| TV
Times
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| ‘Sudu
Sevaneli’ restores Sunil’s confidence
Sunil Ariyaratne after a long absence of 12-years from the film scene surfaced again to do ‘Sudu Sevaneli’. The film got fantastic reviews winning eight awards for the Best Film and the Best Lyricist for Sunil Ariyaratne at the recently held Sarasavi film festival. ‘Kristhu Charithaya’ (The life of Christ) failed due to a number of reasons including politics. This filmmaker says he is encouraged by his recent success to venture forth. Speaking of his past Sunil Ariyaratne says his interest in the aesthetic field was aroused while in school. As a student he wrote and published a book of short stories. Later he widened his repertoire to deal with poetry, prose, translation and plays. He has won many an honour practically in every field he had a hand in. “I am satisfied with my literary achievements all of which came my way due to hard work” Dr. Ariyaratne said. Joining Lester James Peries to write the screenplay for ‘Madol Duwa’ Sunil Ariyaratne began his illustration career in the field of cinema. “I did my first direction, a short film titled “Saragi” in 1971 with the till money given by my brother Nimal Kuruvita Bandara” said Sunil Ariyartane going down memory lane. As a young filmmaker Sunil Ariyaratne had the rare opportunity of doing ten films under different producers even before his first feature film “Anupama” was released. After seventeen films “Siribo Aiya” became the landmark work in his filmmaking journey. It won a number of awards for the Best film, director, actor, art director, music, both male and female singers and black and white film in 1981. “‘Sarungale’ (The Kite) the first Sinhala film to tackle the issue of racial harmony and in which Gamini Fonseka did a brilliant performance and other films like ‘Kela Mal’ and ‘Podi Malli’ too were unforgettable benchmarks in my journey of film making”, this outstanding filmologist said. Expressing his views on the various problems affecting the Sri Lankan cinema Sunil Ariyaratne said lack of good script and screenplay writers was one of the biggest drawbacks the industry faced right now. “Young people are hardly interested in this field. Today’s best scriptwriter in my view is Tissa Abeyesekara who has conducted a course in these fields but a dearth of youngsters with commitment was a matter for regret, he said. Speaking on other reasons to as to why the Sinhala films does not attract an audience Sunil Ariyaratne said ‘our films do not have their identities and they do not have standards. What we see today as commercial films are not commercial, what we see as musical movies are not musicals, we cannot laugh over the comedies and even what we see as adults only films are not so. This is the
main reason for the failure of Sinhala cinema and other problems
like financial difficulties, transport problems and introduction
of TV come later. Talking of his latest film and its achievement, Sunil Ariyaratne said “the loss of confidence that overtook me at the end of my 16th direction has been dispelled with my latest film. After reading Piyadasa Welikanne’s award winning novel I was determined to do a film of it but had to wait for five years without a producer. Finally Tissa Abeysekara then chairman of the National Film Corporation intervened and provided me with funds under the loan scheme given to make films. Having worked under different producers in the sixteen films I enjoyed a great deal of freedom in my latest.” “The honour this regard should go to Mr. Abeysekara who gave me another chance to look forward for the future cinema positively” Dr. Ariyaratne said thankfully.
By popular demand ‘Sudu Sevaneli’ will be screened from
November 14 to 20 at Regal Theatre Colombo. |
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