Plus

Plus

Kala Korner - by Dee Cee

What a way to show our heritage
The Ministry of Cultural Affairs & National Heritage and the Central Cultural Fund recently showed us how not to hold an exhibition. The exhibition was titled "Milestone of our Heritage". I dropped in at the Art Gallery hoping to see a well planned display of the proud heritage of our nation. What a pathetic sight it was. The panels were dirty. The displays were untidy. There wasn't a brochure or even a leaflet. There was no reception desk. It was obvious the exhibition had been hurriedly arranged. "We had to rush when the Minister gave us a date to open the exhibition,” the solitary official at the exhibition whom I managed to spot, confessed.

The exhibition displayed entries to a photographic competition titled 'Shadows of a Heritage' conducted by the Ministry. The official admitted that the response was not that encouraging. There were about 175 entries from 40 photographers. The quality too left much to be desired.

Alongside the entries was a collection of superb photographs by eminent photographers of the calibre of Nihal Fernando and Dominic Sansoni. These gave a glimpse of our rich heritage. They were remnants of an earlier exhibition planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Independence. These were just placed against the wall with most of their captions missing. Where there were captions, they were only in English whereas the few who walked in at the time would have preferred them in Sinhala. The official I spoke to had realized it and was desperately trying to write something in Sinhala. But whether he had time to get them done, I wouldn't know.

I was most surprised at the quality of the exhibition because it was a joint project with the Central Cultural Fund, which has made a name for itself for high quality publications. In this instance, they don't seem to have shown any interest.

Wekande, at last!
The long wait has ended. 'Wekande Walauwe', Lester James Peries' latest creative effort has arrived. It did arrive some months back for just a week to qualify for entry to the Oscars but was limited to just one cinema in Colombo. Now it's an islandwide release.

While the 'Walauwe' was awaiting release for many moons, Lester has started work on his 20th feature film. Tilted 'Ammawarune', it's yet another family theme - what Lester is fond of working on. Glancing through the cast, it was interesting to see that Lester had picked the up and coming actor Roshan Pilaptiya for a key role as the younger son of a widowed mother (played by Malini Fonseka), the pivotal character in the film. Interesting because he is the son of Mallika Pilapitiya whom Lester picked for his first film,' Rekawa' fifty years ago!

Keen to give a break to newcomers, Lester's choice for the elder son who plays a young monk leading a cloistered, monastic life in a temple, is Pradeep Dharmadasa, a TV presenter. Tony Ranasinghe who played the dashing undergrad in Lester's 'Delovak Atara' (1966) dons the robes as the chief monk in young Kassapa Hamuduruwo's temple.

Lester is working with a new producer - Jagath Wijenayake, a much-in-demand tuition master who is following the lead given by Bandula Gunawardena, a highly successful film producer before he entered the political scene.

Somaweera Senanayake teams up with Lester once again to do the screenplay (he did the 'Walauwe' too) while K. A. Dharmasena is handling the camera. Ravindra Guruge will edit the film.

Back to Plus