Daily News Online
http://www.liyathabara.com/    

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Home

 | SHARE MARKET  | EXCHANGE RATE  | TRADING  | OTHER PUBLICATIONS   | ARCHIVES | 

dailynews
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

 IT’S MORNING IN SRI LANKA

Midnight’s Children, the filmic rendition of Salman Rushdie’s book by the same name was shown in Colombo recently, fittingly with an opening segment specially filmed for Colombo audiences, being the producer’s and director’s glowing tributes to Sri Lanka’s attributes as the location for the movie. India disallowed the production for political reasons, and the film’s creative team wasted no time in prospecting Sri Lanka as an alternate location. President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the go ahead personally after he was appraised of the moviemaker’s intentions, and the rest is history.

That the team could make such a fascinatingly authentic depiction of Indian locations such as the capital Delhi or the Dal Lake in Kashmir is nothing short of amazing. Nobody really could have guessed, to put it in simple terms, had the credits not divulged the film location.

The production in the end speaks volumes for Sri Lanka as a free country that encourages free artistic expression, and that goes smack against the picture that the vested interests against Sri Lanka want to propagate. But more interestingly and more importantly, the Midnight’s Children project signals the coming of age of Sri Lanka as an advanced location in South Asia, for those prospecting for success, irrespective of the venture.

Sri Lanka has the best of all worlds. There is a highly literate, dynamic population, and then there is the spirit of accommodation and give and take. In reality, as the Midnight’s Children project showed, Sri Lanka is more open to artistic free expression than India, or any other country in the region -- given that most of the region’s nation states are still mired in undemocratic traditions that have led to farcical results in the praxis secularism.

Sri Lanka has been far more secular in that respect, than countries that call themselves secular and whose leaders wear that badge on the sleeve. Midnight’s Children is a testimony to that, plain and simple. But the next advantage is that at the moment, Sri Lanka has shown the can-do pragmatism that is required for foreign prospectors to see projects to a completion.

This has in part to do with the face-lifting of Sri Lanka courtesy the Urban Development Authority and generous government backing of its projects. Colombo is probably a film location prospectors’ paradise given that buildings dating to different eras are being subject to renovation under the direction of the UDA and other state authorities concerned. There are colonial era buildings that have been restored to fascinating detail. There are also the attendant landscapes re-created for good measure -- for instance when the Dutch hospital complex was renovated, the surrounding landscape was made habitable and synchronized.

The landscapes and the legendary scenic attributes of course have always made Sri Lanka a producers’ paradise - films such as Bridge on the River Kwai, India Jones and the Temple of Doom, were produced here for good reason – leaving aside a myriad other nondescript productions that have featured the transient talent of Hollywood’s celluloid, from Bo Derek to others too numerous and unknown to mention.

Local productions are cottoning on to the idea of Sri Lanka as a location that could with relatively meagre budget outlays make for movies of extraordinary depth and character such as the production Siddhartha Gauthama now turning out to be a sustained audience hit. The tourist draw of Sri Lanka as a movie location cannot be underestimated -- Midnight’s Children no doubt will encourage an entire new crop of movie buffs to experience at first hand the sights and sounds of this extraordinary country that could recreate tumultuous events almost a world away, thematically speaking. This is a great boon -- and they say, to be young healthy and alive in post-war Sri Lanka is heaven itself – and in truth, you can erase the word young from that familiar adapted quote…
 

Resounding slap in the face for CANADA and TAMIL DIASPORA

Canada and the Tamil Diaspora received a resounding slap in the face last Friday when the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma confirmed that the next Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting will be held in Sri Lanka in November this year.

Full Story

POINT OF VIEW : WHO SPEWS HATE? THERE IS HATE SPEECH, AND HATE SPEECH

Full Story

Reminiscences of Gold ]

Creativity is his zen

 He is a tall man with a twinkle in his eyes. He has a sense of humour that is almost whimsical in such a way that you could never tell what is on his mind. He is a man bubbling with creative and innovative ideas. One of his creations, Moratuwa Lagoon House, is among the 757 unique buildings featured in the prestigious Phaidon Atlas of 20th Century World Architecture published in 2012. He animatedly discussed the types of trees with my photographer, while we stood in the shadow of a gigantic lush tree with a splendid Bo tree in the vicinity. This week’s Reminiscences of Gold features Anura Ratnavibhushana, one of the unique architects in Sri Lanka.

 

Full Story

 

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK |

ANCL TENDER NOTICE - BOOK BINDING MACHINE
TENDER NOTICE - WEB OFFSET NEWSPRINT - ANCL
Donate Now | defence.lk
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lanka
www.army.lk
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sport | World | Letters | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2013 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor