Magnificence of the Sarasaviya Film Festival

by E. M. G. Edirisinghe

Impact of the Sarasaviya Film Festival on Sinhala cinema and its artists who sparkle on our silver screen with their talent and beauty, performance and appearance, is immeasurable. It has now moved on to a stage where Sinhala cinema is synonymous with Sarasaviya the much loved film journal of the people.

The climax of a year’s exhibition of Sinhala films on large screen is reached with the Sarasaviya Film Festival at which the stars who glittered on screen appearing live in lavish radiation before their grateful and appreciative film-fans who are elated to imbibe themselves in a glint of glimpse of their favourites who have enlivened them with fresh air and joy.

Running back to the inauguration in 1964, Sarasaviya consecrated the Sinhala cinema with prestigious film awards enthralling the audience and instilling a deep sense of pride in the awardee. It is an ornament of performance excellence which every film artist loves to decorate oneself with as a lasting invesment in talent in their chosen career.

At the very first festival, the Sarasaviya award for the best film was won by ‘Gam Peraliya’ while the most popular film of the year too, with over 35,000 votes cast in favour, was also Gam Peraliya.

It is a reflection of how similar in their task and criteria of judgement to that of an eminent jury adopted for evaluation of films for honour and recognition. The readership of Sarasaviya at the time was so enlightened and advanced that the Sarasaviya Film Festival had turned itself into an occasion of their own day of judgement and exuberance.

What Golden Globe Awards, Academy Awards, Venice International Film Festival or the Toronto International Film Festival is for the world, Sarasaviya Film Festival is for our island home Sri Lanka.

Sarasaviya Film Festival a creation of Sarasaviya is more popular than the journal itself because the build-up to the festival among the film-goers and the film-artists is so intense that everything moved in the direction of the festival. That provided the much needed friendly and warm environment for them to eagerly await the dawn of the day of national recognition.

It is at the Sarasaviya Film Festival that the stars appear in glistening glory. They came down from the distant sky in sizzling glamour transforming themselves into artists whom the film-goers embrace with an abundance of appreciation and affection.

With each passing year, Sarasaviya film awards gaining greater significance and wider acceptance, acting and technical performance in the local cinema improved with the artists recognising the national honour they received for their valuable contribution to cinema art.

It provided an ideal ground and an atmosphere for them for an enhanced qualitative and artistic improvement which finally enriched Sinhala cinema.

Even though an award itself does not form a part of their emotions while on the set, the determination to perform well in whatever role they have undertaken to breathe life into, gained honest acknowledgement.

So the contribution of Sarasaviya through the film awards conferred for eminence in the field is the subject of dialogue in retrospect among the filmgoers and the critics every year. A Sarasaviya award was such a feat of accomplishment that one would appreciate it a life-time.

The entire film festival on the other hand, is an opening for the film-goers to see those films afresh from a different perspective. Those who missed the opportunity to see the film on release in the previous year, will seek a break to see them purely to identify themselves with the excellent works of the year.

Many will love to associate themselves with jury decisions in an attempt to elevate their own taste and to learn the process of evaluation of films.

The Sarasaviya Film Festival is the most consistent and most sentimental event in the local cinema calendar.

It is quite a significant event that no lover of cinema at whatever level in the cinema would ever like to miss. It carries the stamp of organisational depths and decorum, splendour and glamour unmatched in any other festival of art held in the country.

This year too, it is not different from any other year, with emotionally laden artists carrying a load of awards presented for two years; it will be honours and applause aplenty right round a packed hall from start to finish.

Emergence of two winners in each category is a basketful of gifts of joy to the audience to see several artists winning several awards at each level of performance in one single evening of glow and glory.

The nation should salute Sarasaviya for bringing recognition and reputation for our local artists in the field of cinema to national level in the eyes of millions of viewers.

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