When Prageeth Rathnayake (as Pawan, the protagonist of his debut film, Adareyi Mang) enters his unfinished, drab, concrete-laden house with a bunch of flowers and a sense of exhilaration (he’s passed his university final year exams with a First Class), and looks into each and every room calling out his sweetheart’s name, it’s almost out of the scene in Brian ...

When Prageeth Rathnayake (as Pawan, the protagonist of his debut film, Adareyi Mang) enters his unfinished, drab, concrete-laden house with a bunch of flowers and a sense of exhilaration (he’s passed his university final year exams with a First Class), and looks into each and every room calling out his sweetheart’s name, it’s almost out of the scene in Brian ...

Adareyi Mang, which premiered last Friday at the Regal, is Prageeth Rathnayake’s first film. I first saw Prageeth as an actor, many, many years back, and I should be forgiven for thinking that when he briefly left the screen for the stage, he left the industry for good. The movie (a love story) begins with a tribute to his acting ...

Adareyi Mang, which premiered last Friday at the Regal, is Prageeth Rathnayake’s first film. I first saw Prageeth as an actor, many, many years back, and I should be forgiven for thinking that when he briefly left the screen for the stage, he left the industry for good. The movie (a love story) begins with a tribute to his acting ...

I’d like to get back to Tuesday’s article, and to what that former Warden of S. Thomas’ College, at an official function, said: that the death of the Sinhala language can be traced to the difference in quality between the television serials our children watched and what they watch today. He was thinking of foreign dubbed series, since he referred ...

I’d like to get back to Tuesday’s article, and to what that former Warden of S. Thomas’ College, at an official function, said: that the death of the Sinhala language can be traced to the difference in quality between the television serials our children watched and what they watch today. He was thinking of foreign dubbed series, since he referred ...

My friend Dhanuka Bandara, currently studying in the United States, sent me a comment the other day: “The decline of a reading culture is a serious problem, rather acute in America. I’ve even concluded that this has caused the current crisis in Western civilisation.” I was and still am not qualified to argue on the latter point, but I agreed ...

My friend Dhanuka Bandara, currently studying in the United States, sent me a comment the other day: “The decline of a reading culture is a serious problem, rather acute in America. I’ve even concluded that this has caused the current crisis in Western civilisation.” I was and still am not qualified to argue on the latter point, but I agreed ...

Savindu and Pasindu Herath have been to the same school, indulged in the same sports and clubs and societies (well, almost), passed out with flying colours in the same subjects and streams, and entered the same University, resuming the same activities they’d done and encountered in their younger days. What they’ve done interests me less for their associations with various ...

Savindu and Pasindu Herath have been to the same school, indulged in the same sports and clubs and societies (well, almost), passed out with flying colours in the same subjects and streams, and entered the same University, resuming the same activities they’d done and encountered in their younger days. What they’ve done interests me less for their associations with various ...

For decades we have been told that, regardless of the fact that movies are based on falsifications of reality, we have to assess the medium on the basis of its fidelity to that same reality. This is probably why we take for granted the oppositions between art and entertainment. Such oppositions echo Ananda Coomaraswamy's thesis that modern sensibility has differentiated ...

For decades we have been told that, regardless of the fact that movies are based on falsifications of reality, we have to assess the medium on the basis of its fidelity to that same reality. This is probably why we take for granted the oppositions between art and entertainment. Such oppositions echo Ananda Coomaraswamy's thesis that modern sensibility has differentiated ...

There are days when I run out of ideas and topics to write on. Those are days I suffer from creative blocks, on account perhaps of drowsiness or the languor that a full stomach tends to invite. All it takes to get out that block is a quick perusal of my bookshelves, a random flip-through of a book I’ve just ...

There are days when I run out of ideas and topics to write on. Those are days I suffer from creative blocks, on account perhaps of drowsiness or the languor that a full stomach tends to invite. All it takes to get out that block is a quick perusal of my bookshelves, a random flip-through of a book I’ve just ...

The four films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake stand out like zeitgeists of the eighties and the nineties. They reflect what could have been, but was not, a more illustrious, colourful career. The alienation of the individual from his surroundings, the unreliability of an objective voice, the solace of psychological confinement, are all themes that brings these four films together; they differentiate ...

The four films of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake stand out like zeitgeists of the eighties and the nineties. They reflect what could have been, but was not, a more illustrious, colourful career. The alienation of the individual from his surroundings, the unreliability of an objective voice, the solace of psychological confinement, are all themes that brings these four films together; they differentiate ...

The 15th and 16th centuries were largely eras of intellectual development in the West. These were eras of polygots and versatile thinkers, whose preoccupation with whatever fields they worked in did not hinder them from exploring other fields. Da Vinci was in that sense a giant, with his range of interests extending to not just sculpting, not just painting, but ...

The 15th and 16th centuries were largely eras of intellectual development in the West. These were eras of polygots and versatile thinkers, whose preoccupation with whatever fields they worked in did not hinder them from exploring other fields. Da Vinci was in that sense a giant, with his range of interests extending to not just sculpting, not just painting, but ...

Words fascinate me. They were made for scrambling and unscrambling. For ordering and disordering. For constructing and deconstructing. They are what we make of them and don’t make of them. But on their own, they are not enough.The World Youth Scrabble Championship is not the only Scrabble tournament organised internationally, but it is by far the biggest and the most ...

Words fascinate me. They were made for scrambling and unscrambling. For ordering and disordering. For constructing and deconstructing. They are what we make of them and don’t make of them. But on their own, they are not enough.The World Youth Scrabble Championship is not the only Scrabble tournament organised internationally, but it is by far the biggest and the most ...