Melancholic fragrance
Amalshan Gunarathne
The affable characters from the popular radio drama Muwanpalassa will
visit your living room with the launch of its new small screen
adaptation titled Ranminithanney Koraley Mahaththaya.
Expect your living rooms to be entranced by the nostalgic fragrance
of Muwanpalassa, as the show will commence on February 6 at 7 pm on
Rupavahini.
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Wasantha
and Shalika |
The jovial souls from the radio drama including Koraley Mahaththaya,
Manike, Pina, Janthu, Silindi, Kadira and all expect to make a return to
the small screen with the new adaptation. Vijerathna Warakagoda will
give life to Koraley Mahaththaya while Rathnavli Kakunavala will take on
the role of Manike. The comedian Mahinda Pathirage will play the role of
‘Pina’. Wasantha Kumaravila and Shalika Edirisinghe will add much needed
youthful exuberance and energy to the drama.
The drama is directed and produced by veteran Padmasiri Kodikara.
With the launch of the new drama, he anticipates to create a refreshing
change in the stagnating television drama industry. Speaking to the
Artscope he said, “I always had a big dream of doing a television
adaptation of Muwanpalassa. When I was little, I used to live with those
characters.
Therefore I have a great emotional attachment towards those
characters. But doing a television adaptation from such a beloved drama
is not an easy task. We have to make sure that we do full justice to the
drama. I am in no position to comment on my work, but few who went
through some of the earlier episodes said that I have done a good work
at recreating Muwanpalassa.
Sharing his thoughts on the Ranminithanna experience, the
scriptwriter Sri Nimal Padmakumara said, “Ranminithanna was ideal for
our purposes. We didn’t need to put an extra effort to create the
village aura. Ranminithanna provided us with everything that we needed
to create the village essence. The chirpy sound of the birds singing,
lakes foiled with greenly flora and fauna provided us with the ideal
setting to cast the tele-drama.”
Over the years, few cinema adaptations of the Muwanpallassa drama
have been tried without much success. But Rathnavali Kakuluavala, or
Manike in Muwanpallassa as she is known, confidently stated, “I am very
certain that this teledrama will win many hearts. I have acted in some
of the earlier cinema adaptations as well. None of them achieved the
desired success since they failed to do justice to the original drama.
But I am pretty certain that this will be a major success. The core
essence of the original drama has been carried out to the adaptation.”
Muwanpallassa was first aired on Sri Lankan radio in 1964. Initially
the drama was written by Mudalinayaka Somarathne. But his departure from
the country halted the progress of the drama.
Then in 1971 Victor Miguel rejuvenated the project and started to
continue from where Somarathne left off by writing the ‘New
Muwanpallassa’.
He wrote the drama for 25 consecutive years. After his death Sri
Nimal Padmakumara has been writing the drama for fifteen years.
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