Melodrama and Sinhalese Cinema

Melodrama, as a term of cultural re-description, has come to the fore in recent years. Until about two decades ago, it was de-valorised as a term that indexed superficial, ersatz and inferior modes of cinematic entertainment that were characterised by a rhetoric of excess. However, owing to a variety of factors ranging from the influence of postmodernism to the interrogations of feminist scholars, melodramatic films have begun to be subject to a re-evaluation. One important consequence of this has been the recognition of the importance of studying melodramas that inhabit diverse cultural terrains. In this essay, my focus of interest is on Sri Lankan melodramas. From the very inception, Sinhalese film melodramas were inescapably melodramatic, adhering to a well tried out formula. Many of these films were crude, vulgar and trite. However, in recent times, a number of modernist filmmakers in Sri Lanka have sought to harness the vigour and vitality of these films and their willingness to confront strong emotions, as a way of forwarding their modernist aesthetic while retaining the loyalties of the audiences. This essay focuses on some of these film directors

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