Sirimal Wijesinghe

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Sirimal Wijesinghe
Sirimal Wijesinghe.jpg
Born (1963-03-31) 31 March 1963 (age 60)
Colombo, Sri Lanka
OccupationAuthor - Political Analyst - Film Director - Journalist - Alternative Intellectual
Website https://sirimalwijesinghe.com

Sirimal Wijesinghe is a Sri Lankan author, political analyst, film director, journalist, alternative intellectual, and leader of the Poor People's Party in Sri Lanka. [1] [2] critic and activist. [3] He is the founding editor of the controversial Sinhala youth magazine, Paradisaya. He is one of the pioneers of the new wave of Colombo-based young political and cultural analysts who emerged in the decade of 1980, particularly after the advent of the open economic system. [4] [5] Wijesinghe's contribution in various fields, ranging from politics to arts, has been considered experimental as well as path-breaking.

Contents

Journalism

Wijesinghe has been an editor of newspapers or periodicals in Sri Lanka and is known for covering controversial topics with social and cultural analyses.[ citation needed ]

His topics have ranged from politics, arts, culture and sexuality, presented in a more colloquial language comprising satire. Well-known social scientist Prof. Jayadewa Uyangoda once said he learnt to use a different and more effective writing style after reading Wijesinghe's articles. [6]

Paaraadeesaya magazine

1990s popular sociocultural magazine Paradisaya (Paradise) was a brainchild of Sirimal Wijesinghe. Founded on 25 November 1998, Paradisaya became a huge success. [7] Its controversial style and content caused controversy in the country. The magazine reflected Sirimal's steadfastness towards alternate youth politics – human rights, minority rights and sexual autonomy was explicit in his social mediation in Sri Lanka's cultural politics after the 1980s.

A popular post-modernist theoretician in Sri Lanka and the leader of the Sri Lanka Vanguard Party, Deepthi Kumara Gunaratne has said Wijesinghe who is first Politics teacher of me broke many existing social and cultural shackles when he edited Paradeesaya. Gunaratne has added: "Sirimal bravely discussed the subject of sexuality which had been vehemently suppressed in the mainstream media that time. Understandably, the following generation followed in his footsteps and brought sexual themes openly to the media. Sirimal can be considered one of the most pioneers in our journalism." [8]

The page layout style he followed in publishing Paradeesaya later became a yardstick for various tabloids.

Despite huge popularity, the publication of Paradeesaya was stopped in 2000 by a court order.[ citation needed ]

Filmography

In 2008, Wijesinghe directed the children's feature film Pitasakwala Kumarayai Pancho Hathai . There he experimented in presenting a novel children's theme in Sinhala cinema. [9]

Wijesinghe was also the dialogue writer of the award-winning Sinhala film Mille Soya directed by Boodee Keerthisena.[ citation needed ]

In 2012, Wijesinghe directed another 34-minute short film Full stop to police torture on the invitation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. Rights Now in collaboration with Asia Human Right Commission, produced the film. It was directed by Sirimal Wijesinghe. [10]

He was also the script writer of the 2010 documentary Lunatic Heaven which was based on the gruesome incident where police clubbed to death a mentally handicapped youth in Bambalapitiya in front of general public.[ citation needed ] Most of the crew who contributed to produce this documentary received death threats and had to flee the country and now living in Netherlands under the political asylum.[ citation needed ]

Wijesinghe also comes in as an actor in the film How I Wonder What You Are directed by Chinthana Dharmadasa and Udaya Dharmawardhana. [11]

Theatre

Wijesinghe has worked as a production assistant for nearly ten years mainly under two leading political stage drama directors in Sri Lanka, Sugathapala de Silva and Dharmasiri Bandaranayake.[ citation needed ]

He has produced several short dramas to coincide with the anniversaries of Sri Lanka's leftist political parties.[ citation needed ]

Advertising

Wijesinghe has been working in the field of advertising, both as a script writer and a creative director, for many years. Presently he works as the creative director of the Colombo Media Network.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ "'Pitasakwala Kumaraya': A plot on an alien prince". Sundaytimes.lk. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  2. ↑ "Spectrum | Sundayobserver.lk – Sri Lanka". Sundayobserver.lk. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "featur02". Island.lk. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "කනත්තෙන් බිහිවූ ජනපි‍්‍රය සංස්කෘතික සංවාදය". Silumina.lk. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "Eye – Features". Nation.lk. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Yukthiya newspaper March 1992
  7. ↑ "එකොමත් එක කාලෙක "Paradeesaya" – Info". Facebook. 25 November 1998. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  8. ↑ London Magazine. December 2003, Published by X Group
  9. ↑ ""සමාජය" මම ඒ තරම් ඇඟට ගන්නෙ නැහැ. සිරිමල් විජේසිංහ | 3mana | Online news magazine". 3mana.com. 13 October 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  10. ↑ "පොලිස් වධහිංසාව සම්බන්ධ ව සාකච්ඡා කෙරෙන නවතම වීඩියෝ පටයක් – සමබිම වෙබ් අඩවිය". Samabima.com. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  11. ↑ "Daily News Online Edition – Sri lanka :: Print Page". Archives.dailynews.lk. 17 May 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
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