 Now
Anagiratne gives us 'Dracula's Guest' in Sinhala
Notching up a hundred
For a film to run for 100 days without a break in its first run
is an achievement. It's even more creditable when it happens at a time
when the Sinhala cinema is in crisis. So what a relief it was to see Vasantha
Obeysekera's highly successful film, 'Dorakada Marawa' achieving this feat.
More interestingly, it created a record by hitting the top spot for any
film shown at the Regal, collecting a record 1.7 million rupees.
The film is still running in the outstations where in towns like Kalutara
it's drawing packed houses.
Over a dozen films were released last year. And among them were some
which had exciting themes, introduced new filmmakers and gave a taste of
new approaches. But the filmgoers rejected most of them. The result: financial
disaster to the producers. They may never again want to lend their patronage.
Then how did Dorakada Marawa' succeed ? It was a good film, tastefully
done. It related a simple story close to the hearts of the cinemagoer.
It could be enjoyed by every class of filmgoer – the average person
who seeks pure entertainment, the mature ones who want involvement with
the film, and the critics who go into dissect the film closely. It did
not have the usual ingredients – violence, sex or comedy.
'Dorakada Marawa' has proved one thing. If it's good cinema, then success
comes its way.
At long last
Prasanna Vithanage breathed a sigh of relief last week when his award winning
creation, Pavuru Valalu was at last released in the local circuit.
Quoted as the Sri Lankan film to win the most number of international
awards, it was a long wait to have the film shown here. While it did the
rounds in the international film festival circuit and collected awards,
the local filmgoers had to wait for years to see it.
The film brought Nita Fernando, playing the lead role (she was also
the producer of the film) the award for best actress at the Singapore Film
Festival.
At the Amiens International Film Festival it won three coveted awards.
That was last year.
Earlier, the film had been highly acclaimed at the Film Critics Festival
in Colombo.
Meeting Dracula
British writer Bram (Abraham) Stoker (1874-1912) wrote his classic novel
of horror, 'Dracula' in 1897. Renowned writer and journalist Chandra Anagiratne
gave a taste of it to the Sinhala readers who got to know the vampire,
a spirit of the dead which left its grave at night to suck the blood of
living persons.
Dracula, meaning demon, was applied to Vald IV the Impaler, a 15th century
Walachian prince on whom Stoker based the character which has also been
the subject of many films.
Now Anagiratne gives the translation of Stoker's 'Dracula's Guest',
another popular horror story with American and English readers. Titled
' Drakulage Adawiya', Anagiratne's new book is the next release at the
now popular 'Tuesday Launch' by publisher Dayawansa Jayakody.
Anagiratne's translations of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'
(1876) and 'Huckleberry Finn' (1884) are already popular among readers. |
