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Tribute to a master

The tribute which is being paid this evening to Lester James Peries, Sri Lanka's leading and path-breaking film director, is no aberration or idle gesture. It is a conscious recognition on the part of both the state and civil society of the contribution made by a great artiste not only to fostering an indigenous tradition of cinema in the country but also bringing international recognition to the Sri Lankan cinema. And Associated Newspapers of Ceylon, through its trail-blazing cinema weekly, 'Sarasaviya' is happy to be associated with this salute to a master.

Not only was Lester James Peries' 'Rekhava' the first indigenous work of cinematic art but it was his 'Gamperaliya' which won for Sri Lanka for the first time an international award at the New Delhi film festival. Since then Peries quietly reflective mode of film-making which has captured the interior of the human heart and the rhythm of native life alike has placed him among the greats of world cinema such as Ray of India and Kurosawa of Japan.

The strength of Lester James Peries' cinema has been that while being truly of the Sri Lankan life and soil it has also been able to measure itself against the best of the world cinema. To say that a work of art must have a universal appeal is a cliche. But yet such an appeal can only spring from a true insight into the human condition which is universal and this Lester Peries' films have achieved in abundance.

It has been said with justice of the short story 'Great Coat' by Gogol that Russian literature emerged from Gogol's Great Coat. So can it be said with justification of the Sinhala cinema vis-a-vis Peries. Lester Peries was the trail-blazer and the path-finder. It was he who dared to cock a snook at tradition and take the camera out of doors and outside the confined of the cardboard houses built in South Indian film studios. Today when films are as a matter of fact shot on location this might sound mundane but it was a truly revolutionary event given the stifling orthodoxy of the times.

Today's tribute to Sri Lanka's master film-maker can also provide a useful point of departure to reflect on the state of the cinema particularly in the context of a new Government assuming office. It is a tribute to Lester Peries' mental alertness and sense of civic responsibility that he should be associated with an appeal addressed by Sri Lanka's leading film-makers to the Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku on some of the crucial issues facing the cinema today.

The Minister will no doubt need time to formulate his response and the whole issue has necessarily to be viewed against the context of the argument now being advanced in all areas of economic activity in favour of privatisation.

However there are certain areas of activity such as the national cinema which cannot be left to the capricious mercies of the private sector only and some kind of creative partnership between the state and the private sector will be necessary if the cinema is to flourish.

Let us hope then than even as we offer our tributes to Lester James Peries on his 83rd birth anniversary we can make of this event a beginning for the renaissance of the national cinema where the wise counsel of senior film-makers such as Lester Peries will find a resonance in the ears of those who make and determine policy. For it is only through such a partnership between those in office and the intelligentsia that the country can hope to advance.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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