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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A road less travelled Ashoka Handagama retraces the path of his life and work, in conversation with PADMA EDIRISINGHE. Human perversity is such that within a sheath of self-effacing, non-publicity hunting and modest demeanour, an outstanding intellect, incongruously bull - headed to the point of being revolutionary, too can lurk. I am going to write about one such personality - Ashoka Handagama.
Just talking to this incredible trinity - figure, banker, mathematician cum outstanding cinema and teledrama director was certainly an exhilarating experience. Rural boy come to town to reach the stars? Well. The story is not that simple. of course Ashoka informs me that he hails from the hamlet of Ranwala in Sabaragamuwa province but having myself spent a few years of my official life in Kegalle, I can tell you that Ranwala has no pretensions of being a cocoon of rustic life. It just sits there flamboyantly by the Colombo - Kandy highway at the threshold of the city of Kegalle exhibiting its own share of restaurants and what not. And boys and girls from outstation schools coming to the capital to materialize their dream castles too is an old story that has lost its sensational flavour. In fact thousands are doing it now and have been doing it after Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara flashed his pearl of great price i.e. the Free Education system.
But listening to Handagama is certainly thought-provoking. Though today he is domiciled in a suburb of Colombo for the sake of convenience, the past seems to haunt him like his very shadow. "Those panoramic views of sand dunes you see in 'Me paren enna' are redolent of my childhood," he says. "In fact they are a recapture of the scenes I witnessed in the dry zone in and around the city of Anuradhapura." From Kegalle to Anuradhapura, I query. And Ashoka plunges into his own life story. Aesthetic propensities had run in the Handagama family from three generations back. His grandfather, a teacher had also directed at Ranwala what was known as "Teeter', a local corruption of Theatre, its genesis going back in our island to the John de Silva era. His father however held an office in the Public Buildings Department and loved travel and associating artists. One of his working posts was Anuradhapura to where he gleefully migrated with his family. The boy attended St. Joseph's College there. "Sabaragamuwa terrain is certainly beautiful but the mountains sprout there too frequently blocking the vision of an unfettered space. But in the North central region the land just spreads out to nowhere. And when I visited the Jaffna peninsula the stark similarity to what I had witnessed in and around Anuradhapura just fascinated me." Hence rose his decision to capitalize on this aspect of the landscape in his latest production, leading to some remarkably unique scenes where miles and miles of nature's bounty or vacuum just roll off before the spectator. But the endless vistas, I argue are not limited to the dry zone and the Northen peninsula. Stand by the ocean and gorgeous nature spreads out without any boundary except the horizon which is just enigmatic and non-existent. True, he agrees and says that the oceanic landscapes he has tapped in some of his other productions. I have to almost extricate the list of his other productions. Like Iranganie Serasinghe he keeps no records of them. Even a visiting card, that very essential item of media personnel he does not care to own. His talents like those of most gifted, sparkled while yet at school. He produced his first drama at school. And was more connected to stage setting. But Ashoka very wisely had his feet planted firmly on the ground. He did not have that affluent and aristocratic background to make his hobby his life sustenance. (Those of the affluent genre can afford to do so since if the risk fails the family is there to support). So while engaged in his drama activities, he had relentlessly pursued his studies. "I concentrated on my studies following the AL Science stream and entered the University of Kelaniya for a Physical science Degree. I was engaged in Union activities there." He gives a disarming smile. May be his activities disrupted his University career I speculate and I ask so. "No" he says almost apologetically. "I ended with a Maths 1st class in BSc," and in an almost inaudible tone "admits" that he went on to procure an MSc in Economics in the States (Hope I heard it correct). Today he holds a top post in the country's premier bank. That is how far the boy from Ranwala has come, in the arena of general education. But in the cinematic world he has been able to gain an even more outstanding recognition thanks to his innate genius and perseverance. 'Bhoomika' won an award in 1985 at the National Youth Festival. This too rotated around the land issue and was a portender of things to come. Then came Magatha, the award winning drama at the State Drama Festival 1989. In 1990 Handagama entered the teledrama arena with a teledrama based on the book, Before dawn. Then followed a number of teledramas and cinema creations, Candrakinnaree, Dunhinda addara, Diyakada pahana, Cynthetic sihina, Me mage sandai, Thani thatuven piyambanna. Me mage sandai was again themed around the impact of war on rural society, and according to him was the first Sri Lankan production to be commercially filmed in Europe. It was popular since it followed a narrative style indigenous more or less to temple murals. "It cannot be synchronised purely with the mural technique. Static groupings could be the closer term," he deliberates and adds, "The Asian movie can easily get bogged in foreign techniques as those employed by Hollywood. New cinematic techniques have to be explored to preserve our own milieu." That not the country alone but the wide world too has accepted the very intelligent and aesthetic aspirations of the youthful genius from Sabaragamuwa is now manifest. But the most significant aspect we have more or less omitted i.e. Ashoka Handagama's obsession with the ethnic issue and the Jaffna peninsula, interlinked no doubt. Alert to everything going around him Ashoka developed his sensitivity to the ethnic issue in his school days itself. Jaffna peninsula and its inhabitants churning his fertile imagination he longed to visit the North. But the chance always evaded him, even when he was chosen for a team of school boys visiting Jaffna. As luck or ill-luck would have it, he was requested to stay back to prepare the Stage for the visiting team from Jaffna! stage setting being his forte, it alone destroyed his dream. It was many years later he actually visited Jaffna and by this time his sympathies had much veered towards the Tamil population in equal ratio to the war-traumatised people of his own kind... His sensitivity to the sufferings of the general Tamil populace probably explains the smooth reception accorded to the shooting of Me paren enna (Come along this road, the A9), he says. The role of the ordinary man and woman, Sinhala or Tamil has been much underestimated is his viewpoint and they have to be placed in the forefront if peace is to become a reality. Ways and means of concretising this aim was the topic for discussion at a public dialogue monitored by the Jaffna University on March 13, after the screening of the teledrama. No hurdles, I asked rather skeptically despite all what was said. Ashoka Handagama is not loud and never over - expressive. He only smiled and the smile seems to insinuate, "I am accepted in Jaffna totally". How many of us can qualify for that acceptance? Perhaps an increase in that number would go a long way to salve sore wounds. |
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