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| Sunday, 02 March 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Ek Chhotisi Love Story - the perspective of 'love' through the mind of a child EK CHHOTISI LOVE STORY, a film by Shashilal Nair and presented by Paragon Pictures International is being screened at Liberty and Milano, Kegalle.
The boy who expressed a terrible dilemma calls for help from the girl Manisha who stays at the opposite building."She is too beautiful, very attractive. I track her every movement, every moment, through my telescope. I have seen her naked many times. I am 15; she is 26. I am madly in love with her. The problem is she has a boy friend. I have even seen them making love; folks let me stop here, she has arrived...I must run to my telescope...." The film takes you with Adithya and his telescope to the bedroom of Manisha. When questioned by Manisha what he was expecting from her, says "nothing". Nothing except to look at her in admiration and love. It is a good film to understand the inner-self of youngsters who get moved by the adorned beauty of women having no deep understanding of what love is. The youngsters also fail to distinguish love from sex, pure sex and Manisha tries her best to convince Adithya that what he saw through his telescope was not love but sex... Though the film is bit dragging as it must, it is a good film for adults who really want to know how the young mind works and why they should take extra care in all their actions. - WIRUMA ####################### It's not easy to be a dance champion Being a championship dancer is not an easy task. Years of hard work and commitment go into the making of champions. The ultimate vision for any duo would be to compete and win at international level.
When taking a look at the dance circle in Sri Lanka, it is obvious that we harbour many talented dancers. According to Mr. Dharshan Wijesooriya, organizer of the 1st Footwork Dancesport Championship 2003, one of the main obstacles our dancers face in competing internationally is the expense involved. Although Dancesport Championships have been held in Sri Lanka since the mid eighties, they have been mainly local championships. Though in the recent past we have had the participation of approximately 4-5 couples of foreign nationality at these events it cannot be compared to the standard of a full blown International championship. Mr. Wijesooriya says that Footwork is also sponsoring two separate training workshops for Sri Lankan competitors and dance teachers for the first time, by a foreign professional. Mr. Jason Beaman, 6 times Australian Champion and world professional 10 Dance Semi-Finalist 1998, will be conducting these workshops due to be held a few days prior to the championship. Footwork has been an organizer of Dancesport Championships in Sri Lanka for the past 7 years. Having seen the need for our dancers to vie the international arena, Footwork is organizing the 1st Footwork International Dancesport Championship 2003 Sri Lanka to be held on April 6 at the Colombo Hilton. A Dancesport event of this magnitude, where over 10 countries will be vying for the championship trophies, has never before been held in Sri Lanka. The organizing of such an event is an immense task, says Mr. Wijesooriya. He further said that frequently being invited to adjudicate at International championships and his close association with other championship organizers and dance trainers has greatly facilitated the undertaking of this event. The main sponsors of the event are Carlsberg and Mobitel. The official print media sponsor is the Daily News and the Sunday Observer, the official TV Station is Dynavision and the Official Radio Stations are Sun FM & Gold FM. The official carrier is SriLankan Airlines. The box plan and tickets for this event will be available at the special events desk, Hilton Colombo from March 5. (Telephone 544644). For more details call Footwork on 074 408822/071/777111 or visitwww.footworkevents.com. ####################### To talk of many moons by J.B. Dissanayaka Sinhala has many words to refer to the moon but the most common is 'Handa' in which the two sounds 'nd' are pronounced not one after the other but almost at the same time. It also appears in a variant form as 'Sanda' or 'Sandu'. This word is a derivative from the Sanskrit word 'Chandra' and the Pali word 'Chando'. These words occur in several colourful phrases reflecting the thought patterns of the Sinhalese. When the moon is full, it is called 'Pura Sanda' or 'Pun Sanda' where both 'Pura' and 'Pun' mean full. The Sinhala word 'Pun' ('pu' to be pronounced like 'pu' in the English word 'put') is related to the Sanskrit word 'Pu:rna'. Sinhala poets make it fuller by adding the prefix 'su' before 'Pun' to make it 'Supun' as in 'Supun sanda'. The day on which there is no moon at all, it is called 'Ama:-vaka'. The crescent moon is 'Ada Sanda' where 'ada' means 'half'. Sanskrit uses the word 'Chandra-vanka' to refer to the crescent