Rekava: Lester’s ‘line of destiny’
In his Dickman’s Road (most of us still refer to it by the old name) residence, Lester James Peries had two favourite places to sit and chat. One was his front ‘office room’ (in the old jargon) and the other the easy chair in a corner behind the dining table. He always looked quite relaxed. He used to be in a long sleeved shirt and ‘longs’ and in the front room he sat close to the window where he could see the greenery outside. Whenever we met we had plenty to talk about – from his journalistic days as London correspondent for the Times of Ceylon to his GFU days, right through his film career. Lester’s wife Sumithra would pop in and move away after a ‘Hello’.
Once I asked him about the days he made ‘Rekava’ (Line of destiny). He had quit the Government Film Unit (GFU) and when word got round that he was planning to do a feature film, many laughed. “Documentary karayokoheda ova hadanne” they said sarcastically indicating that he had only made documentary films. Cameraman Willie Blake and editor Titus Totawatte had quit the GFU with Lester. They were willing to take the challenge of doing a feature film.
Forty two Sinhala films had been screened by the time Lester’s first film was screened on December 28,1956. But we were still waiting for a ‘genuine’ Sinhala film. We had had enough of the South Indian look in what was dished out as Sinhala films. In Lester’s words, “Sinhala cinema had taken a false start. The early films were neither films nor Sri Lankan.”
In the words of D.B. Dhanapala (Janus)’Rekava’ was “such a great relief from the usual run of Sinhalese films in which we see the same old sets of the Madras Vahini and Gemini Studios with a young man and a woman bellowing out their passion in thundering tones as they run round and round a tree or a male servant trying his tricks with the master’s ayah in the back verandah and the inevitable hero in ill-fitting Madras trousers. For my past sins I have seen a number of such films that pass off as Sinhalese movies. If you see one, you have seen them all”. Writing to the ‘Times of Ceylon – Sunday Edition’, he described how neatly Lester had created a Sinhalese village and observed that “Lester Peries has shown these bogus Cinema Moghuls that what they said cannot be done can be done.”
Lester wrote the script for ‘Rekava’ based on a simple theme around village life and traditional beliefs. Then he set about picking the actors to suit the characters. Three key players D.R. Nanayakkara, N.R. Dias and Romulus de Silva were from the Sinhala theatre and two others – Winston Serasinghe and Iranganie Meedeniya (later Serasinghe) from the English theatre. DR was to play the role of a cunning villager out to make money by any means and Dias as his partner with whom DR was to plan various deals. “Dias with his physique was also a dominant character. Then there was the thin and tall DR, who had a marvellous ear for colloquial dialogue.” Lester talked about the two villains whom he compared to Laurel and Hardy! Romulus, one of the finest actors of the Tower Hall era was to play the village headman.
The handsome Ananda Weerakoon had impressed Lester in an earlier film, ‘Podi Putha’ and Mallika Pilapitiya, whom he met quite by chance when Lester visited her brother who was known to him, were to play the romantic couple. He picked Sesha Palihakara, a renowned dancer who had acted in ‘Mathalan’, as the soothsayer who visits the village with his monkey to show some tricks and earn his living.
Two children played key roles in the film. He picked a student from Prince of Wales, Moratuwa, Somapala Dharmapriya (Sena) and Myrtle Fernando (Anula) who had done a role in ‘Ahankara Stree’. She acted as if “she knew all about acting”. Lester found the boy to be extremely talented even though it took him a while to settle down. (It was ironic how both of them died of cancer – Myrtle when she was just 12 and Somapala when he was in his forties and was a professional cameraman.)
‘Rekava’ was to be filmed entirely on location. It was a ‘first’ for a Sinhala film to get out of the studio. Recording outdoors had its problems. “Keeping crows away was a major problem,” Lester recalled. Rains delayed the shooting. “We fixed the dates to shoot at Bandarawela after studying the weather patterns over several years. Once we were there it just poured for 20 days upsetting our schedules,” he said.
Lester had other interesting stories to relate. They were, in a way, ‘monkey tricks’.”The monkey ‘insisted’ on half a bottle of arrack every day. The production manager Premnath Moraes picked up the monkey and the master every morning. He brought them to the location in his Bug Fiat station wagon and invariably the monkey used the vehicle as a toilet!”
A remote village off Alawwa was another location and while being there Sesha wanted all the comforts including a shot of brandy in the evening, Lester reminisced. He also recalled how while filming was going on they had to face a chicken pox epidemic causing a delay of two months.
Songs in a meaningful way
Music being a key ingredient in Sinhala films, Lester had to think hard on how songs could be introduced in a meaningful manner. Having heard Sunil Santha’s songs in London when Hubert Rajapakse sang them, he had made up his mind to get Sunil Santha to do the music any day he was doing a feature film. “I went to see him along with a person who knew him. We were literally chased away because Sunil Santha just hated Sinhala film music. I was disappointed but didn’t give up. I failed several times but in the end I managed to get Father Marcelline Jayakody, who was writing the lyrics for the film, to convince him,” Lester recollected. “Once he realised my film was different from other Sinhala films, he put in a great effort and produced a fine score.” Sunil Santha’s melodies were beautiful and the songs turned out to be extremely popular. However, he preferred B. S Perera to conduct the music.
The songs had to be recorded in a studio in Madras (now Chennai) but Sunil Santha was hesitant to go to India. Instead he assured Lester that his pupil Ivor Dennis would train the playback singers and do a perfect job. Latha Walpola, Sisira Senaratne, Indrani Wijeyabandara (later Senaratne) and Thilakasiri Fernando were the playback singers with Ivor himself singing the ‘viridu’ in the opening sequence in the film with the stilt-walker.
Latha sang a lullaby (‘Sigiri landakage malvattiya daa’), Sisira the boat song ‘Olunelum neliya rangala’, Indrani (Vesak keulu’ & ‘Sudusandaeliye’- playback for dancing girls) and Thilakasiri ‘Mini muthupasata yatavenava’ on death taking away a young life. The songs are hits to this day.
Of those connected with ‘Rekava’, there is only a handful today to reminisce. Among them are director Lester, Iranganie (Sena’s mother), Mallika, the village damsel (her son Roshan, the talented actor on stage and screen did a role in Lester’s last film, ‘Ammawarune’), Ananda (domiciled in UK) and playback singers Indrani and Ivor.
Sarath Amunugama delivering the Lester James Peries oration said that ‘Rekava’ marked the introduction of a new film language different from the prevailing South Indian idiom depicting the local, particularly Buddhist culture and society. The film also marked the first manifestation of Sinhala film in the regional and international critical arena.
Lester’s line of destiny was a blessed one. In his career of fifty years he has given filmgoers 20 quality films. It’s the quality that matters not quantity.