Writing and film making - a symbiotic relationship

by Sajitha Prematunge

Dr. Tissa Abeysekara is a critic, script writer, essayist, director, actor and academic. Coming from the bilingual generation, Tissa Abeysekara began his artistic career as a Sinhala short story writer, when he was still a teenager, with his short stories featured in 'Dinamina' and the 'Janatha' newspapers.

But his greatest achievement was winning a Gratiaen for his first English creative endeavour - Bringing Tony Home, in 1996. He has since been writing mostly in English, bringing out another collection of three stories, titled 'In My Kingdom of the Sun and the Holy Peak'. He has won the title of Deshabandu and he is an active member of the SAARC Writers and Literature Foundation.

Q: You started off as a Sinhala writer, how did you come to be bilingual?

A: I was a bilingual from the start. My father was entirely English speaking and my mother entirely Sinhala speaking. There was always a split social background. I wrote in English for as long as I can remember but started creative work in English much later.

You might know all the technicalities of a language but you have to have an inner feeling about a language to engage in creative writing. Bringing Tony Home was my first creative work. Before that I wrote screen plays that gave me an extended training, though of a different mode. My writing may seem rather abrupt to the outsider, but in fact it had built up over the years.

Q: Which do you feel comfortable with, writing in Sinhala or in English?

A: I suppose writing in Sinhala comes naturally, it being my mother tongue and a greater part of my life being spent communicating in Sinhala language. But in dealing with modern and contemporary issues I feel more comfortable with English.

The Sinhala language has not evolved much in the past 50 years. It is not in step with certain modern sensibilities. Some modern Sinhala writers try to 'manufacture' terms. I use the word 'manufacture' deliberately because all these expressions are artificial and do not belong to the genetics of the Sinhala language. I find it easier to write in English that way.

Q: You started off as a writer and later became a film maker, which do you prefer most?

A: When I was a boy I was very much attracted to books, books that told stories. Whatever I read or listened to, back then, came to me via language. My background was language oriented. My transition to film making happened from the surface.

I am primarily a story teller. Whatever I worked on came through words or images. The transition is not very fundamental. I don't see much of a gap between film making and writing.

I keep writing now because, it's practically the best thing to be doing. It's a solo exercise and there is also no capital involved. I love film making but it is becoming increasingly difficult in Sri Lanka.

Q: Has the two abilities complemented each other and how?

A: Yes, absolutely. I have been referred to as a 'literary film maker' in a critical sort of way. But if they tell me what pure cinema is I would be grateful. The 'Film' came out of the 'Novel' and the 'Play'. The film cannot be completely weaned from its literary origin. I suppose that if it is done it will become very erudite, an intellectual and technical exercise and not a communicative act.

Q: Has your career as a film maker hindered your work as a writer?

A: No, it has enriched it. It's a symbiotic relationship where one nourishes the other. Even as a film maker I have never stopped reading and most of it has been fiction and literary criticism.

Some tell me, whose opinions I respect, that film in its final analysis is commercial and that the things I want to focus on, the serious issues I want to illustrate, are best expressed through literature. Because literature has the scope for greater seriousness. But I am not so sure about that. I think the film has the capacity to be as serious as literature.

Q: Many see you as a fusion between the Anglicized upper middle class and the Sinhala speaking lower middle class. Has this fusion helped you to become a better writer?

A: I consider myself as a hybrid and a product of the Post colonial period of Sri Lanka. I think that we are in a state where we can't go back to the traditional purity that existed in pre-colonial times.

We have to come to terms with the very complex reality, where certain elements - social, cultural perhaps even political, have to be synthesized if we are to develop in the 21st century and in this order of things proficiency in the English language alone is not enough. One has to make it part of one's thinking, of one's sensibility.

You have to do that without losing touch with your roots, because that's where your personality lay. Whether you like it or not, you are a product of a particular culture. But you are constantly adapting yourself to new socio-political circumstances. That's where the synthesis takes place and that's where I feel hybridity is a sign of progress.

Q: Has the alienation you felt as a young man heightened your sensitivity to life?

A: I came from a different background from those who I mixed with in the past. This alienation created a certain tension in my life that made me very receptive to life. I suppose that all people who engage in creative work have heightened sensitivity to life, that can come only through crisis.

Crisis that is personal, circumstantial or political that would make that person sensitive to life than those who live calmer lives. My split social background which arose out of my family going from affluent to rock bottom circumstances made me what I am.

If this crisis didn't occur in my life I would have led a very orthodox life. Without ever questioning things, I would have turned out to be another man who took things for granted.

Q: How did it feel to win a Gratiaen for your first ever creative endeavour (Bringing Tony Home), and what theme did you mean to depict in the novel?

A: I was surprised. It gave me a certain meaning in life and confidence to keep writing in English. I must confess that I have grown more and more fond of making English as my medium of expression, so much so that I am wondering which my mother tongue is.

The relationship between the boy and the dog is just a metaphor. It represents growing up, social change, going poor and losing things while gaining others. But it all depends on the readers. interpretations.

Q: What is your opinion on bilingualism in Sri Lankan literature, is it dying?

A: It's on the ascent. There are many upcoming bilingual writers. There are English writers who know Sinhala well enough to read Sinhala literature and Sinhala writers who have access to world literature. This cross fertilization is now taking place after a period of literary isolation.

[email protected]

***

Would you like to see your words in print?

If you are a talented amateur writer email your original poems and short stories to [email protected] or post them to the Passionate Pen, "Sunday Observer", Associated Newspapers Ceylon Limited, 35, D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha, Colombo 10.

Please be patient and do not be discouraged if the publication of your poems/short stories in the Passionate Pen is delayed, due to an enormous backlog. Please make an effort to limit your poems to less than thirty lines and short stories to less than 1,500 words, to avoid rejection.