8th February 1998

Looking for a Jaya Bhumi

The tragic incident of the bombing of the Sri Dalada Maligawa made me browse through some of the publications on the Sacred Tooth Relic to check whether such barbaric acts had occurred earlier too. Among the books was 'The Return to Kandy', the fascinating book by Vesak Nanayakkara who wanted the book to serve as ''an endearing reminder of a sad and splendid chapter in the fabled saga of the Sinhala people.''

Describing the origin of Kandy, he relates how the spot for the Dalada Maligawa was selected. ''The story goes that King Wickrama Bahu IV of Gangasiripura (Gampola), desirous of founding a new city, requested his astrologers to find a suitable jaya bhumi. The lucky spot so chosen is the site of the present Dalada Maligawa. On this spot the King, on his tour of inspection, had seen a squirrel triumph over a rat snake (garandiya). A frog, too, had escaped the approach of the snake. Both these incidents were considered favourable portents. Other predictions, too, in regard to this spot are reported to have come true convincing the King of the desirability of the site. A small pool, of what is now the east end of the Lake, was dug out for a white tortoise which was found here as predicted. White was the mangala colour.''

During the reign of King Wimala Dharma Suriya II (1687-1707) the Dalada was enshrined in a three storied Maligawa. His son Narendra Sinha (1707-1739) replaced it with a new two storied shrine. In the reign of Kirti Sri Rajasinghe (1747-1782), the Maligawa is reputed to have 'shone with exceeding brightness like a hill of silver.'

Professor Anuradha Seneviratna has done two exhaustive studies - 'The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic' and 'Buddhist Rituals and Ceremonies: Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic'. They are 'musts' for any student looking for material about the most venerated object for Buddhists all over the world.

Drastic drop in filmgoers

Two decades ago, 183,895 persons on a daily average went to see a film. Now the figure has dropped to 53,645. There were 357 cinemas in 1979. Today there are only 252.

Professor Chandrasiri Palliyaguru of the Kelaniya University, in an assessment of the Sinhala cinema over the past 50 years, believes that television and other media of entertainment have contributed towards this trend even though as a mass medium of entertainment, the film is still able to command spectator response more than theatre or the novel.

''Even though the Sinhala film has a history of only 50 years, it has had a tremendous impact on the Sri Lankan social, cultural and economic life as a form of art,'' he says.

The first ever film has been screened in 1901 by one A. W. Andree at Diyatalawa in the presence of Governor Sir West Ridgeway and some Boer prisoners. Records also indicate that a film has been screened in the Pagoda hall in Colombo Fort in 1903. Thereafter one Warwick Major had brought in films from England and screened here.

A silent film titled 'Rajakeeya Wickremaya' has been the first attempt at making a local film. This was way back in 1925. Dr. N. M. Perera, a young man at the time had acted in the film but there is no trace of a copy. A short film titled 'Paligeneema' is to have been shown in 1936.

Still refreshing

Watching Dharmasena Pathiraja's Bambaru Avith the other night over Rupavahini, one could see how a good film made 20 years ago still remains fresh and much better than most of the trash dished out today. Bambaru Avith secured the fourth place among the best 10 films selected by a panel of film critics to mark 50 years of Sinhala Cinema.

It was way back in 1978 that Bambaru Avith was first screened. Introducing Pathiraja as "the ideological philosophical-aesthete in our cinema", Gamini Hattotuwegama calls him our most forwardly cine thinker. "His films are all experimental in the most sophisticated sense known here, far reaching. He will employ Brechtian effects in a meaty thought provoking love melodrama on a city-country ride in Bambaru Avith; existential plot and existential characters in Para Dige; he will work out a most intellectualist if not cerebral dramatic-narrative called Soladadu Unnehe", he writes in a review of 50 years of Sinhala Cinema'.

Bambaru Avith was Pathiraja's third film. His first was Ahas Gawwa (1974) which was followed by Eya Den Loku Lamayek (1975). Acting all round was very good with Vijaya Kumaratunga, Joe Abeywickrema and Malini Fonseka excelling. Donald Karunaratne's photography and Premasiri Khemadasa's music stood out. The two songs, Udumbara (theme) and Handunagathoth Oba Ma remain popular to this day.

It's a good idea for Rupavahini to screen the best in the 50 year Sinhala cinema regularly amidst the host of meaningless teledramas.

Recent award winners

The last four days in the Drama Festival to be held at John de Silva Theatre this month will be devoted to the award winning plays and short dramas at the recently held Golden Jubilee drama competitions.

Following K B Herath's Dona Catherina (Feb 16), the short dramas - Wickrema Samantha Wijesinghe's Samanaya, Jagath Champika Benaragama's Pratimurti and Dhananjaya Kamnaratne's Oba Sapekshai will be staged on February 17.

The three winning dramas are Visakhesha Chandrasekeram's Tahanam Adaviya (Feb 18),_ Tilak Nanadana Hettiarachchi's Gabsawa (Feb 19) and K B Herath's Deveni Mahinda

A thought for everyday

Never kick a person when he is down - he may get up'. This advice comes from a handy 1998 desk calendar right in front of me.

A perpetual calendar with a thought for every day of the year is the novel year-end giveaway created by Grant McCann-Erickson advertising agency this year. It's something new and thought provoking. Good and innovative indeed.

Meanwhile, CTC Eagle's desk calendar featuring eagles has now become a collector's item. The treatment is different this year. Pencil crayon technique has been used in place of photographs.

Talking of calendars, at least two - CTC and CTC (Ceylon Tobacco Company) - are featuring photographs on environment picked from Nihal Fernando's masterpiece, 'Sri Lanka: a Personal Odyssey'.

Classics in Sinhala

Sinhala readers are getting an opportunity of enjoing internationally famous classics with more and more translations coming out in print.

Among recent publications are Senaratna Weerasinghe's 'Amma', an unabridged translation of Maxim Gorky's Russian work 'Mother' and Sita Kulatunga's 'Premaye Unmadaya' a translation of Emile Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Released by Prabha publishers, Veyangoda, the 510 page Amma is based on the English translation of Mother by Margaret Wettlin. Although there have been a number of Sinhala traslations of Mother, author Weerasinghe believes the earliest ones were not as comprehensive as his.

Weerasinghe, a translator of repute, has over a dozen novels, short stories, screen plays and children's books among his publications. Having won the confidence of readers, he is already working on a few more including Boris Pasternack's 'Doctor Zhivago'.

An addition to the Sarasavi Book Classics, Sita Kulatunga's 'Premaye Unmadaya' is an attempt to be as close as possible to the original. The authoress admits that she has tried her best not to delete anything in relation to the development of the main characters. ''As I was on the job I realised that it's no easy task to prepare an abridged version,'' she says.

Among Sita Kulatunga's popular works are Dari the third wife, an English novel based on Nigerian folk life and a Sinhala translation of Some Inner Fury (Premaya Saha Kopagniya).

A common feature in both works is the easy style of the writer. This makes the rather lengthy novels very readable.

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