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Kala Korner - by Dee Cee

The forgotten hero
It was rather sad that not much was talked about that renowned writer Dr. A. J. Gunawardena at the launch of the book he wrote on Lester James Peries. It was left to Lester himself to remind those present at the BMICH Committee Room B, of the tremendous effort put in by A. J. in writing his biography.
"Being such a meticulous person, he took a long time to write the book. He put in a lot into it. He had at least 20 hours of recorded material. No wonder he took so long. Sadly he couldn't complete the book," Lester said, adding that he felt sad that A. J. was not around to see his work come out in print. He reminisced how when he was away in Paris, A. J. would keep in constant touch with him. A. J. had started working on the biography in the early 1990s and had not finished by the time he died in 1998.

Listening to Lester, my own memories went back to the days at Ananda and in the Peradeniya campus where A. J. and I were together. Soft spoken, yet witty A. J., an Arunachalam Hall resident, had a fine sense of humour and kept a conversation going in his own quiet way. We least expected A. J. to specialize in English and as friends we felt proud when he did so well ending up as Professor of English at the Vidyodaya University. Before that, we were together at Lake House where his writings on the arts were greatly appreciated and valued.

Lester picked him to write the screenplays of 'Baddegama' (1980), 'Kaliyugaya' (1982) and 'Yuganthaya' (1985). A. J.'s wife Trillicia was a regular in Lester's films from the days of 'Gamperaliya' and gave an unforgettable performance in 'Giraya', the highly successful teledrama Lester directed. We miss both A. J. and Trillicia who contributed so much to the arts in their own ways.

Commendable effort
As for the book - 'LJP - Lester James Peries - Life and Work', the Asian Film Centre (AFC) stepped in to publish this serious study on Sri Lankan cinema. The book starts with a 50-page 'Assessment' by Prof Wimal Dissanayake, who calls it an attempt to locate Lester's work in the context of Sri Lankan cinema as well as in the larger context of international cinema. Lester himself appreciates the effort which he says is possibly the first time that a serious attempt has been made to analyse his 20 films in depth.

Editors Robert Crusz and Ashley Ratnavibhushana are pretty certain that Dissanayake's detailed and wide ranging introduction amply compensates for the absence of A. J.'s analytical voice. The well illustrated book is an ideal follow-up to the earlier AFC publication, 'Profiling Sri Lankan Cinema'.

Delivering the keynote address at the launch, Dr. Sarath Amunugama described Lester as the one who introduced world cinema to the Sinhala audiences and Sinhala cinema to the world audiences. It was a two-way process. Identifying 'Rekava' as the first Sinhala film that used the language of cinema, he referred to Lester's early documentary, 'Nelungama' which showed how democracy worked at village level.

Acknowledging that his work represents the best of the Sinhala cinema, Dr. Amunugama also paid tribute to the tremendous contribution he has made to the appreciation of Sinhala literature by picking up the themes for so many films from Sinhala literature.

Summing up Lester's long career, he said that looking back on the whole lifetime of achievement it is the humanity that emerges. "The dominant thread is that of compassion not on a large canvas but among people - their inter-personal relationship, nuances of behaviour, a glance here and a glance there and a look into the deepest attachments and sentiments found in Sinhala culture," he said.

It turned out to be an evening well spent listening to three renowned filmmakers Dharmasena Pathiraja, Tissa Abeysekera and Prasanna Vithanage talking of Lester's contribution to Sinhala cinema.

Having listened to a lot about 'Rekava' that evening, it was a real coincidence to see Sisira and Indrani Senaratne singing that popular number, 'Olu nelum' from the film the very night in 'Hansa Vilak’, the Swarnavahini musical programme presented by that amiable youngster Hema Nalini Karunaratne. The two of them were the guests at the show (along with Nissanka Diddeniya, the expert on the Tower Hall era) discussing the development of Sinhala music over the years. Artistes of yesteryear appear and sing the then popular numbers.

What a joy it was to hear Vincent de Paul Peiris singing 'Bicycale' and Anton Rodrigo giving life to 'Sarai saraiya'!

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