A must read for university community involved in critiquing films and sociology research

After reading Lamentation of the Dawn, I remembered Professor A.J Gunawardena. If he was alive, he would have definitely written a review for this book compiled by Professor Sarath Chandrajeewa, Dr. Laleen Jayamanna and Anoma Jayasinghe. It is evident from the book that Sarath Chandrajeewa is taking the lead here.

This book is a collection of various influences such as film criticism, poetry, social anthropology research and book reviews. The foreword is by Dr. Laleen Jayamanna, who retired as a lecturer on film criticism at the University of Sydney, Australia. It is a review of the film ‘Alborada’ that goes beyond a traditional introduction where the reviewer outlines the male-dominated moments in the history of Sri Lankan cinema, as well as regional and international context.

The introduction is by Professor Sarath Chandrajeewa with his childhood addiction to watching movies. The introduction consists of a sentimental poem sent by Dr. Asantha U. Attanayake, who lives in the United States of America.

The first article of the book, ‘Beyond the Fiction of Alborada’, is by Sarath Chandrajeewa. Written before seeing the film, Pablo Neruda’s work is sharply scrutinized. It also includes a description of Pablo’s friend Lionel Wendt.

The third article, the poem ‘Lamentation of the Dawn or the complaint of a nameless toilet cleaning woman’ by Sarath Chandrajeewa was inspired by Sacquilear, a young woman who was abused by Pablo Neruda. This has a unique genre form that evokes great emotion. The postscript provided in relation to this poem consists of the creator’s personal experiences based on the emotion contained in the poem.

The third article is a visual art review by Chandrajeewa about Alborada. The fourth article is an extension of the Alborada movie review 2 while the fifth article is an exploratory critique of Tissa Devendra’s 2005 book ‘On HorseShoe Street’ about the character of Thangamma.

This is a book that must be read by the university community that conducts film reviews and sociology research.

The book is dedicated to Professor Chandrajeewa’s friend Mahalingam, a toilet cleaner, who worked in the Faculty of Visual Arts, University of the Visual and Performing Arts from the 1970s to 2000.This book went out of print in 2022 and its Sinhala translation went out of print in the first quarter of 2023. Published by The Contemporary Arts and Crafts Association of Sri Lanka, it is edited by Anoma Jayasinghe and the cover and book layout are by Kanishka Wijayapura. The high-quality printing is by Neo Graphics (Pvt) Ltd.