Reflecting on Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai

The other day, I had the rare privilege of sitting in the darkened hall of Scope Cinema at the Colombo City Centre, watching the newly restored 4K version of Gehenu Lamai (Girls).

- BY AVISHKA MARIO SENEWIRATNE

It was a haunting experience. The film was released 20 years before I was born, at the height of what we may rightly call the golden age of Sri Lankan cinema. To me, the film was never a stranger. I had caught fragments of it on television over the years. But to see it brought to life on the big screen, in all its restored beauty, was to rediscover it as though for the first time.

What lingered most, even in my childhood, was the music. The genius of the late Nimal Mendis, paired with the lilting voice of the late Neela Wickramasinghe in Viyo Gee, carved an unforgettable memory in my heart. That melody was woven into my life not only through the screen but through the sound of my mother's hands at the piano, playing Viyo Gee across the years at our home. For me, it was more than a mere song. Happily, my mother accompanied me to the show.

I had the good fortune of knowing the late Sumitra Peries, the director of this masterpiece, in the last year of her life. That friendship, fleeting though it was, is a treasure beyond measure. Restoration and relaunching, after all, is not new to me either. In 2022, I myself authored a book and, with the Tulana Media Unit and Hemapriya Kandamby, restored the 16mm film Little Bike Lost (1956). This pioneering outdoor film, which predated Lester James Peries's Rekava, returned to life that year. Sumitra herself graced the occasion as Guest of Honour. I remember telling her with the utmost sincerity: "I liked your films more than your husband's." She only smiled and replied, "Without Lester, I wouldn't do mine."