New Delhi, May 26 -- There are two titles restored by Film Heritage Foundation in the Cannes Classics selection this year. One is Satyajit Ray's 1970 film with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, Aranyer Din Ratri. The other is a lesser-known film, though just as accomplished, only now getting the refurbishing it deserves: Sri Lankan director Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (1978). This was Peries' debut, but the direction is assured and intimate. Set in a village, this delicate black-and-white film is about the lives of two teenage sisters dealing with the complications of first love and societal pressure. Wasanthi Chathurani, also making her debut, is tremendous as Kusum.

I'd seen breadfruit in carts and stalls in Goa, but hadn't tas...