:::The Desi Flavor:::

Developing the Sri Lankan Film Industry

A look at the Sri Lankan Film Industry, which has been neglected for sometime now. Bollywood movies are far popular in Lanka than their own movies:

"President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has pledged increased Governmental assistance towards building the cinema industry while hailing the efforts of the cinema artistes who recently brought fame and glory to Sri Lanka by their unique cinematic creations.

This will certainly be music to the ears of those in the movie industry, especially directors and producers aspiring to make artistic films with different subject material. The very fact that the Presidential Film Awards ceremony was held after a lapse of four years highlights the Government's firm commitment to uplift the film industry.         

Indeed, State assistance is essential for the healthy development of the film industry. In this context, President Kumaratunga's pledge to  increase budgetary allocations for the further development of the local  film industry will be a boon to cinema artists."

Related:

: Asian Film Centre - Sri Lankan Film - Mission is 'to enhance and enrich film culture in Sri Lanka'. Includes a brief history of Sri Lankan cinema, details and credits of directors, actors and actresses, recent films and film publications in English

: BBC on the Sri Lankan Film industry - "Sri Lankan cinema is highly acclaimed abroad - its films have won dozens of awards at international festivals. Film makers tackle gritty subjects, including family relationships, abortion and the years of conflict between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels in the north. But if you visit a cinema in the capital, Colombo, you will be hard-pushed to find a local film on show."

M.I.A Nominated for Mercury Prize

British-Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. (real name Maya Arulpragasam) has been nominated for this year's Mercury prize going up against heavyweights such as Coldplay and Kaiser Chiefs. She is nominated for her debut album Arurlar and the £20K prize is usually given to emerging talent. Other desi winners included – Talvin Singh who won it in 1999, the same year that Nitin Sawhney was nominated.

Related:

: From the New Yorker on her first single “Galang” –

The music of Maya Arulpragasam, a twenty-seven-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil who moved to England
when she was nine and performs under the name M.I.A., is not like that. Anyone who has trolled through bins on Canal Street for videos of kung-fu movies or reggae mix tapes will recognize M.I.A.'s first single, "Galang" (2003), as an example of actual, on-the-ground world culture: synthetic, cheap, colorful, staticky with power. The beat is shuffling and abrasive, made from what sounds like the by-products of some other, more polite song. It most resembles Jamaican dancehall patterns, but with a twist.

: Nirali interviews M.I.A on what makes her tick –

"Nobody wants to be dancing to political songs ... Every bit of music out there that's making it into the mainstream is really about nothing. I wanted to see if I could write songs about something important and make it sound like nothing.

: Wikipedia on M.I.A

: MTV profile on her

: She's a revolutionary's daughter and her music oozes attitude. Guardian's Dorian Lynskey meets MIA

: From MeFi thread

Galang-alang-alang-a. (insane, 18MB QuickTime music video)

[MusicFilter] Cranking out music somewhere between hip-hop, electronica, Nintendo cartridges, and reggae, 27-year-old Maya Arulpragasam is getting a lot of attention for the results of tinkering with one box. M.I.A. (her stage name) dresses in garish flourescents like it's 1983, dances like no one's watching, and is making waves all around the critic-o-sphere. [RS|NYT|Eye|pm|pfm|New Yorker|CBC] Want a sample? The video for "Galang" takes her grattifi-esque art, animates it, and mashes it all together with her, um, unusual style of dance, for a music+video experience that is hard to forget. Is M.I.A. redefining the world of 21st century global pop... or is it just crap?   (via WG)