Dr. N.M., the first Sinhala movie hero

By D.C Ranatunga

Although ‘Kadavunu Poronduva’ (Broken Promise) released in January 1947 is generally accepted as the first Sinhala film, there had been at least two Sinhala films made during the ‘silent film era’. One was ‘Rajakeeya Vickremaya’ (Royal Adventure -1925)  and the other was ‘Paligeneema’ (Revenge -1936). The leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Dr. N.M Perera had played the lead role in the first film.

In Dr. N.M’s birth centenary publication – ‘NM – in his own words and as seen by others’ – he describes his “strange and exciting experience” in film making at length. He had left Ananda College in 1925 after the inter-collegiate cricket season when he captained the College team. There was a gap of five to six months before joining the University College which was affiliated to the London University for the examinations. He was 20 then.

Young N.M saw an advertisement in the local newspapers calling for actors and actresses for a film that one T.A.J Noorbai of Bambalapitiya had decided to make. He had hired a Bengali, one Gupta to direct it. “Partly out of curiosity, partly as a lark, I applied. To my surprise I was interviewed and chosen to take the part of the hero. I was reconciled to be allotted some minor role and the chief role was more than my wildest dream entertained,” he says in the first and only part of his autobiography which is published in the birth centenary publication.

He remembers the filming being done at a house in Joseph Lane, Bambalapitiya close to Noorbhai’s house. He also recalls how Gupta, “a small-made shabbily dressed unimpressive man wearing a dhoti that does not seem to have seen the dhoby for some time,” sitting cross-legged on a mat and interviewing him.

Gupta had never discussed the story with the players and they had no idea of how the story would unfold. “An actor must identify himself with the mental make-up of the individual he represents. Otherwise, acting becomes a lifeless mechanical performance. He must move and feel as the person whom he depicts. It is only then he can give life to the part. Mr. Gupta was an outstanding failure on all counts,” NM writes.

Although it was an all-Ceylonese cast, he had never met them all. The heroine was the only female in the film. “She was a Burgher lady much older than I, rather on the plump side, but with not unbecoming features. I met her on two or three occasions in outdoor locations. Our conversation was brief and inconsequential. Any discussion of our respective roles was out of the question. Our wavelengths could never harmonise. She lived in the somewhat congested Vauxhall Street, Slave Island and came to the studio chaperoned by her mother. Her reputation, as I subsequently learnt, was not of the order that could be considered high,” he recalls.

Dr. N.M sums up film making during that era thus: “Sound had not yet penetrated film making at this period. Participation in silent film making was not an exhilarating experience. The more so where the resources at the command of the studio were meagre. We were at the mercy of the weather, and therefore, had to hang about, fully made up, for hours on end until the time was propitious for filming. I learnt the art of make-up and grew to loathe it. I grew also to loathe the artificiality of film making. To the same extent, I developed an appreciation of the theatre. This partiality for the theatre as against theatre continued to date.”

Dr. N.M never saw the completed film. No one was invited to see it. He felt Gupta took back with him the disjoined film snippets, “for harmonising, deleting, cutting and finishing.”

“Once my role in the film was over, I lost all interest in the result, and in film making,” he confesses. He was happy that the end of his acting in the film coincided with the opening of the term at University College. “I got absorbed into the new atmosphere of higher studies, and film making receded into the limbo of have-beens, and so completely, that only after 30 years or more when some Nosy Parker started ferreting out my past that the whole episode began to stir in my mind.”

He remembers that apart from the badly needed pocket money that he earned, he received a princely sum of Rs. 100 a month. “I remember how pleased my mother was when I presented her with my first monthly salary. She was visibly moved, and tears welled into her eyes, tears of joy that her son was making good.”  

As for the film, researcher Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara in his ‘Sri Lankan Film Chronicle’ mentions the cast. First in the list is N.M Perera. The others are Sybil Feam, N.P.D Albert Silva, Reginold Perera, Percy Perera, Gratien Perera, Eric Weerasekera, David Manuel and N.R Dias.

The Asian Film Centre publication ‘Profiling Sri Lankan Cinema’ – Wimal Dissanayake and Ashley Ratnavibhushana (2000) - identifies Noorbai as an Indian businessman who owned two theatres – ‘London Bioscope’ and ‘Olympia’ in Colombo. In 1924 he established the Eastern Film Company and in 1928, played a central role in the establishment of the Ceylon Theatres Company.

Reference is also made to the first film, Rajakeeya Vikramaya as one based on an Indian story. It had been exhibited in Singapore and for some unknown reason was destroyed there.