මහාචාර්‍ය එදිරිවීර ස්‍රත්චන්ද්‍රයන්ගේ මලගිය ඇත්තෝ නව කතාව.

 "Malagiya Aththo Critical Analysis.

In “Malagiya Aththo” novel of Pro.Ediriweera Sarathchandra, the author blends cultural differences in two countries with, the feelings of love between men and women at youth. Though the story lying behind is a sorrowful fate of youth the author builds up the story with a poetic language. The author carries the story as flashbacks of his own experience.

Throughout the novel, the author appreciates Japanese culture through an artistic eye. He interprets how art is bound to Japanese culture. Japanese inherits a good taste of art through their culture. The author introduces himself as an artist and describe how it helped him to blend with Japanese culture.

The novel begins with a memory of the author’s (Devendra san’s) lover. Through feelings of “Devendra San” at the situation, the author expresses typical ambitionless sorrowful feelings of a youth when a relationship was broken. He shows how the life of an artist had turned to tasteless. The author does not either criticize himself or his lover for them being departed. He does not either try to go back to her or try to forget her, instead he lives with the memories of her. Devendra san is a person who allows life to flow to where it flows. He worries about his life but never tried to change it. Though this character makes an impression of helplessness of author actually throughout the novel, through his character mysteriousness or unwillingness to take decisions is highlighted. Every time Devendra San had to take a serious decision he flights from the situation.

In any place throughout the novel, the author doesn’t introduce Noriko San as his lover or never makes any statement about himself being in love with her. Instead, the author extensively appreciates every little quality of her. Through words author expresses his feelings of jealousy when he sees Noriko San dealing with other men. The author makes the reader feel how much he misses Norikos' caring. All these make a strong argument in the reader that Devendra San is in love with Noriko. Through Devendra San’s character author depicts jealousy. Devendra San is not willing to either marry Noriko or let someone else marry her. The author never expressed his love directly to Noriko. He intentionally made Noriko fell in love with him and when his turn come he took the foot back and left her. Just without taking a simple decision to be with her, Devendra san avoided the situation. This made him miss her and live a tasteless life. Through the character of Devendra San, the author gives the message on how important it is to express genuine feelings, and how it could help to make our life comfortable. One-sided love stories are so common in youth, through this novel author addresses them. The poetic language and reflections of real feelings of youth made this novel much famous among the youth.

- Chandana Gihan Perera.