Another view of 'Ekamath Eka Rateka':

Sanath scores a plus

In his directorial debut, Sanath Gunatilake has placed his implicit trust, in the ability of Sri Lanka's film - goers to recognize and appreciate high cinematic art. If Sanath's concern for profound cinema, achieves a wide impact, it could very well result, in the Sinhala film making a fresh and wholesome creative direction.

by Kalakeerthi EDWIN ARIYADASA

Had Emile Zola been around today, Sanath Gunatilake would have certainly earned an affectionate and congratulatory pat on his back, from great Zola.

In his directorial debut, Sanath has been able to reach cinematically, the heart and soul of Zola's short-story - "For a Night of Love", with an admirable and intensely personal verve.

Sanath has gone through a steady process to evolve into the present status of a high - profile film personality. It took him years of sustained effort. He entered the arena of Sinhala cinema three decades ago, as a slim and handsome heart - throb, quite content to be a tagalong to such stalwarts as Gamini Fonseka and Vijaya Kumaranatunga. But, soon Sanath carved out his own niche.

Sanath attained the acme of his acting professionalism when he portrayed the character of Aravinda in Tissa Abeysekara's "Viragaya". His subsequent cinematic roles represented, for the most part, the continued consolidation of his climactic "Aravinda" performance. It is at this stage that Sanath emphatically displayed the true timbre of his personality. Some mediocre persons, only peripherally acquainted with the medium, rush headlong to direct films, and produce inanities in the name of cinema. To be quite frank most of them do not possess even a vestige of the expertise, experience, popularity and above all the professionalism that Sanath has been able to garner assiduously over the years.

If Sanath too was propelled by an identical cupidity, he could very well have put together some cinematic concoction, to rake in the shekels of the gullible film-goers. Sanath did not stoop that low. With an admirable restraint and patience, he abode his time, until he could perform his directorial debut, with a cinematic work, that would be creatively and cinematically outstanding. The distinguished outcome of this prolonged gestation is the current "Ekamath Eka Rateka" (Once upon a time). The film is pure Sanath Gunatilake, since he is the script-writer, lead player and the director - all rolled into one.

The title of the work, "Ekamath Eka Rateka" (Once upon a time) succinctly sums up the perenniality of the theme. The human situation couched in the story-line is valid for any time - any place.

To my mind the director opted to base his film - debut on Emile Zola's short story, because of Sanath's pre-occupation with the austere. Sanath Gunatilake, may have been put off by the tinsel-dazzle of some of the so-called popular films of our day. Besides, it could very well be, that, the residual sentiments of detachment, from his memorable role as the dispassionate Aravinda of "Viragaya", are, at least, vestigially present in the deep recesses of his creative soul. While in this mood, Emile Zola's short story "Pour une nuit d'amour" (For One Night of Love) would have appealed to director Sanath Gunathilake, by its stark, anti-romantic stance. In resolving to play the character of the grotesque clerk, who is centrally significant for the progress of the story, Sanath Gunathilake imposed a creative challenge on himself. What really matters here, is that, director Sanath Gunathilake has been able to interpret Zola's philosophy of Naturalism, very much in the spirit Zola himself defined it. To Emile Zola, Naturalism meant "Nature seen thorough a specific temperament". The grotesqueness of the clerk is largely a mental construct of his own, emerging from the inner temperament, specific to him, rather than a state imposed by those outside. His curt greeting of the people he meets in the street, his mechanized and stereotyped daily routine, are dictated primarily by his own "inner temperament". The shroud by solitariness, he wraps himself with, adds substantially to his grotesqueness. The only companion he has to console his lonely hours, is his pet dog.

The soul-saving grace in his life is his flute, out of which he conjured up alluring music.

The character of the misshapen clerk, is, by and large, a conglomeration of behaviourial oddities, rather than a product of downright grotesqueness. He is ungainly and gauche, but not repulsively ugly in the quasimodoic sense. That explains why a mischievous young woman observes, that conditionally, he could be utilized for essential copulatory functions.

Sanath Gunatilake, in the central role of the grotesque clerk, can hardly conceal the appealing contours of his handsome physique. The protruding derriere and the jut jaw, (courtesy of the make-up department) fail to keep out his much displayed (on screen of course) charm and grace.

The fortunes of the two main male protagonists of the story, begin to take a pathetic nose-dive, when an elitist femme-fatale, in the form of a bundle of fissionable eroticism, appears on the scene. Played by alluring starlet Nirosha Perera, this role is one of the best things that happened to contemporary Sinhala cinema in recent times.

I am quite pleased (as a person always ready to salute good and great things in cinema), that the director had the good taste to present these somewhat explicit scenes of copulatory intimacy in the film, as they are an integral part in the progress of the story. By inherent nature, the young woman, is given to uninhibited domineering. The preamble of the film introduces episodes depicting this woman as an overbearing child, having her way with an awed, timid and frightened child, who has now matured into attractive young manhood. He is now her secret lover, willing to submit to her copulatory aggressiveness, in her own terms. Nirosha Perera, distinguishes herself, not only in those scenes of mandatory copulation bouts, but also in the course of other demanding portrayals, displaying a creative virtuosity that earns her full-blooded stardom.

The self-willed stubbornness of the spoilt-child, cinematically monumented here by Nirosha Perera, contributes a highly memorable dimension to director Sanath Gunatilake's expert cinematic narration. Niroshan Ravindra, in the role of the young lawyer, held in erotic captivity by his childhood playmate, now incarnated into erotic totalitarianism, is subdued and tamed as the story demands. Director Sanath Gunatilake's cinematic debut, is a praiseworthy creative effort, in which the detail is pursued with an exemplary assiduousness. Those who view the film, with keen alertness, will detect traces, that echo the impressionistic styles of Monet and Manet. These hints are present in some of the scenes that form the backdrop, to some actions.

Director Sanath Gunathilake, selected Emile Zola, in his effort to elicit a creative work, he could utilize for his debut. Emile Zola was very much a chronicler of the dark-side of human life and the sordid in human existence. Anatole France characterized Emily Zola, as "A moment of the human conscience". He explored the lives of men and women caught up, inextricably in a fate they could not wrestle. Direct Sanath Gunatilake, has demonstrated in his debut, "Ekamath Eka Rateka", that Sinhala cinema can derive fresh vigour from this kind of high human classic.

The Sri Lankan film - goers, to my mind, have a right to reciprocate the trust director Sanath Gunatilake has placed in them, by the passive gesture of viewing his film, which is the outcome of a series of personal ordeals. Director Sanath Gunatilake has to be especially recognised for making it starkly clear, that Sri Lanka cinema has a viable future, if only we say "yes" to exceptional cinematic creativity.