The Girls, a 1978 film by Sri Lankan director and editor Sumitra Peries, is a poignant coming-of-age romance that challenges Hollywood's glib certainties. With lucid monochrome cinematography and natural performances, the film exudes freshness and warmth. It often teeters on melodrama, with slow zooms into actors' faces, yet remains understated, its poignancy rooted in suppressed emotion. The story unfolds in a world of passions that cannot be spoken aloud, leaving audiences wistfully hoping for a happy ending that Peries ruthlessly withholds.
Plot and Characters
The narrative centers on Kusum (Vasanthi Chathurani), a studious teen from a poor family with a scholarship to a good school. Her father is seriously ill, and her mother works hard to make ends meet. Kusum has a tense, quarrelsome relationship with her sister Soma (Jenita Samaraweera), who is naughtier and flightier, always receiving letters from “pen pals.” Kusum’s story is triggered in flashback by the sight of a visiting local dignitary, the “divisional revenue officer,” being welcomed to her village.
Romance and Class Conflict
Teenage Kusum often visits the house of a wealthy woman (Chitra Wakishta), whom she calls “Auntie,” to do cleaning and sewing work. Auntie’s son Nimal (Ajith Jinadasa), a dreamy but self-important young man, hangs around the house and declares his love for Kusum. However, Auntie makes it clear that she plans to marry him off to the daughter of a wealthy rubber planter. Kusum sees no possibility of a disloyal romance behind her employer’s back, and her heart breaks under the weight of genteel poverty, feminine respectability, and romantic sadness.
Sisters' Divergent Fates
As Kusum descends into quiet despair, her mother allows Soma to enter a beauty competition in the ballroom of a grand hotel. Soma wins and heads to the city for a modeling and movie career, while Kusum remains in anguish. The ironic split between the sisters’ fates highlights the financial motivations behind their mother’s decisions: Soma’s mother sees the financial advantage of the beauty competition, just as Auntie sees the advantage of the rubber plantation. Money speaks louder than love.
Thematic Depth
A conceited boy at Kusum’s school disparages romance in books and movies as a salve that erodes people’s will to challenge the capitalist order. The film suggests he may be right, but notes that a man in a privileged male world is freer to say these things. In its calm, unforced way, The Girls tells an absorbing story that challenges the glib certainties of Hollywood’s coming-of-age fantasies. The film is in UK and Irish cinemas from 10 July.
