Gamperaliya (film)

Infobox Film | name = Gamperaliya


caption =
director = Lester James Peries
producer = Anton Wickremasinghe
writer = Regi Siriwardena
starring = Henry Jayasena
Punya Heendeniya
Wickrema Bogoda
Trilicia Gunawardene
music = W.D. Amaradeva
cinematography = William Blake
editing = Sumitra Gunawardana
distributor = Cinelanka Ltd.
country = Sri Lanka
released = flagicon|Sri Lanka 1964
runtime = 108 min
language = Sinhala
budget =
amg_id = 1:229205
imdb_id = 0059211
followed_by = "Kaliyugaya"

"Gamperaliya" is a 1964 Sri Lankan drama film directed by Lester James Peries; it was adapted from the seminal novel "Gamperaliya" by Martin Wickramasinghe. The movie was groundbreaking in Sinhala cinema shot entirely outside of a studio using one lamp and hand held lights for lighting.cite web|url=http://www.lesternsumitra.com/lester/filmo61gamp.htm|title=Filmography- 1960-1980|accessdate=2007-04-17|date=2004|publisher=Lester James Peries] The movie exemplifies Peries's use of family tensions to symbolize wider issues.

The movie was internationally acclaimed, receiving the Golden Peacock at the Grand Prix International Film Festival in India and the Golden Head of Palenque in Mexico.cite web|url=http://www.srilankafilmcorp.com/promote/index.htm|title=Untitled|accessdate=2007-04-17|date=2006|publisher=National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka] The movie won the Best Director and Best Film awards at the 1965 Sarasaviya Film Festival.

Plot

Piyal (Henry Jayasena) is a handsome young teacher who is hired to teach English to Nanda (Punya Heendeniya), a member of a high class family. They fall in love, but can't elope because Piyal is of a lower class. Nanda's parents instead push her into a marriage with Jinadasa (Gamini Fonseka), who is of the same class as them. With economic downturn in Sri Lanka, both family lose their status and Jinadasa leaves to try to make a better life for himself; he never achieves his goal and dies penniless. Piyal and Nanda can now finally come together. They have changed however, and the earlier idylic nature of their relationship is not recaptured.

Cast

Production

Lester James Peries admired Martin Wickramsinghe's work and was inspired to attempt an adaption of Wickramasinghe's novel "Gamperaliya" into a movie in 1964. Wickremasinghe was initially reluctant thinking it wouldn't make a good movie, but eventually agreed. Scholar Regie Siriwardene was asked to script the film.cite web|url=http://sundaytimes.lk/000116/plus3.html|title=Bogoda achieved a rare feat|accessdate=2007-04-17|date=2000|publisher=Sunday Times]

Reception

Playwright Ediriweera Sarachchandra championed the film writing "At last a Sinhalese film has been made which we could show the world without having to hide our heads in shame. I want to say a great film has been made of a great novel." Scottish critic Lindsay Anderson hailed "its elegiac, near-Chekhovian grace."cite journal
authorlink = Gunawardana, A.J.
title = A Personal Cinema. An Interview with Lester James Peries
journal = TDR
volume = 15
pages = 303–309
date = 1971
publisher = MIT Press]

References

External links

* [http://www.lesternsumitra.com Official site] of Lester James Peries
*imdb title|id=0059211|title=Gamperaliya