Cinema
The Broken Promise
කඩවුණු පොරොන්දුව
Jyotish Sinha · 1947
Synopsis
Ralahamy, a man of rank, dies leaving his family heavily in debt. His widow, Tackla, pushes their daughter Ranjani to marry Victor, a rich and older man, already a father. Samson, who loves Ranjani, tries to restore the family and even pays its debts, but he is turned away and goes abroad to seek his fortune. On his return, he learns of Ranjani's engagement and writes to her; his letters are hidden, and the rumour spreads that he has become an invalid.
Context
The film adapts a hit play by B. A. W. Jayamanne, performed by the Minerva troupe of Negombo; Jayamanne wrote the screenplay and played Samson in it, and most of the sixteen actors came from the stage. S. M. Nayagam, an entrepreneur from South India, produced it and had a studio built at Madurai, where the film was shot in six months, entirely in interiors, with an Indian technical crew. It was released on 21 January 1947 at the Kingsley in Colombo; Rukmani Devi sang six of the twelve songs in it.
Who it is for
A melodrama in Sinhala punctuated by a dozen songs, on the model of the Indian singing melodrama; its interest is first of all historical.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first film in Sinhala; it set a formula that the island's cinema followed until the sixties.