Kala Korner by Dee Cee

A Bug Fiat station wagon arrives with a film crew in Bandarawela, the salubrious hill station of Sri Lanka. A Sinhala film is going to be shot outdoors - unheard of in the early days of local filmmaking. Sound too is to be recorded on the spot. The crew is to shoot a real life story, moving away from the fantasy filmgoers were used to.

A 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl - friends in the village -are the key characters. There are no 'stars' in the film - only a few professionals and handpicked players.

This was the bold attempt by the then young filmmaker Lester James Peries who accepted the challenge thrown to him by a newly formed company to do something different to the formula based on Indian films dished out by local producers in the name of Sinhala cinema. He quit the Government Film Unit (GFU), wrote the story and the screen-play titling it 'Rekava' (Line of Destiny), prompted two GFU colleagues - Willie Blake to crank the camera and Titus Totawatte to edit the film - to join him and started work.

All was not rosy, however. "Bandarawela was selected after studying the weather patterns over the years. Our timing was perfect. The weather was going to be fine. But once we got there it was a different story. For 20 days it just poured. Our schedules went for a six," Lester recalls.

Then there were the pranks of the monkey, the companion of the stilt-walker featured in the film. The monkey not only "demanded" half a bottle of arrack every day but used the station wagon as his toilet as well!

Sound recording outdoors had its own problems. Keeping away crows was a major hazard.

To cap it all, a chickenpox epidemic stopped work for two months pushing back the entire schedule.

The film brought in fresh talent to the local screen. The English stage duo Iranganie and Winston Serasinghe broke into the Sinhala cinema through 'Rekava'. It was a new experience for high profile dancer Sesha Palihakkara to be the stilt-walker. So was it for seasoned actors D.R. Nanayakkara and N.R. Dias.

Mallika Pilapitiya and Ananda Weerakoon formed the youthful romantic couple. Young Somapala Dharmapriya who used to come and take a peep at Lester's Morris Minor car when it was parked at his residence in Lunawa, was picked for the key role. The little girl Myrtle Fernando had done a small role in an earlier film.

Keeping to tradition, Lester decided to include a few songs. Father Marcelline Jayakody who had earned a reputation for writing simple, attractive lyrics wrote the words. Renowned musician Sunil Shantha composed the melodies. K.A. Dayaratne, another reputed musician handled the orchestra. The result was a fine set of film songs admired and hummed to this day.

After much effort, Lester had directed his first feature film. It was screened on December 28, 1956 - thus celebrating the Golden Anniversary this month.

Local audiences, though refused to accept the realistic approach in the film preferring a world of fantasy and the Indian touch. “Rekava had a simple story in a rural setting. It was the story of two childhood friends. For the audience, they had to be sweethearts who faced problems in trying to get married. They wanted the two children to grow up and get married. And when something else happened, they must indeed have been furious,” Lester explains. "Nor were they impressed by the beauty of the natural landscape which Willie Blake had caught in shimmering black and white images."

But the critics applauded - the "real" Sinhala film had arrived nine years after the first Sinhala film was screened. It was hailed at Cannes 1957 Festival followed by Karlovy Vary (1957), Edinburgh (1958) and Stratford - Canada (1958).