moon and roads in Colombo which are called 'Crescent' in English have been named in Sinhala as 'Chandra-vanka'. So 'Albert Crescent' and 'Guildford Crescent' have become 'Albert Chandra-vanka' and 'Guildford Chandra-vanka in Sinhala. The new moon is called 'Nava Sanda' or simply 'Alut Handa' and it is still a custom in the Sinhala village to look at the new moon after the dawn of their New Year which falls in April or the Sinhala month of 'Bak'. In South Sri Lanka it has been the habit to look at the new moon while eating something sweet, perhaps with the idea of making the new year sweeter than the old one. The custom of watching the new moon, in the month of 'Bak' or 'Bag' has been observed even as far back as the sixth or seventh century, for there is a graffiti scribbled on the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya by a young man who says that these damsels should not ignore him because he has seen the 'Nava Bag La Sand' (the tender new moon of Bag). The poetic expression 'La Sanda' denotes the moon (Sand) that is tender (la). Moon beams are called in Sinhala 'Sanda Raes". Moon light is called 'Sanda Pahana' or 'Handa Pa:na'. When a girl and a boy elope in the silence of the night, the Sinhala villagers say that they have disappeared in the moonlight: 'Handa pa:ne haengila gihin. ####################### Fusion - the language of peace and harmony Fusion is the language of global music. Fusion is also the language of peace and harmony. In "Salambe", which, for the first time, portrays as singer, the creative talents of young dancer Deshapriya Mihiripenna, son of Kalasoori Dr. Basil Mihiripenna, fusion explores the form of ten songs, which articulate for Deshapriya "my message of peace captured in nature's beauty and seen through the eyes of children."
As Deshapriya himself expresses in the song, "silent tour", Salambe is a docket of songs on CD and cassette, where "the time floats to express the inner space of living and the flowing waves of soul comes through as melody and brings a self-realization in a new transformation of liberation." The songs weave both Sinhala and English lyrics into a fascinating instrumental mixture of Indian drums, Gatam, Thavil, local Yak bera, Australian Digaradoo, guitar and piano. "Silent prayer", the song which won the best music award at 2002 State Drama Festival and pieced his band "Yaga" together, is also contained in the collection. Salambe was launched recently at the Russian Cultural Centre, in a cameo of song and dance with Deshapriya backed by a chorus containing Swami Anand Ekant and Swami Dhyan. A selective audience had a flash of intuition into the artistry of fusion in song, dance and drum and instrumental music when "Wande Girija" went on the boards at John de Silva Memorial Theatre recently. Wande Girija, named an offering to "Girija", the goddess of dance, was an infusion of Sinhala cultural traditions with that of Karnatic, in which the Tamil performing arts in Sri Lanka are based. Presented by Kalasoori Dr. Basil Mihiripenne and his internationally famed music and dance ensemble of Deepasikha National Theatre, the performance showcased in rather unusually fused art and movement, his firm belief that "Karnatic music and dance tradition is the base of our dance and music tradition and to live in peace, we should make a new start by following the Karnatic to develop our own traditions."
In "Dalada Vandana", the daily dance offering to the Dalada, the usual Kandyan "Geta Bera" was joined by the Tamil drum of "Tavil" and the musical instrument "Nadaswaram", heard at Kovils. Performed by Dr. Mihiripenna, the three female dancers, Yasamali, Nilupa and Priyanthi and the young male dancer Pabalu Eranga, the dance brought out moments of extreme visual beauty and could be called the highlight of the programme. The quartet of upcountry Geta Bera, low country Davula, Tabla and Tavil made engaging percussionist conversation while the flute solo of Anil Mihiripenne, played on the overtones of depths and poignancy of the popular "Siva Ranjani" Karnatic raga. The innovatively fluid dance movements of "Kohomba Kale", the Tamil ritual dance, and the Portugese dance do truly warrant a mention while one could venture further to predict that Pabalu, both as a dancer and a drummer, has great potential to blossom out in both domains. The ethos of "Wande Girija", delivering the message of peace of harmony through fusion of cultures, was fittingly personified in "Oh Shanthie", sung by Deshapriya and chorus at the commencement of the show. This song, together with "Wessantara" also sung by him at the concert, come from his CD, "Salambe". JL ####################### Sri Lankan film selected for Cannes after 20 years A short film by Vimukthi Jayasundera, a young Sri Lankan film maker now residing in France, has been selected for the 2003 edition of the International Cannes Film Festival. Jayasundera's film titled 'Vide Pour L'amour' (Empty for Love) which was screened at the Cinematheque