Kadawunu Poronduwa

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Kadawunu Poronduwa
Rukmani Devi in a scene
Directed by	Jyotish Singh
Produced by	Chitrakala Movietone Ltd
Starring	Rukmani Devi, B A W Jayamanne, Peter Peiris, Miriam Jayamanne, Hugo Fernando, Stanley Mallawarachchi, Eddie Jayamanne, Gemini Kantha, Timothius Perera, J B Perera, Rupa Devi
Music by	Narayana Aiyar
Cinematography	K Prabhakar
Editing by	Pakeer Saleh
Distributed by	Minerva Group
Release date(s)	January 21, 1947
Country	Sri Lanka
Language	Sinhala

Kadawunu Poronduwa (Sinhala, "The Broken Promise") was the first "talkie" to be made in the Sinhala language; it is generally considered to be the beginning of Sinhala Cinema. The film was produced in India however, and was highly influenced by South Indian films. It was first shown on January 21, 1947 at the Kingsley Cinema in Colombo.

A remake was released in 1982.

1 Production
2 Plot
3 Triva
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Production

Kadawunu Poronduwa was at first a successful play for dramatist B.A.W. Jayamanne. In 1947 he filmed and processed the movie in South India.^[1]

Kadawunu Poronduwa produced a formula that Sinhala films would follow up through the 1960s; Jayamanne describes the formula as such^[1]:

“

The duration of a film had to be two and a half hours. One hour of this had to be given to scenes with dialogue. Half an hour to songs (about ten), another half hour given to silent background scenes, with an interval of fifteen minutes.

”

[edit] Plot

The film is a sentimental melodrama that follows the romance between the two lead characters Samson (Eddie Jayamanne) and Ranjani ( Rukmani Devi). The repressive mother of the protagonist forbids her daughter to break constraints placed by their society and culture in a major plot device.^[1]