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| Wednesday, 16 July 2003 |
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Sinhala cinema on slide by E.M.G. Edirisinghe Sinhala cinema is 56-years-old, 52 years younger to world cinema; yet, it appears to be prematurely staggering and stuttering. During this short span of life, it has made strides at various international film festivals. Among its outstanding films such works as Rekhawa, Gam Peraliya, Saroja, Eya Den Loku Lamayek, Pura Sanda Kaluwara, Thani Thatuwen Piyambanne and Punchi Suranganawi stand out earning a niche for Sinhala cinema in world cinema. Sinhala cinema has written its name in gold in global cinema, and we yearn to look for more success in the future as well. Current crop of young national filmmakers who are talented, fearless to experiment and prepared to learn from world cinema have been keeping the thirst of enlightened local filmgoers for good cinema, quenched while moulding Sinhala cinema itself into a mature art. They are gradually stepping into the positions rendered vacant by the veterans of the 60s to 80s who are either moved away or distancing themselves from the moving art. With all that limited achievement we are proud of, where does the Sinhala cinema both as an industry and an art stand today? With stiff competition from nine television channels today, Sinhala cinema finds itself short of breath and the filmgoers are confused whether to move on to the small screen or to the big screen. Profit Each year in the eighties 35-40 new Sinhala films were released for public exhibition. Today it hardly exceeds 25 films a year. Is the Sinhala cinema on the slide? Not all the Hollywood films make money. Every film made cannot be a commercial success. The Bollywood cinema which is the second largest in the world is not different. Of around 800 films India makes every year, over 90% are failures at the Box-Office. In 2002 alone the Indian film industry lost Rs. 5,000 million. It is however, alive and active moving to almost every country in the world. Therefore, one who considers that Sinhala cinema should be a profit making venture should study cinema outside Sri Lanka as well. So our main concern and concentration should shift on to develop Sinhala cinema as an art because its industrial aspect will look after itself through its own mechanism. Then our handful of filmmakers will get an opportunity to match with their genre in any part of the world. Against this disturbing backdrop where the Sinhala cinema is presently struggling for survival, we witnessed at the turn of the 21st century two uncommon waves raving over the Sinhala film scene. One is the 'adults only' film wave while the other is the comedy film wave both were rather obtuse developments. The era of family entertainment provided by Sinhala films appears to have ceased to command any respect. This strange shift to waves due to a wrong notion on an attempt to bring back the audience which has dwindled from 8 millions in the eighties to 2 millions in the nineties and to arrest the downward trend of Sinhala cinema as a mode of entertainment as well as a medium of art. However, its battle with television to win back the family audience has put it on the defence, and where it still is. Anyway, the Sinhala 'Adults only' films which are meant only to arouse instinctive base of sex and passions in the viewer, were extremely poor quality in comparison to the dozens of ravishing exciting Hindi, Tamil and English films for adults only exhibited on any given day of the week. Local films had to surrender to those much 'hotter' films as the former failed to give such adult material as to satisfy their 'taste'. So films such as 'Surapurata Kanyaviyak, Kama Sutra, Magul Sakwala, Mamath Geheniyak which cheaply exploited sex and sensuality that too, on the surface flopped displaying the 'maturity' of our filmgoers whose taste for greater choosier sexuality and sensitivity which was beyond what the producers could give. Waves Similarly the wave of comedy films that rippled through the industry for the past several years tickling the audience who sought light entertainment to relax, enjoy and escape from pressure too, were on a downward track. The disillusioned spectators found themselves being fooled by those slapstick comedies totally incapable of evoking any interest. Once the attraction failed such films like Cherio Holman, Jolly Hallo, Dukata Sepata Sunny, Onna Babo too, flopped badly. However, there was an exception. Parliament Jokes, another comedy movie in 2002 was a phenomenal commercial success breaking all previous records for any kind of film. Why was it a huge box-office draw? For the masses, Parliament is not only the fount of power but power itself. People believe that all their economic and social ills emanate from the failure of Parliament, and the only opportunity they could get to laugh at it is in drama and cinema. So they grabbed the opportunity to look at Parliament with contempt when the film exposed the totally corrupt road leading to Parliament. Star power of such actors and actresses as Gamini Fonseka, Vijaya Kumaratunga, Dommie Jayawardena, Sanath Gunathillake, Ananda Jayaratne, Malini Fonseka, Rukmani Devi, Sandya Kumari, Swarna Mallawarachchi, Anoja Weerasinghe, Piyadasa Gunasekera and Ravindra Randeniya who alongwith the voice of H.R. Jothipala which embellished the films of the 60s to 80s coaxed the film fans to the cinemas to see the heroic acts of their screen heroes. This scenario has now completely changed and star attraction in Sinhala cinema is reduced almost to insignificance a fact that it signifies a set-back to Sinhala cinema in general. The glamour that Sinhala cinema once was is no more without those artistes and vocalists. The filmgoers today