Sinhala stars in a Lankan Tamil Film

K S Sivakumaran

One of the earliest Tamil films produced in Lanka was Naadu Potra Vaalka (Live in a country that applauds you) was directed by a Sinhala artist by name Yasapala Nanayakara.

The roles of twin heroines were played by Sinhala films stars Geetha Kumarasinghe and Swarna Mallawarachi. The male actors were Lankan Tamilians. V P Ganeshan, father of the two politicians Mano and Prabha, who took the lead role in the film.

Yasapalitha Nanayakkara

V P Ganeshan also made two satisfying films in Tamil: Puthiya Kaattu (The New Wind) and Naan Ungal Thoalan (I'm your Comrade) which were satisfying entertainers.

One notes that that the intention of the producer of Naadu Potra Vaalka was to impress exemplary living. But it fails to convey such a message on account of unwelcome and hilarious situations that are introduced in the film. These were totally irrelevant to the theme chosen. Ultimately the film turned out to be a ludicrous film.

Local Tamil films cannot compete with films produced in Kodambaakkam or elsewhere in the world for reasons of poor technical quality and the problem of using different dialects in Tamil language as spoken in Lanka.

At the same time there are a number of talented Lankan artistes coming from Tamil and Muslim communities in Lanka. The audiences are conditioned by the tastes created by the Tamilnaadu films and they do not react favourably to locally made films which lack organic direction.

However there were two or three films like Ponmani, Vaadaik Kaatu (The Northerly Wind) and Puthiya Kaatu (The New Wind) among the earlier films that drew attention of the critics who were coming to learn what film criticism really meant.

An unemployed graduate (V P Ganeshan) emerging from the slums of Colombo figure in the story of the film under review. He and his dandy friend (Ramadaas) recover a bag full of money robbed by city's thugs from an estate superintendent and hand it over to the owner. That's the plot in the story.

The owner recognizing the noble act of these two youth offers them jobs in his estate. His daughter (Swarna Mallawaarachi) who was dating with another young superintendent (K S Balachandran) now falls I love with the newcomer. The newcomer in turn falls in love with another lass (Geetha Kumarasinghe), daughter of another neighbouring estate superintendent.

So there you see an eternal triangle theme added on with fights, songs and dances and revenge etc filling the film. However the story ends with forgiveness and all live happily ever after.

The Jeep chase by the hero on a motorbike, the stunts, the romances and the scenic backdrop of the hillcountry entertained the then Tamil audience.

There was a happy combination of Sinhala and Tamil artistes working together in this film.

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