Kala Korner By Dee Cee

Sinhabahu duo in Guiness Book 

They began their acting career as undergraduates at Peradeniya. Dr. Sarachchandra picked them for pivotal roles in 'Sinhabahu' - Terrence as the 'pothe guru' and Malini as Suppadevi. They continued to perform after they left the university and retired only after achieving the unique feat having thrilled theatre fans throughout the country with their performances.

In the early performances, while Mark Antony Fernando played the stunning role of Sinhabahu, Malini played the understanding mother most convincingly. With the 'potheguru' having to play a key role in a 'nadagama', Terrence did a perfect job.

Terrence and Malini were felicitated by the Cultural Affairs Ministry recently.

For most critics, 'Sinhabahu' is the best that Sarachchandra has produced. It had more depth than 'Maname' (1956 )which brought new life to Sinhala drama. After 'Sinhabahu' (1961) came 'Pemato Jayatu Soko' (1969), his third major play.

Pradeep's big break

"He knew exactly what was needed and it's a fine score," says Lester.

Lester was impressed with Pradeep's talent when he listened to the CD featuring Indrakeelaya', the tone poem he created for the opening of the new Central Bank building and had no hesitation in inviting him to handle the music in the film.

Prize winners

In the schools section, Prageeth Priyadarshana Elgiriya from Tissa Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, Kalutara is the first prize winner. The runners-up are Chaturanga Samarawickrema (Royal College) and Gaya Dinusha Wijesuriya (St.Joseph's Girls' School, Nugegoda).

In the open section, Ranjith Malliyawadu from Telwatta has won the first place with Ravindra Gunaratne from Asgiriya and Upasena A. Liyanagama from Pahala Vitigala winning the second and third places.

Once upon a time, there was a man called Hans Andersen...

By Alfreda de Silva

He was born in the slums of Odense near Copenhagen in Denmark on April 2, 1805. His father was a shoe-maker, a literate one unlike his mother who had had no formal education.

In a long ago and far away classroom of kindergarteners where our favourite subjects were story time and time for rhyme, I sat on a mat on the floor with other children lost in a story that a teacher was reading to us.

It was the Ugly Duckling, so beautifully written that we went through its emotions from misery to joy. In the days that followed other stories enthralled us - The Tinder Box, The Princess and the Pea, The Emperor's New clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, and sad and sweet -The Story of a Mother among them.

And of course, there were stories about, shoes which were no doubt, scattered around that house where the young Andersen's father laboured all day. Two of these tales were The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Red Shoes. I saw the latter, years afterwards as a film. It had the enchanting Moira Shearer dancing the lead role sometimes terrifying in its intensity.

This meant of course, that not all of the Hans Andersen fairy tales were exclusively for children. I also have a vivid memory of an inimitable Danny Kaye singing his way through the film Thumbelina.

The highly imaginative and ambitious Anderson had dreams of being an actor, a singer or a dancer. All he succeeded in getting was a bit part at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, which he had to give up when his voice let him down.

He began to write plays, all of which were rejected by the Royal Theatre. But with the help of a director, an influential government official, Jonas Collin, he received a grant to enter the grammar school of Slagelse.

Unfortunately he had to live in the home of a malicious and bullying head-master and hated school. He had a hard time breaking through the strict class structure of his time. Collin helped him to get private tuition and he had the good fortune of entering the University of Copenhagen, where he completed his education.

An innovator, Andersen used the idioms and constructions of the spoken language breaking with literary tradition. Many of his tales reveal a belief in the ultimate triumph of goodness and beauty over evil.

He drew on the universal elements of folk legends of many lands - "Andersen's great appeal for both children and adults was that he was not afraid to introduce feelings beyond a child's comprehension though he still stayed close to a child's perspective".

It is not generally well known that Andersen wrote poetry, possibly because his prose outdid any other genre of his artistic genius. His first poem The Dying Child was published in a Copenhagen journal. He also wrote travel books on Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the Middle East which included A Poet's Bazaar .

A work that was an immediate success and was considered his first important literary work was A Walk From Holmen's Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager written in the years 1828 and 1829. 

After his early unsuccessful playwriting efforts he achieved recognition in this field with his play, The Mulatto. It portrayed the evils of slavery.

Andersen gained fame as a novelist. Among the best known of his novels, most of which were autobiographical, were The Improviser (1835), O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837).

His memoirs, written and re-written with meticulous care, were encapsulated in the Fairy Story Of My Life.

In spite of the fact that many of his novels, plays, poems, travel books and autobiographies are almost unknown outside Denmark he is the most widely translated of writers.

Copenhagen, where he was born, and where he died in 1875, boosts his memory in museums and memorabilia.I deeply regret the fact that I missed seeing them, although I was within sight of them.

At the conclusion of a month's 'talking tour' in Swedish schools on the invitation of UNICEF Sweden and the Swedish International Development Authority it was necessary for me to take the ferry from Malmo in Sweden to Copenhagen, only a couple of hours before emplaning for London.

So all I could do was rush into a souvenir shop and buy a beautiful blue and white wall-plate of The Little Mermaid and a picture of Hans Andersen for my grandchildren aged ten and six at the time.

His nose protruded like a buttress over his face of unpredictable emotions and his eyes seemed to gaze at a distant landscape of extraordinary visions.

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