Glimpse into the life and times of Lester James Peries on his 91st birthday :

On the trail of doyen of Sinhala cinema

by Ranga Chandrarathne

Dr. Lester James Peries

A singular characteristic of the brilliant career in cinema of Lester James Peries is his production of canon defining Rekava which was a watershed in the annals of Sri Lankan filmdom. Apart from deviating from the beaten track of producing prototype North Indian melodrama films, Rekava paved the way for the production of artistic tradition of Sinhalese cinema.

A memorable moment with Regi Siriwardane

Another important aspect, albeit not counted at the time of the production of Rekava, is that it stamps in the authority of the authorship of director or filmmaker. Lester was greatly influenced by the tradition of documentary filmmaking and the realistic Italian cinema of the day. Nidhanaya (The Treasure-1970) was the finest film that Lester James Peries made. Nidhanaya which was based on a short story by G. B. Senanayake, was marked among other things, for its brilliant exploration of complex psychologies and Lester's ability to extract best performances out of Gamini Fonseka and Malini Fonseka. It magnificently blended the story with the cinematography.

As Dr. Lester James Peries marks his 91st birthday, it is pertinent to traverse the beaten track which paved the way for modern Sinhalese films. Apart from his numerous documentaries some of which he made in London such as Soliloquy (1949), Farewell to Childhood (1950) and Sinhalese Dance (1950), and those he made whilst in the Government Film Unit, one of the significant developments in his career in filmmaking was the production of Rekava which was a canon defining first outdoor shot Sinhala film. It was a groundbreaking venture albeit it was a box office failure. It can be considered as the forerunner to the modern Sinhala film.

The earliest Sinhala films were formulaic and melodramas on celluloid. Films including the first Sinhala film Kadavuna Poronduva (Broken Promise), Kapati Arakshkaya (Cunning Guardian), Veradunu Kurumanama (Defeated Aim-1949) and Kela Handa (Wild Moon-1953) and Sujatha (1953) were melodramatic in essence. It was these prototype films that made sensibilities of filmgoers in Sri Lanka. Even the Sinhalese intelligentsia did not consider Sinhala films as a serious mode of entertainment. The plot and even the beginning and the end of the films were predictable.

Gamperaliya as an artistic film

Gamini Fonseka and Malini Fonseka in Nidhanaya

Dr. Lester James Peries with Satyajith Ray

At a time Sinhala cinema was dominated by such melodramas in celluloid, Lester James Peries produced Gamperaliya (The Changing village) in 1963.

The production of Gamperaliya as one of the 20 films by Lester James Peries marks an important landmark in the evolution of Sinhala cinema. The film was instantly recognised by both Westernised and local intelligentsia as a cinematic masterpiece made out of a masterpiece in literature by Martin Wickremasinghe. Gamperaliya was awarded Grand Prix (Golden Peacock) at the Indian International Film Festival held in Delhi.

A significant fact is that the jury which selected Gamperaliya was made up of eminent personalities in the industry such as Lindsay Anderson, Andrej Wajda, George Sadoul and Satyajith Ray. Satyajit Ray hailed the film as "poetry and sensitivity with which it explores and illuminates personal relations".

It marked a new chapter in Sinhala film as for the first time, filmgoers recognising the immense potentials latent in the media in exploring the life in an artistic manner.

Gamperaliya was recently fully restored as restored classic and commercially released in France. Among other things, it is considered as one of the best ten films made in the 20th century.

Similar in plot to Anton Chekov's Cherry Orchard, Gamperaliya deals with the collapse of feudalism and the uneasy social transformation to a fully-fledged capitalism with the rise of the middle class as a dominant group in the society. This uneasy transition and the collapse of the feudal class is depicted through the gradual decline of the social status of the family of Kaisaruwatte Huhamdiram and Matara Hamine who represent the decaying social order while rise in social status of young entrepreneur Piyal symbolises the rise of the middle class.

Martin Wickremasinghe published Gamperaliya in 1945 and it was immediately recognised as a masterpiece in Sinhala literature. Gamperaliya, among other things, was marked for the authentic depiction of peasant society of Sri Lanka in transition and complex portrayal of characters and the milieu. Gamperaliya is considered as the birth of artistic tradition of filmmaking in Sri Lanka. On another plane, Gamperaliya is the cinematic culmination of a cultural and literary renaissance of the 1950s.

Another important aspect of Gamperaliya's contribution to the growth of Sinhala cinema is that it established the authority of the director. Until Lester James Peries came into Sinhala cinema, the role of a director had not been recognised. In fact, in most of the melodrama films, director played little or absolutely no role in the creation of the film. However, throughout Lester James Peries's career in filmmaking, his signature is imprinted on the films he made. Peries's films were characteristic of his unique non-dramatic style where the natural delivery of dialogues was encouraged as opposed to theatre like inanimate and monotonous dialogues, content and vision.

A scene from Goluhadawatha

Although often neglected by critics, Lester's sympathetic view towards women in not emotional way is manifested amply in some of his creations such as Gamperaliya, Nidhanaya (The Treasure/ 1970), Ahasin Polovata (White Flowers for the Dead/1976) and Wekanda Walawwa (Mansion by the Lake/ 2001-2002). His was a marked deviation of the portrayal of women in Sinhala cinema in that the complexities of women were explored. For instance, the character of Nanda in Gamperaliya is a complex women character. Nidhanaya (The Treasure/ 1970) was one of the internationally acclaimed films by Lester James Peries. It explores the psychology of characters and is marked for the delicate fusion between content and style. Lester also shows his maturity as a master craftsman in eliciting the best performance out of the cast. Particularly the performance of the lead roles by Gamini and Malini Fonseka is remarkable. Prof. Wimal Dissanayake states "Nidhanaya demonstrated very clearly that Sri Lankan Cinema was capable of producing works that could hold their own with the best anywhere in the world.

This is a stylish, absorbing and well integrated film in which a stern aesthetic guides the flow of the image". Lester James Peries is realistic filmmaker and his realism is an essential characteristic of his poetics of cinema. However, he offers a rather broader perspective of realism and is marked for non-dramatic depiction.

Lester James Peries's works can only be appreciated against the milieu and in the context he made his remarkable creations which are not only part of artistic legacy of the nation but also that of humanity.