are lost and stranded as to find what should they view. The intelligent filmgoers however, still enjoy the advantage of an occasional Sinhala film that is cinematic, artistic and aesthetic created by a gifted filmmaker who has acquired the skill as well as the craftsmanship. Survival However, the seventh art cinema has to survive. It needs all the financial assistance and state patronage. When we talk of art, art comes first and money involved in it comes next. Yet, how to bring about a unity of all the forces that need work together to make Sinhala cinema once again a popular mode of entertainment as well as a commercial and artistic success. Sinhala cinema has to primarily survive as a medium of art here and here alone and nowhere else. It was once the monopoly of the private sector. With the establishment of the National Film Corporation in 1972, the direction and guidance of the national film industry became the preserve of the NFC. However, in the light of globalisartion of free market economic, admittedly it is not possible to leave the production, distribution and exhibition films entirely in the hands of the NFC. Yet the cultural and social significance of cinema and its strong entertainment appeal to the people, makes it a subject that cannot be entirely free from government control. A few individuals alone cannot be left to decide on matters social, cultural and educational as to what the people should learn, view and enjoy. As cinema is an art as well as an industry, there could arise a conflict of interests depending on what side one is. For some it is purely an art, whereas for others it is purely a business. This is where the role of the NFC becomes relevant and important. As a state institution, it should be instrumental in protecting film as an industry as well as it should promote it as an art by elevating its aesthetic and artistic content. Since the importers and exhibitors know how to make their business profitable, it is the NFC on which the responsibility of protecting cinema as a national art in pursuance of its noble objectives, lies. Refuge Film industry as a whole cannot survive without making profits which aspect of it could be well looked after by the private sector. Therefore the role of the NFC becomes pivotal and its cultural and national responsibility becomes imperative. As a business venture Sri Lankan cinema has very little scope outside the country. Therefore whatever return on investment rests on local exhibition. However, our potential to use it as a medium of art is great as it had been already proved. It is within the reach of our intellectual, professional and financial resources. So the NFC should act as the father and guardian of our national cinema. The exhibitors claim that they give what the people 'want'. The people did not ask for Kadawuna Poronduwa or Rekhawa or Ahas Gawwa. That is what the filmmakers gave and it was left for the people to accept or reject it. To give what the people want is the refuge of the scoundrel. So what they think as what the people ask for is sex, jokes, rapes and crimes. Is the taste of our people so low? People never asked for drugs. It is the millionaire businessmen who have introduced it causing havoc in society today. No responsible government can take cover under the principle of giving what the people want specially in the case of art, drugs, health and environment. Kasippu traders make millions but do not consume it. They take whisky. On the other hand, if the people want bombs, guns, cocaine, brothels etc., could any government give them. Certainly a businessman will give any of those. As they are physically and morally harmful to the people, poor quality films with third rate sex and brutal violence too, will be morally, spiritually and environmentally harmful to the people. One cannot give a loaded pistol with live cartridges to a little child even if it asks for it. Adults know it better than the child. Today, entertainment is an industry and the state is increasingly coming to play an important role in it. Cinema is the foremost component of all forms of entertainment. Film becomes an industry only when it begins to produce its own films. If there is no production but only importation and exhibition, there is no industry; nor an art for that matter as art cannot be imported, it has to be created in one's own land. Sokari Nadagam, Kandyan dancing or folk songs are our heritage as well as our identity. Similarly Sinhala film is our heritage and identity. Exhibition is the easiest part of the whole process of the film industry. Without an established film industry in the country the small body of artistes and technicians will not be able to professionally survive, but also they will not get an opportunity to show their talent and skill to filmgoers here and abroad. The strong private sector in the film industry inspired by liberal government policy has a bounden duty to see that the NFC is alive and active for the good of cinema as a national industry. If our films are to make their presence felt on local as well as foreign soil, and survive as a major component of popular entertainment, it must stand immune to influence of Hollywood and Bollywood block-busters which consume and spin money. Our forte lies primarily on the survival of cinema as an art with the stamp of its national identity marked and pronounced. Without the direct institutional intervention of the state through the NFC, our national cinema now on the throes of fall could hardly survive as an art. Until and unless the Sinhala film returns to the family, its future as a source of entertainment is rather bleak. Yet it could last as an art in the conclave of a minor film industry, which is what our cinema is.
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