|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 1 May 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
The tragic death of an arch film buff by Aravinda
The demise of any film personality would bring forth from his pen a well-informed obituary. It is sad to think that a life which held out such promise, should have been so swiftly snuffed out. Sunil was run over by a vehicle at Kandana while on an assignment for the 'Sarasaviya', which he served for over three decades. He died in the line of duty perhaps the best way to go. Sunil's life reads like one of those sad early Sinhala films which formed the stock-in-trade of the industry at its beginning. He lost his mother at a young age and his father (a devoted Anglican) when he was a school boy at Kingswood College, Kandy where a contemporary was Sanath Gunatilleke. I first met him then when he was living with his paternal aunt Mrs. Samarasinghe who was married to John Samarasinghe, one of the most successful criminal lawyers of the Kandy Bar at the time. A studious, introspective boy he was even then madly in love with the cinema. In colloquial parlance he was a 'Picture Pissa' a character round which Titus Thotawatte spun an entire short film. That was Sunil's one and only love. He never married. The early demise of his parents and the loss of the Samarasinghes fairly soon after were tragic milestones in Sunil's life but they also compelled him to pursue an independent life. I next met him on the corridors of Lake House when he had joined the 'Sarasaviya' in 1973. There he developed into the film historian that he was and if he did not shine as a film critic there was no more knowledgeable authority about the industry. There has been no film personality of any worth that Sunil has not written about or interviewed during his career of 32 years in newspapers and the first interviews of many of the well-known stars of today were written by him. The series of articles he wrote about Sinhala films and the personalities associated with them in the 'Sarasaviya' in recent years served to introduce a new generation conscious more of television than the cinema to the heyday of the film industry. One of Sunil's fondest recollections was how as a school boy he had invited Vijaya Kumaratunga to a function in Kandy. Vijaya was on the ascendant then but was yet to become the super-star of later years. Vijaya readily accepted the Kandy school boy's invitation but Sunil was dejected when he heard that Vijaya was in London doing a film. He visited Vijaya's house at Thalakotuwa Gardens in Narahenpita and was assured that the star would be back in time. Picture then Sunil's joy when on the appointed day and time Vijaya Kumaratunga descended on Kandy to grace a humble school boy's ceremony. As a journalist Sunil (his full name was Sunil Horatious Abeykoon but he never used the surname) achieved many of his school boy dreams of sharing the glory of the stars. His contribution to cinema journalism will remain solid. He was looking forward to the film 'Hela Langa' for which he had written the screen play based on one of his own stories. It is sad to think that Sunil has departed to some Elysian picture
paradise even when he is needed acutely in a country which has no film
archives or film school. It is even sadder for those who knew him closely
that the last reel of a life which knew so much sorrow stoically borne
should have been spun out so unexpectedly on a harsh suburban road with no
chance to say farewell. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
The death of Sunil Horatious in a road accident on April 21 at the age of
51 has cruelly robbed the Sinhala cinema and cinema journalism of a
veritable storehouse of knowledge, a walking encyclopedia about the paths
and by-ways, the dark nooks and corners of the film industry during its
history of over half a century. The names of Sinhala films, their directors
and producers, their production history, the cast, the technicians, singers
and musicians, the story line, date of release, the songs - all this Sunil
had at his fingertips. He was also the industry's unacknowledged obituary
writer. 
