REVOLUTION IN TELEVISION
The trend of viewers leaving television due to substandard and stereotype teleplays has somewhat changed with two new debut d i re c t o r s Lakmal Dhar maratne and Namal Jayasinghe’s teledramas ‘Koombiyo’ (Ants) and ‘Sahodaraya’ (Comrade) both telecast on ITN.
The two teleplays which went beyond usual family issues, love stories or historical characters, discuss serious social and political issues that Sri Lankan society undergoes right now. They talk about the corrupt political system that is full of violence and dishonesty, politically motivated killings, silencing of the media, youth unrest and many more topics. Over more than three decades history in the teledrama industry, several attempts were made by talented directors like Dr. Dharmasena Pathiraja, Parakrama Niriella, Asoka Handagama and Jayantha Chandrasiri. They marked different phases in the teledrama industry and the attempts of these directors were to introduce art to teledrama in place of light entertainment. But eventually low quality family tales overtook these.
For example Dr. Pathiraja’s ‘Kadulla’ was an evocative teledrama that explored the societal changes that took place in the mid twentieth century Ceylon. It addressed the emergence of the affluent elite that governed the country after independence in 1948, and the social upheavals that followed.
In another attempt Parakrama Niriella’s ‘Yashorawaya’ (The Sound of Glory) attracted the tele audience