Post-Independence Sinhala Films: Milestones of Social Change in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The birth of the Sinhala film industry coincided with Ceylonese independence. From the 16th century onwards, Ceylon had seen successive invasions and colonization by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British. Independence was finally attained with the departure of the British, in early 1948. It thus seems telling that the first Sinhala movie, Kadawuna Poronduwa (Broken Promise), was released in 1947. The objective of this paper is to portray how Sinhala cinema depicts the various socio-political developments which Sri Lanka has undergone in the post-independence period.