A Reel Life in Real Life
Udan Fernando, an avid film lover, who started studying audio-visual art as a teenager, just after his Ordinary Level examination but forced to retrack his journey towards a more academic path, has returned with his second film directionm a short feature drama ‘Covid Madhusamaya’ or ‘Covid Honeymoon’. Based on a striking story came across as Udan was returning from Singapore after three months long stay during the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire preproduction of the film was done by Udan at a month long quarantine period in Sri Lanka. The film follows his debut ‘Dhwandha’ or ‘Duel’, a yet another interesting documentary drama- about two pioneers in former rebellious Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Cinematic and professional journey of Udan, a Phd holder from the University of Amsterdam is as interesting as a film story. With an eye to see things and see through things Udan who had to ‘sacrifice’ his film dream was lucky to have regular intervals with cinema.
“Soon after I finished my Ordinary Level examination my father died and then I got a fresh lease of freedom because there was nobody to control me. So I was doing all sorts of crazy things and one thing I was trying to do was to be a video maker because that was the time the TV was introduced. I kind of almost stop going to school,” narrating his interest in audio-visual medium from the time of his tender teenage years, says Udan, who was then a student of S Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia.
Instead of following his higher education Udan joined the OCIC (Organisation Catholique Internationale du Cinéma et de l’audiovisuel-Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisual) cinema course condcuted by the Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka. His teacher was the late cinematographer Andrew Jayamanna.
During the OCIC course Udan met a number of people who are now big names in cinema and television. Among them are Dee Ga Somapala, Athula Sulthanagoda who became a world renowned art director handling art direction in film like ‘Water’, ‘Midnight Children’ and ‘Bombay Velvet’. Later Udan joined Somapala who started some advertising work and helped him as a paste up artiste, an obsolete job with the computer technology now.
But all these work came to an end with one of his teachers, Mr. R. M. Jayasena who felt that Udan was going on a wrong track. Mr. Jayasena met his mother and got permission to take care of him. This was to put the film-crazy kid on a more academic track. “I finished the film course but my teacher got me to sit for my Advanced Level alsmot at gunpoint. In fact he helped me a lot to catch up with the lessons I have missed for a long time.”
“With this my film journey abruptly ended” said Udan. But with a keen sense of observation and an eye to see things more cinematographically Udan continued to see things and see through things differently.
Sitting for his Advanced Level examination Udan passed with flying colours and he entered the Colombo University and obtained a Bachelor of Management degree. Continuing his academic journey, Udan did his masters on Sociology and Labour Studies.
Udan joined the University of Amsterdam for his Phd on foreign aid policies more on international affairs and sobjects related to anthropology.
“While I was doing my Phd and towards end of it, I was going through an extremely stressful period. Sometimes people go off the trail and our supervisors are aware of this tendency. One day my supervisor said that she wanted me to have a distraction. “With your interest I want you to follow a film course on anthropological filmmaking at the same university. It was a short course but it teaches a lot of techniques in cinema like how to translate social reality phenomenon to a film form,”.
This was much needed break and a follow up from OCIC course where Udan started his film education. He continued to live in the Netherlands for ten years and in 2010 came to Sri Lanka and worked as a CEO of a leading Research think tank.
“I was travelling around the world a lot and was going to different parts of the world. Though I was busy with my work and meeting people, I always felt that I was blessed with an eye that could see and also see through things,” says Udan referring to his third eye or the cinematic eye.
Udan who had met a large number of people says that two of the people he met were different and made impact in his life.
“I was studying about Sri Lankan living abroad, the diaspora. During this study I met two personalities who stood above others. One was from the UK and the other from Australia. These two were pioneers of the LTTE and the JVP,” said Udan describing his maiden film venture on two persons who represented, two rebel groups that carried out two bloody ‘rebellions’ in Sri Lanka.
“The person from the LTTE was one of its early mentors. He had been a part of another rebel group which predated the LTTE. In fact this person whom I met in the United Kingdom recalled how Velupillai Prabhakran, a youngster around 17-years-of age then, jumped into his house through a window. Prabhakaran had used to called him Anna and used even to listen to him.
The other person Udan met was Lionel Bopage from the JVP. “I was following their stories for about two years and while I was listening to them rather than taking noted I was drawing kind of storyboards. Because their stories were more cinematic than research materials. I completed the research but turned the research materials into a film,”.
Udan got down the two to Sri Lanka and made his debut in cinema, ‘Dwandha’ or ‘Duel’– ‘a tale of two rebels’, a 52-minutes docu-film based on their stories and it was released in September last year.
Following this he came across with his second ‘Covid Honeymoon’ while he was returning from Singapore after three months long stay during Covid pandemic.
“In March I wanted to retire from my think tank. In early March I went to Cambodia on a research and I came to Singapore and the airports were closed and there was no flights to return to Sri Lanka. All my plans to travel in Sri Lanka were affected. And somehow I managed to get a flight to return to Sri Lanka with a great difficulty.
“Actually it was on the eve of June 1 while I was in Singapore airport waiting for the departure I heard this really striking story. I don’t know what happened to me and I was completely preoccupied with it. While I was in the flight and came to Sri Lanka and 14-day quarantine in Punani, the story was working in my mind,” said Udan who finally decided to make it to a film script of ‘Covid Honeymoon’ using the plenty of free time he enjoyed at the quarantine centre and at the home quarantine period.
“I wrote several scripts and fine tuned them, contacted the cast, crew and by the time completed the quarantine I was ready with the film” he said adding that filming was done as soon as the quarantine was over.
“I am very positive about it and I can be very constructive in a difficult situation,” says Udan who got the best use of his quarantine.
“Life has been a beautiful surprise,” said Udan in a contended tone.