Francaise, Paris, and at the Fresnoy during the exhibition 'Panorama S', is the first since Lester James Peries' 'Kaliyugaya' 20 years ago, to be accorded this honour according to a media release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The jury presided over by Francis Girod selected Jayasundera (26) to participate at the residence program organised by the Cine Foundation, the organising parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, which allows six foreign film producers to write a feature film which will be finally screened at Cannes. Vimukthi's first documentary production 'Land of Silence' was screened at the International Festival of Documentary Film in Marseilles in 2002. This film was also screened at eu de Paume in Paris in November 2002 and it has been selected for the 2003 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam and for the Berlin film festival. Vimukthi Jayasundera is an old boy of Mahinda College, Galle and holds a diploma from the Film and Television Institute of India. At present he resides at Lefresnoy Studio Des Art Contemporaries in France, where he has been living since 2001. Describing an earlier work by Jayasundera titled 'Land of Silence', cinema critic Jean Pierre Rehm wrote: "This work in black and white describes the victims of a civil war carried on in Sri Lanka since fifteen years. Filmed with the help of cinematographical equipment of the sixties, with the least dialogues purposely not translated but relayed by a distant commentary, this film transforms the actual pictures into ghostly archives. It is because he dislikes to revive the horror by the illusion of its closeness, that he denounces the link created between technological virtuosity and martial fascination and that he believes, against all silence, on history as a form of knowledge." ####################### Handagama's latest - a film with a difference Asoka Handagama's latest film 'Flying with One Wing' opened at the Regal Cinema Theatre, Colombo on Wednesday, February 26. The Film has already won a number of international awards included Best Cinematic Creation in Asia at the 2002 Tokyo International Film Festival. Special Jury Awards were also awarded at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival, where it also won the Audience Award for the Best Film. The film relates the story of a woman who masquerades as a man marries a woman and leads a quiet life as a mechanic. Handagama in this creation questions sexuality and gender issues deeply and boldly, as he did in his creations. Handagama's is assisted by Upul Shantha Sannasgala producing it and Anoma Janadarie who plays the main role while W. Jayasiri, Mahendra Perera, Gayani Liyanarachchi, Wilson Gunaratne in other roles. ####################### Henry Jayasena to launch cassette, CD by Neomi Kodikara Henry Jayasena, maestro in the sphere of local theatre and drama will launch a cassette and CD containing a variety of dramatic songs from his stage plays, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) auditorium on March 6 at 6 p.m. Jayasena, a playwright, dramatist, versatile writer and humanist who has used his energy to bring out the best in the theatre feels the necessity and relevance of preserving these dramatic songs for the future generations. Speaking to the press at the People's Bank auditorium he went down memory lane recalling his short spell as a teacher, days as a government servant attached to the Public Work Department (PWD) in the heart of Fort and the boom in theatre in the mid 60's. The ever-popular dramatic songs from Janelaya (1961), Kuveni (1963), Tavat Udesanak (1964), Hunuwataye Kathawa(1967), Apata Puthe Magak Nethe (1968) and Diriya Mawa (1972) are included in the cassette and CD named 'Sat Siyak'. Until the late 70's, he contributed actively in the field of theatre and with the production of 'Nurti' and 'Sirisangabo' in 1978 to mark the reopening of the Tower Hall theatre, he gradually moved out from the scene and devoted more time to writing. Not only as a playwright but also as a prolific writer and a talented actor Jayasena has earned plaudits. Still his magnificent portrayal as 'Azdak' in 'Hunuwataye Kathawa' is not forgotten by the Lankan theatre lovers. |
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Manisha Koirala and Aditya Seal play the leading roles of this adults
only film which tries to bring out the curious and worried mind of a
teenager who is fascinated by the beauty of a woman. He follows every step
of this woman including the sex-life of this woman with her boy friend in
the bed-room.
Most countries in and around south East Asia like Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia, Hong Kong host annual International Dancesport Championships.
Championships give dancers the opportunity to vie against the best
competitors. The most renowned Dancesport Championship is the Blackpool
Championships held in Blackpool, UK. The championship lasts a whole week
and the atmosphere is akin to a festival.
