“We have a male only dominated cinema”
Gayathri Khemadasa
Sri Lanka’s first award winning female film music director, Gayathri Khemadasa completed her third film ‘The Newspaper’ which is ready to be released soon. Gayathri won the Best Music director award in all film festivals-OCIC, Hiru and Derana for her musical score to ‘Thanha Rathi Ranga’ directed by Nilendra Deshapriya and scripted by Kumara Thirimadura and Sarath Kothalawela. ‘The Newspaper’ is the debut direction of duo Kumara and Sarath.
Having studied music internationally, including Prague Conservatory and Masaryk University in Czech Republic and being a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University on a Fulbright Professional Scholarship, Gayathri who has now settled here teaches music at Sri Lanka Foundation, Abhinaya academy and works as a visiting lecturer at the Kelaniya University. In the United Stated Gayathri has worked in a number of experimental film documentaries.
The theme song of ‘The Newspaper’, which she set music to the words of Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne was sung by Visharadha Nanda Malani. Gayathri talked to the Sunday Times, on her latest work, the film and the theme song which is woven around strong bond between a mother and a son, who are struggling to convince a society that unfairly treated them. The song with its heart rending words sums up the message of the entire film.
“It is a mix between a poem and a song. The mother represented in the film is a mother who would sing a poem rather than sing a song. So I thought that the mix was good and I didn’t want to change the lyrics and the message of the words was phenomenal. While singing amazing qualities of mothers when you look at a certain point of view this song gave a different perspective for the mothers. The last line of the song— “Amma Nowei Budhu wenna Nubai Puthe”- “May you my son, not your mother, achieve Buddhahood” is the pinnacle of this powerful song,” describes Gayathri.
Reminding us of the apparent division between Maestro Khemadasa and Nanda Malani and Khemadasa’s refusal to make any song for Nanda Malani after ‘Ammawarune’, the every-popular song for the film ‘Yasa Isuru’ in 1982, Gayathri said it was the most suited voice for the song.
“Obviously I was asked if I would like Nanda Malani to sing it and I said why not and her voice perfectly suited the character in the film as well. It’s about a mother who suffered in front of injustice immensely. It is not only the injustice of media or governments, it is the injustice and prejudices of whole village. And the whole family has suffered because of that. I think the film itself brings out all these subtleties in us as a society. I felt in this song her voice and lyrics would completely match what we wanted to say,” Gayathri explained.
Interestingly Maestro Khemadasa was so close to his mother he composed an opera “Mage Kalaye Mawuni” or ‘Mother of my Time’ in tribute to his own mother in 1978. He wanted to perform it in front of his mother but unfortunately his mother died two days prior the opera.
“Going back to ‘Ammawarune and ‘Mage Kaalaye Mawuni’, Thaththa was extremely attached to his mum. Unfortunately his father passed away when he was very young and the mother had to bring up 13 children and so he had a huge attachment and he wanted to bring this complex relationship that we all have, through his music,” she added.
However Gayathri is critical of the duplicitous standards of local cinema industry which is mainly male dominated. “I won this award three years ago and even internationally I would say the platform given to female composers could be much better than where it is. When it comes to films it is so predominantly a male dominated industry so whatever you say cannot materialised unless those male directors are as open minded as you are. In this case unfortunately I have to say here they are not,’ she argued.
Young Gayathri with her father Maestro Khemadasa
Referring to her multiple awards for her musical score for ‘Thanha Rathi Ranga’, Gayathri explained the double standards in the cinema industry “It was the first time that same person won the same category- music in all the festivals in Sri Lanka. When that happens at least one would think that he or she must be capable but that doesn’t happen here unfortunately,”
“This is not only in the music but even in other categories. When you look at the cast you will see it. But internationally when you look at the cast you will see that they are much more genuine,” she said.
However Gayathri is ready to share her music and contribute more to any form of arts in the country. “I am ready to work more here and even in different areas other than cinema. Music is such an international and worldly language and you always get different perspectives”. With her exposure and experience Gayathri is optimistic and says what artistes here lack are patience and training. “I think there is lot of talents here. There are lot of amazing ideas but I feel we need little bit more patience and training”
“I was asked to play piano on a top of a piano, on the board for six months to get my fingers technically perfect and that is the kind of patience you need. And I can’t imagine me telling this to my students. Like that this kind of discipline is needed for arts in Sri Lanka”.
In a final note Gayathri was extremely grateful to the debutant directors Kumara and Sarath for their selection to write the musical score. “I am grateful to Kumara Thirimadura and Sarath Kothalawala for inviting me to working in this project and they had been really amazing. They gave me the freedom to do what I wanted to do. It is being like respectful relationship because sometimes people are very demanding and they don’t see your point of view but in this case I am extremely grateful to them. They didn’t tell me that they want something like my father. They completely trusted me,”.