Kadawunu Poronduwa’ (Broken Promise)

History was made 73 years ago when the film ‘Kadawunu Poronduwa’ (Broken Promise) premiered at the Kingsley Theatre in Colombo on 21 January 1947. The Chief Guest was D.S. Senanayake, Minister of Agriculture and Lands under the State Council system of governance during the penultimate stages of British rule.  Senanayake went on to become the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon as Sri Lanka was known then, within a year of this premiere.

The presence of Senanayake, who was also then the leader of the House, at the first screening of a film denoted the importance of the event. ‘Kadawunu Poronduwa’ was no ordinary film. It was the first-ever Sinhala “talkie” meaning a film where the characters on screen spoke and sang in the Sinhala language. Until then films shown in the island were in languages like English, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil or Telugu but not in Sinhala. Thus the screening of ‘Broken Promise’ was indeed of historic importance and was duly acknowledged so by the country’s most senior Minister and future Prime Minister being present as Chief Guest at the first screening.

The film was produced by Sundaram Madhuranayagam generally known as S.M. Nayagam on behalf of Chitrakala Movietone Ltd. S.M. Nayagam, who originally hailed from Madurai District – in what was known as the Madras presidency during British rule – was an industrialist manufacturing soaps and perfumes. He had factories in India and Sri Lanka.

Nayagam set up a company to produce films and also established a film studio for that purpose. The production company named Sri Murugan Navakala Ltd. had an office in Madurai town. The studio named Chitrakala Movietone was located at Thrupparankundram, about six miles away from Madurai. Incidently Thirupparankundram is famous for a Murugan temple. It is regarded as one of the ‘Arupadai Veedugal’ or six abodes of Lord Muruga. Nayagam’s studio was about one mile away from the temple. ‘Kadawunu Poronduwa’ was filmed entirely at the Chitrakala Movietone studio in Thirupparankundram- Madurai.

The evolution and growth of cinema had seen frozen images becoming soundless moving images and then having sound added. Initially films with moving images were called silent films. Western nations particularly the USA focused more on the moving images. Thus films were generally called movies in those countries. In the Asian region particularly South Asia, the emphasis was more on sound, songs and conversation. Thus films with sound tracks were referred to as talkies. It is within this context that ‘Kadawunu Poronduwa’ was welcomed and hailed as the first Sinhala talkie. The message issued by the movie producers at the first screening highlighted this aspect effectively. “It is with pride and pleasure, Chitrakala presents to the four million Sinhalese of Ceylon, a picture in their own language for the first time.”