has honoured him with a lifetime award, recognizing his contribution. He wrote several articles in both English and Tamil in the newspapers after visiting international film festivals in India, especially the Goa International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Kerala. His books in English on films, include Films Seenand in Tamil, AsaiyumPadimangal, Cinema or UlagaValam, and ThirapadaThurayil. Sivakumaran also writes short stories and poems in both English and Tamil. Irumai and UlaviyatSirukathaikalare two of his collections of short stories in Tamil.
At a more personal level, here is a person you will see atat every release of a film, a new performance, a critical discussion; a constant and consistent presence at an event of major or minor significance, aperson loved by all, and one whose opinion you seek out; a person who has done yeoman service for 65 odd years in searching in the nook and cranny of the arts in the Tamil speaking world in Sri Lanka; a humble, self-effacing man, whose tireless work and contribution to the world of cinema in Sri Lanka we are proud to recognize and celebrate today with a Lifetime Achievement Award.