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Kala Korner by Dee Cee
A big break for 'Wekande Walauwe'
A great admirer of Lester James Peries and his films from Paris was here last week on a special mission. Pierre Rissient, Director 'Pathe Image' (remember 'Pathe News' in the old days?) was commissioned by a French distributor of art cinema to view Lester's latest film 'Wekande Walauwe' (Mansion by the Lake) and edit it to suit European audiences. He flew down for a hurried threeday visit.

"I like the film very much. It is one of Lester's better creations," Pierre told me in the midst of a busy schedule during which he spent most of his time in the cutting room. 'Wekande Walauwe' scripted by Somawira Senanayake is based on Anton Chekhov's 'Cherry Orchard' and the story revolves round Sri Lankan society in the 1970s, particularly the emergence of the new rich. The distributor had seen the film in Paris and was convinced that it would be appreciated by his audiences who enjoy art films. Pierre's job was to sharpen it a little and increase the tempo. Once the job is done, the film will also be sent to international festivals.

Pierre has seen almost all of Lester's films. "I like 'Gamperaliya' best," he confessed. "Possibly I have missed just one film." From his description, he had not seen 'Sandesaya'.

To meet Pierre at an evening 'do' at Lester's were key players of 'Wekande Walauwe'.

They included Malini Fonseka who plays the pivotal role of the aristocratic lady who has to decide what to do with the 'walauwe' having returned from abroad, Sanath Gunatillake, who urges Malini to dispose of the mansion, Vasanthi Chaturani(she looks after the mansion when the lady is away) and upcoming Sandeepani Paboda playing the role of Malini's daughter.

'Wekande Walauwe' is awaiting its release locally - "hunting for a circuit", as Lester puts it.

Windows to her future
Olga Dimitri has been creating her art work on a tea estate near Kandy for the past eight years. Her art is a response to contemporary issues, with her own vision of reality and imagination. Traditional rules are no longer valid in her deeply emotional artistic creations.

The work is all bright and innovative abstract forms, the media tea, rubber, graphite, copper and various other natural solids. A tension between the spontaneously executed and the carefully planned is tangible. Stringent and dissolved forms between colour fields and lines characterize the compositions of Olga Dimitri. She herself comments on her pictures as windows to her future.

This artist has an unusual faith. Growing up in the iron curtain of the Soviet Union, any free expression was not easy at all. During the era of perestroika, Olga had conveyed a lot of her ideas in designing interiors for private offices.

She left Russia in 1993, expressed metaphorically in her painting "wind of tao" where, she says, "I was swept out of my Moscow environment and carried to a new, vivid land which always seemed like an unreachable utopia of my imagination".

She has a painting of her abstract vision and interpretation of Adam's Peak in which she conveys her belief of Sri Lanka being a Holy Land.

Olga will hold an exhibition of her works at the Havelock Place Bungalow from August 16 to 20.

Enlightening darkness
Take a bolt of lightning slicing the night sky in a dazzling spectre. Take a moment in music or drama, when an inner soul is moved to emotions that defy description, or take a situation where one is shocked and startled into submission. Now imagine an exhibition of contemporary art, that is in effect, a series of twenty three paintings, that can be viewed alongside each other, frieze-style, or individually, with the same enthralling effect. The Dark Passage is the title of this unique artist's present showing and it is indeed a 'must-see' for lovers of any type of art.

To an uninitiated viewer, Sujith Rathnayake's contemporary works of art, do all this and much more. Art can leap out of the 'contemporary' niche if the viewer chooses to view it as such, because Sujith has a curious discipline to his art. His work is not a confused melee of divergent themes that sometimes manifest themselves as muddled expressions, but he has an inherent discipline that comes from within - that comes from understanding the precepts and grounding techniques all artists would do well to acquire.

He paints in the most challenging palette of all - the monochromatic, yet through this sparse channel, the entire spectrum may be viewed, such is the power of his strokes. His forte is the human anatomy; from his canvases, figures leap out almost as if they had life. The fluidity, rhythm and motion of his figures is incredible - the male one, sinewy with rippling muscles and sleek torsos and the female one - magnificent in its very imperfections. Sujith's figures are not of the unattainable proportions that can come only from an imaginative artist's mind, but are the average ones we encounter in our daily lives. Perhaps that is why anyone who views his art can find such empathy.

The remote outpost of Ranna, in the Hambantota district, can hardly be termed as an area that churns out artists. It's a cruel and unrelenting terrain that is rife with drought, temperamental weather conditions and the downsides of rural life. Sujith, nevertheless, had the courage and conviction to follow his dream.

"I was always exposed to art because my father was an artisan of sorts. He created the intricate paper artistry required for the traditional Pirith Mandapaya, and he was an artist who created those larger-than-life cinema billboards too," he smiles. "Those were the days when computers were non-existent, and as a child, I always helped him with those huge hoardings. Perhaps my mastery of the human anatomy stems from that early initiation."

Thirty years old, yet someone who looks like he's just taken a break from school, slightly built, with a shock of untidy hair, twinkling eyes and a cheeky winsome smile, Sujith is as warm and expressive as his art. He has never been afraid of expressing himself in his inimitable manner.

In his series The Dark Passage Sujith aims to take the viewer through a labyrinth of mixed emotions. There is a beginning and an end, and the end is especially poignant - because it depicts a self-portrait, incredibly realistic, with a cigarette in hand, smoke twirling upwards almost to eternity.

One particular portrayal shows a group of humans and a shadowy figure lurks in the background.

Hanging on the placard around its neck, there are the words "Mithra Avatharaya" (the phantom of friendship), but the spirit here is manifested in the actual form of a human. It is powerful and unbelievably compelling.

Another one of his works, shows an arm reaching upwards about to turn on a light switch and the following portrayal is a canvas bathed in light. Sujith's expressions are what the average person would identify with - that is perhaps his strongest point.

Sujith says that the turmoil that has shaped Sri Lanka's recent history, especially the volatile deep south, has had a bearing, not only on his art, but on the art of every sensitive and emotional artist. Yet he does not infuse politics in his works. Admitting to a slight touch of bohemia, it is impossible not to be charmed by this lovable young man, who within him, nurtures the makings of one of Sri Lanka's greatest.

Black and white and a touch of red - yes, that is what appears to be the colours Sujith has painted in, but there is no doubt, that within those works, moving, shaping and flowing, are all the hues ever imagined. Within those portrayals there is motion, expression, rhythm, balance, provocation and soul- stirring emotions. The Dark Passage is no ordinary showing - in fact the only dark part of this enlightening journey is its title.

An exhibition of Sujith Rathnayake's recent works titled The Dark Passage presented by Paradise Road Galleries will be held at the Lionel Wendt Gallery from August 13 to 15.


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