Family Chronicle - Srilankan Film By Dr. Lester James Peries

To commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations between India and Sri Lanka, the Hyderabad Film Club, in collaboration with the High Commission for Sri Lanka, New Delhi, is presenting 60 Years Of Sri Lankan Cinema, from 14th to 22nd June, at the Sarathi Studios Preview Theatre, Ameerpet. 9 award-winning Sri Lankan films will be screened during the 9-day festival.

As part of the festival, Family Chronicle (Gamperaliya) is being screened on the 2nd day today. The film is directed by Dr. Lester James Peries, and has Henry Jayasena, Punya, Heendeniya, Gamini Fonseka, David Dharmakeerthi, Shanti Lekha, Trilicia Gunawardena, Wickrama Bogoda, Tony Ranasinghe, G W Surendra and Arula Karunatillake playing the lead roles.

Gamperaliya is widely considered the work that introduced cinema as a serious art form to Sri Lankan filmgoers. The simple plot of a romantic traingle between Nanda, younger daughter of an aristocratic family; Piyal born to less fortunate circumstances but climbing forever upward on the social ladder; and Jinadasa, the never-do-well representative of the slowly dying country gentry, is used to reflect wider social issues.

Though pitched on a minor scale, with the minutiae of family pieties observed with a microscope vision, the film has a wide canvas, which encompasses both ends of the social scale in a turn-of-the century Sinhala village.

The film was awarded the Best Film Ranamayura Golden Peacock Award at the New Delhi IFF.

The entry is free for everyone. Please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy Of The Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243 for further details.