Remembering Sumitra Peries And Her Enduring Contribution To Women바카라�s Filmmaking In South Asia

By that point, Sumitra had returned from her studies in England and earned a reputation as an assistant director and editor. She recalled that Ray had been 바카라�kind and courteous바카라� but a little disdainful of her profession. When she told him of what she did, the Indian director had been somewhat unimpressed, comparing her work to that of a cutter. Temperamentally candid, Sumitra had fired back, 바카라�Well, I바카라�m glad I바카라�m not just a cutter!바카라�

Sumitra did not remain a cutter for long. After working on her husband바카라�s films, she made her directorial debut in 1978 with Gehenu Lamayi (Girls). The film established the themes that would preoccupy her for the rest of her career: the rift between rich and poor, the torments of adolescent love, and most significantly the agony of being a woman in Sri Lanka and in South Asia. Her work thus clearly stands out in the pantheon of regional cinema in ways that critics have so far not done justice to.

Sri Lanka has long been orientalised for its sandy beaches and its cultural sites. In the first half of the 20th century, the colonial government helped establish a local cinema in the capital Colombo. The first Sri Lankan film, Kadawunu Poronduwa (Broken Promise), came out in 1947, a year before the country obtained its independence.

From its inception, however, local films were derided as derivative, because they were shot abroad and were felt to be too artificial, contrived, and unauthentic.

Seeking a better and more grounded cinema, a group of Westernised, urban middle-class artistes moved into this void. The most prominent of them was Lester James Peries, who had worked for some time at the official propaganda arm of the Sri Lankan government, the Government Film Unit (GFU), and who had imbibed the aesthetics of Italian neo-realism and the British documentary. Peries바카라�s first film, Rekava (1956), came out around the same time that Satyajit Ray바카라�s Pather Panchali did in India. Local critics were lukewarm in their response. But the film went on to place Sri Lanka on the world바카라�s cinematic map.

Sumitra Peries subsequently established herself in this circle, but she came from a very different background. Born Sumitra Gunawardena on 24 March 1935, she hailed from a family of affluent arrack distillers on her mother바카라�s side and a family of radical, socialist, and anti-imperialist activists on her father바카라�s. Her two paternal uncles, Philip and Robert, had been actively involved in the struggle against British colonialism: a far cry from the middle-class, Westernised, and Anglicised milieu of her husband.

Born in the southwestern village of Payagala, Sumitra was raised in Avissawella, located roughly 30 miles from Colombo. Initially, she was educated at the local school St Mary바카라�s College, where she mingled with her social peers as well as more deprived sections of her village. Though not part of an urban elite, her mother, Harriet Wickramasinghe, moved around in important circles, 바카라�playing tennis with her sari on바카라�. In contrast to her two uncles, her father Henry adjusted to her life, 바카라�practising as a proctor바카라�.

Sumitra바카라�s earliest influence was her mother. Through a distillery that her own mother, or Sumitra바카라�s grandmother, had set up, 바카라�she took responsibility for the family바카라�. Sumitra바카라�s father, on the other hand, 바카라�sought and went after less practical pursuits바카라�.

Their social status did not limit their daughter바카라�s social interactions. 바카라�We lived in the most basic of settings,바카라� she remembered. 바카라�No electricity, no proper running water, certainly no attached bathrooms. Only through a small radio did we get to know of what was happening in the outside world. As such I would get out and meet other people, including the sons and daughters of estate workers. I revelled in these encounters.바카라�

Colombo lay a world away from all this. When Sumitra turned 13, a month after Sri Lanka gained independence from Great Britain, her family decided to send her there to study. Her new home was to be at Gower Street in Colombo. It was conveniently located right next to her new school, Visakha Vidyalaya, the island바카라�s leading Buddhist girls바카라� school. 바카라�I took time to adjust to my new setting, but eventually got used to life in Colombo.바카라�

Among her siblings, Sumitra was closest to her elder brother, Gamini or 바카라�Kuru바카라�. When their mother died two years after the shift to Colombo, he entered a long period of depression. 바카라�My brother was a very temperamental man. He left everything to us and left the country. We did not know where he was, or whether he planned to return.바카라�

A few years later, he got in touch with Sumitra: he was in Malta, and he wanted her to join him. Though she was engaged with her higher studies, she heeded his call. She packed her belongings and soon boarded a P&O Liner. 바카라�I was not quite 21.바카라�

At Malta, Sumitra joined her brother and a bohemian coterie of friends. Together they sailed across the Mediterranean, dropping anchor in the French Riviera. At Saint-Tropez near the Riviera, Sumitra spotted Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim filming And God Created Woman (1956). It was the first time she had seen a film being made.

By then she was at a loss: 바카라�I badly wanted to be a psychiatrist. My brother felt it would be best if I went to Switzerland to study at the Jung Institute.바카라�

Just as Sumitra was about to embark on her higher education, however, Gamini decided to return to Sri Lanka. 바카라�This led to a series of misadventures that ended in Paris. There I had a vague desire to settle in the Left Bank.바카라� Fate, however, had other plans for her.

