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| Sunday, 10 October 2004 |
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The expiry of a legend Sunday Essay by Ajith Samaranayake The death of Gamini Fonseka on September 30 closes the legendary phase
of the Sinhala cinema. Legendary for the reason that he more The contribution made by Gamini Fonseka to the Sinhala film industry can only be measured if we place it against the times. The Sinhala cinema was at best a pale carbon copy of Tamil films and although the contribution made by South Indian film directors and musicians to the early Sinhala films was technically impressive and placed these films on a sound technical footing this did not lead to the flowering of an indigenous cinema. Gamini Fonseka was perhaps fortunate that from the early day of his career he was able to associate closely with Lester James Peries who chartered the new direction of the indigenous cinema. Gamini was also fortunate that with his education at S.Thomas' College Mt. Lavinia and his immersion in the bilingual culture of the nineteen fifties he was more than well equipped to take on the challenges awaiting the new Sinhala cinema. Sembuge Shelton Gamini Fonseka was born to a middle class family and was bought up at Station Road, Dehiwela, where his neighbours were the late minister C. V. Gooneratne and the late Amitha Abeysekera, the humorist and caricaturist. He was taught Sinhala at school by Arisen Ahubudu who later went on to compose the popular songs in the film 'Sandesaya' where Gamini himself made his first major appearance as Tammita, the rebel fighting the Portuguese. Although Ananda Jayaratne and Shane Gunaratne had the better roles, Gamini's appearance was noted and remarked on by audiences and was a sign of things to come. Gamini Fonseka also gained invaluable experience in the technical aspects of film making by associating with David Lean's team, which made the film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' on location at Kitulgala. This experience in all aspects of film making was to stand him in good stead when he went on to make his own films beginning with 'Parasathumal' and if cinema folklore is to be believed being the inspiration behind many other films done by other directors. The measure of Gamini Fonseka's monumental role in the Sinhala film industry was that he was able to straddle the two worlds of the commercial and the artistic cinema. He was equally capable of playing the role of the popular film hero as well as Jinadasa in 'Gamperaliya' and Willy Abeynayake in 'Nidhanaya' which called for quite contrary approaches. He took the Sinhala cinema by storm with his roles in 'Ranmuthuduwa' and 'Getawarayo' both co-directed by Mike Wilson and Tissa Liyanasuriya. Hitherto the Sinhala film hero had been a flabby, goody-goody figure cast in a South India mould. Gamini Fonseka however shattered this mould with his clean-cut good looks and pugnacious approach to life which was in perfect consonance with the emerging society of the nineteen sixties when new emancipatory social forces had been unleashed. Among his other memorable roles were those of Bonny Mahattaya, the aristocratic philanderer in his own 'Parasathumal' and that of the police inspector in D. B. Nihalsinghe's 'Welikathara' opposite Joe Abeywickrema who gave another memorable performance. As a film director Gamini Fonseka showed a penchant for tackling social and political themes, which was in contrast to his first film 'Parasathumal". In 'Uthumaneni he questioned the inequities of the judicial system and in 'Sagarayak Meda' the corrosive affects of unbridle political power, playing the two roles of the over-bearing cabinet minister and the doctor victimized by him with equal effect. In 'Kotiwaligaya' and 'Nomiyana Minissu' perhaps his least successful film, he probed the complexities of the contemporary ethnic conflict. The attitudes upheld by his films might have been somewhat simplistic but there was no questioning the power and the sincerity of his convictions. Perhaps Gamini Fonseka's least successful role was as an MP and deputy speaker of the 1988 Parliament when he entered politics in the midst of the turbulence of the second JVP insurrection. As deputy to Speaker M. H. Mohammed, he presided over several stormy sessions of Parliament, where he once clashed with Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle during the latter's maiden speech and on another occasion summoned a posse of policemen to the well of the house much against the opposition of SLFP MPs such as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who had just returned to Parliament after the break in 1977. Gamini Fonseka was in every way a larger-than-life figure. History was kind to him and provided him with the background and opportunity to make a epochal contribution to the Sinhala film industry. He established the dignity of the acting profession and offered a new image of the Sinhala film hero. He was the idol and heartthrob of millions of fans at the height of the Sinhala cinema's most popular age. His was the kind of life of which dreams are made and his death leaves a vast vacancy in every reach of our society. |
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than anybody
else forged and shaped almost singlehandedly the stellar quality of the
infant Sinhala cinema struggling to free itself of its South Indian
umbilical cord. He brought to Sinhala acting the heroic approach and his
death after a relatively long withdrawal from the Sinhala cinema is a sad
reminder that the heroic age too is dead. We live in more mundane times,
which do not require larger than life heroes.
