The Study of Post-Modern Features (If Any) in Sri Lankan (Sinhala Cinema) with particular Reference to the films produced between year 2000-2014

Abstract

Postmodernism is a broad cultural movement that emerged in the humanities in the 1960’s there is hardly a single field of intellectual endeavor that has not been touched by the specter of ‘postmodern’. It has left traces in every cultural discipline from architecture via geography and politics to zoology and even to the field of film and cinema. Although the global commencement of the concept of postmodernism occurred in 1950s, it was emerged in Sri Lanka after 90s. Currently, this post modernism has become a trending topic in Sri Lankan society meanwhile the postmodernist cinema has turned into a extensively discussed subject. Via this research, it is expected to examine the concept of postmodernism, postmodernist cinema and its' features and the social influence. Accordingly this research will focus on studying the postmodernist features of few selected Sinhala cinematic works such as " Thanithatuwen piyambanna" and "Aksharaya" Ashoka Handagama", "Karma" by Prasanna Jayakodi", " Ira Madiyama" by Prassana Withanage, and "Sulanga Enu Pinisa" by Wimukthi Jayasundara which were prominently featuring the postmodernist characteristics and which were being widely interpreted by fandom and the movie critiques during the period of 2000 - 2014. Similarly, via this research, it is expected to study the influence of postmodernist cinema on contemporary cinema, film industry and the fan base, to observe whether the said postmodernist features truly exist in the cinematic pieces which were recognized as postmodern movies and to investigate the reasons which caused the certain post modernist cinematic works to be forbidden and got rejected by the fan base.