The Broken Promise

The Broken Promise (1947)

කඩවුණු පොරොන්දුව

Ralahamy, a man of high status, dies leaving his family in debt after having squandered his fortune through extensive drinking and other vices. To get back into wealth, Ralahamy's widow Tackla pushes their daughter Ranjani to marry Victor, a wealthy older man with a child from an earlier marriage. In this process, Samson, Ranjani's boyfriend, who had tried extensively to get the family back into good graces going so far as to pay off their debts, is spurned. He then goes abroad to win a fortune. When Samson returns he learns of Ranjani's engagement to Victor and tries to reach her through letters. His letters are hidden from her however, and rumours spread that Samson is now a cripple. Ultimately the truth is revealed.

Date of release
1947-01-21
Runtime
2h 20m
Director
Jyotish Sinha

Casting

Interesting facts

Kadawunu Poronduwa was the first film to be made in the Sinhala language; it is generally considered to have heralded the coming of Sinhala Cinema. The film was produced and filmed in India however, and was highly influenced by South Indian melodrama. It was first shown on January 21, 1947, at the Kingsley Cinema in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Production

Kadawunu Poronduwa was produced by S. M. Nayagam, a pioneer of Sinhala film industry and an Indian citizen. He had to ferry the entire cast to Madurai India for filming and production.Minarwa group also became a part of this production while S.D.T.Appuhami, the brother in law of B. A.W Jayamanna and Eddie Jayamanna has also invested money for the movie production,

It began as a successful play for dramatist B. A. W. Jayamanne. In 1947 he filmed and processed the movie in South India.

Kadawunu Poronduwa produced a formula that Sinhala films would follow up through the 1960s; Jayamanne describes the formula as such: The duration of a film had to be two and a half hours. One hour of this had to be given to scenes with dialogue. Half an hour to songs (about ten), another half-hour given to silent background scenes, with an interval of fifteen minutes.

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