Sri Lanka had just established a Legation in Paris. The country바카라�s Envoy, Vernon Mendis, got in touch with Sumitra and boarded her at his official residence. It was here at the Legation that she met Lester James Peries. 바카라�He told me to go to England and study film. He felt I was wasting my talents in Paris. Since I had nothing to lose, I heeded his advice.바카라�

Sumitra enrolled at the London School of Film Technique (LSFT) in Brixton. 바카라�I was the sole female in a class of white and middle-class males.바카라�

The person she grew closest to in these years was the filmmaker Lindsay Anderson, who taught her class. Lindsay had already met Lester a few years before. Needless to say, he and Sumitra became very good friends. Their association grew so strong that in her later visits to England, 바카라�we would meet, and he would cook for me바카라�.

Sumitra successfully completed her studies. But finding a job was challenging. 바카라�Those days, if you weren바카라�t a member of a union, it was not easy to enter the industry.바카라�

Armed with her qualification, she knocked on the doors of Elizabeth Mai-Harris, one of Britain바카라�s leading subtitling firms. 바카라�I passionately argued my case. Fortunately, they believed in me and took me in. My fluency in French may have helped.바카라�

Sometime later, though, she encountered another problem: 바카라�I started growing homesick.바카라� Her elder brother ordered her to return. She thus came back home.

Sumitra then found work as an assistant to Lester Peries, onboard his film Sandesaya (The Message, 1960). 바카라�I was the sole female crew member. We were shooting a world away from Colombo. A tough ordeal for any woman, but I grew to enjoy it.바카라� 

She also grew close to Lester. Four years later, in 1964, she married him.

Making full use of her editing skills, Sumitra wound up as her husband바카라�s closest aide. She worked on all his films in the 1960s: Gamperaliya (1963), Delovak Athara (1966), Ran Salu (1967), Golu Hadawatha (1968), and Akkara Paha (1969).

These films won awards and accolades abroad: Gamperaliya secured the Golden Peacock or the Best Film Award at the 3rd Indian International Film Festival and the Golden Head of Palenque at the Mexico Film Festival, while Ran Salu won the Gandhi Award at New Delhi and was telecast to a positive reception on Raidió Teilifís Éireann in Ireland.

Recalling her years as an editor, she once told me, 바카라�What fascinated me during these years was the mise-en-scène. To achieve the right cut is harder than you think. You need to train your eyes and you need to make the decision then and there.바카라� Contrary to what Satyajit Ray may have felt, then, her job was hardly that of a mere cutter.

After a stint in France and a few idle years, Sumitra carved her path as director with Gehenu Lamayi in 1978. Based on a popular novel, it became an instant success wherever it went: the British press in particular loved it, with David Robinson of The Times lauding it for its 바카라�holistic feminine sensibility.바카라� Its success emboldened her to make nine more feature films: Ganga Addara (By the Bank of the River, 1980), Yahalu Yeheli (Friends, 1982), Maya (1984), Sagara Jalaya Madi Handuwa Oba Sanda (A Letter Written in the Sand, 1988), Loku Duwa (The Eldest Daughter, 1994), Duwata Mawaka Misa (Mother Alone, 1997), Sakman Maluwa (The Garden, 2003), Yahaluwo (Friends, 2007) and Vaishnavee (The Goddess, 2018). Except for Yahaluwo, they all centre on young female protagonists.

Apart from her work in film, Sumitra also worked in television, having gained six months바카라� work experience at the French Radio and Television Institute (ORTF) in Paris in 1971. She served as Sri Lanka바카라�s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France and Spain from 1995 to 1998, and did her part to secure international goodwill for the country at a time of rising ethnic tensions and separatist conflict.

With Yahaluwo and Vaishnavee behind her, she was toying with several ideas, as late as 2022, for her next venture. Humble to a fault, she remained open to outsiders, in particular young, aspiring directors who would constantly seek her advice.

Sumitra바카라�s passing, given all this, signifies an end and a passing of an era. Linked through her husband to some of the most exciting strides in the arts of post-Independence Sri Lanka, she nevertheless carved her own path. Indeed, as Vilasnee Tampoe-Hautin rightly argues in her biography, Sumitra Peries: Sri Lankan Filmmaker, while she is considered a mere appendage to her husband바카라�s work, her career was distinct on its own right.

Moreover, unlike South Asian women filmmakers from her time, including Fatma Begum, Parveen Rizvi, Shamin Ara, and Kohinoor Akhter, Sumitra did not come to the director바카라�s chair as an actress. In that sense, with her education in the West, and her editing skills, she was a definitive precursor to the likes of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. This point has not yet been appreciated or acknowledged by historians of the regional cinema.

A product of a rural upper middle-class, Sumitra Peries remained intimately attached to her people, in particular women. Her films, which dwell considerably on their agonies and their torments, are in that sense an enduring testament, not just to her craft, but also to a bygone era in filmmaking 바카라� both in Sri Lanka and in South Asia.

(Uditha Devapriya is a freelance columnist based in Sri Lanka who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com. He is the Chief International Relations Analyst at Factum, an Asia-Pacific focused foreign policy think-tank accessible via www.factum.lk.)