Chandran Rutnam’s Mathew makes headway

by Dilshan Boange

Part 1

Sri Lankan film-maker Chandran Rutnam made headway in the international film world when his film A Common Man which had Sir Ben Kingsley playing the lead, won him the award for best Director at the Madrid International Film Festival. On July 15, I had the pleasure of sitting down to interview this veteran in the Lankan film industry about his next flick for the big screen.

According to Mathew, Rutnam’s next venture has already won some considerable media attention. It is a cinematic creation that recaptures the infamous ‘vicarage double murder’ also known as the ‘Fr. Mathew Peiris case’. Enlisting the acting talents of Alston Koch who will play the lead role, Bimsara Premaratne the role of Mathew’s wife, Jacqueline Fernandez portraying Mathew’s lover and Kian O’Grady the husband of Mathew’s mistress, Rutnam is now under way Kiru with his ambitious project which will no doubt mark a milestone in both his own career and Sri Lanka’s history in motion pictures.

Fr. Mathew Peiris is not a name unknown to me though I had never seen him in person. The first point of introduction of his reputation being through the words of my paternal grandmother Sita Boange, who has quite a talent for regaling her grandchildren as a storyteller. More than once I had heard her narrative of how Fr. Mathew Peiris successfully exorcised a male servant working at the home of my maternal aunt and uncle, Umanga and Upali Seneviratne who lived at Kavinda Place, Kirillapone.

The redoubtable way in which Fr. Mathew unrelentingly persisted to cast out the devil showing not an iota of fear, as the young man possessed by a demonic force continued to defiantly spit and curse at the holy man, and how finally the force of good prevailed was described in detail that made the story one that made the name of the renowned priest at that time seem legendary in my eyes.

Why this story?

What made Rutnam choose the Mathew Peiris case as his next project? What is in this story that he believes will create a successful movie? What kind of obstacles will the film-maker encounter due to the highly sensitive nature of the story which surely will irk certain segments in Sri Lanka? I wanted to start off where any story behind a project is best found –the beginning. Yes, Rutnam too had his own story to tell about the enigmatic priest who bore a widespread reputation as an unfailing exorcist.

When I asked Rutnam what inspired him to do this story into a film he immediately said he first needs to get his file and called his secretary ‘Jasmin’ to bring him the dossier. “How long have you been collecting material for this project?” I asked. To my amazement he said “Over 20 years”. There is certainly a story behind all this I thought. It was not a project put together on a surge of inspiration alone.

“Father Mathew was my pastor,” he began. “He was a very influential man in the community. My father was an entrepreneur, an affluent businessman who lived at Guilford Crescent in Colombo 7. Fr. Mathew, as a friend and a prominent citizen was invited at all our functions . So we had a social as well as a religious connection.” Rutnam went on to say how during the death of his mother Fr. Mathew was there to comfort his father over his bereavement. The closeness the Rutnams shared with Fr. Mathew was like that of ‘almost family’ one may suppose.

Although the ‘vicarage double murder’ more or less stamped Mathew Peris’ image in the eyes of the public as one of evil, surely there must have been another side to him that made him gain so much appreciation and favour with many. Rutnam then related how Fr. Mathew had gone to great lengths to help a boy with a terminal heart condition to undergo surgery in the USA. “I got a phone call from my dad, saying Fr. Mathew was taking a poor young boy for a heart surgery. He had been able to speak to the most prominent heart specialist in the world at the time to perform the operation free!”

No small feat by any standards one may say, considering it was before the arrival of the Internet and all modern forms of communication technology. “So, these are the things that Fr. Mathew did. He did a lot of good. I was married and living in Los Angeles at the time. He came and spent a night with us, at my house and the next day he took the boy to Houston Texas for the operation. It was performed by Dr. Michael Debeky, and Dr. Coolie.

At that time they were the best doctors in the world for heart surgery, and the operation was successful. On the day of the operation he called me and said can you send a cameraman here? We’ll film this operation!” I said, “Wait a minute, first of all did you get permission? And he said, “I’ll get permission!” admitting that he was shocked at the thought of filming a surgical procedure Rutnam gave a glimpse as to who Mathew Peiris was in certain respects. A man of many stories no doubt.

Building a story

“People swear that he was an excellent exorcist. And that he had performed a lot of successful exorcisms. Also there are people who said he used his power and identity to seduce young women. We don’t know whether they were true or not, but those were the rumours.” What exactly is Rutnam going to capture in his story? The film will focus on the vicarage murders and stop at the point where Mathew Peiris is convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.

The court records therefore form a substantial basis of the story’s angle, and also what was explicated to Rutnam by the late Justice Alles who had encouraged him to do the film.

According to Mathew, as admitted by Rutnam, it is a movie based on a true story and doesn’t hide the identity of the protagonist and the ignominious crime he was responsible for.

There could be ethical and moral implications involved one may say when it comes to heirs and kin of the people portrayed. An interesting fact is that Rutnam had got Fr. Mathew’s consent to do a film based on the murder trial and had it put down contractually. Copies of the Memorandum of Agreement entered into with Fr. Mathew was provided to me by the film-maker which have been produced here as pictorial material for the benefit of the reader.

The ‘Welikada encounter’

It was when Rutnam was involved in an Australian film on the Indonesian criminal Charles Sobraj while on location at the Welikada prison grounds that his initiating point for the Mathew Peiris film project had come about. “I got a tap on my shoulder and looked up and saw Fr. Mathew.

He was in shorts; he was carrying a Bible and wore a large cross hanging from a silver chain round his neck.” That day Rutnam and his former pastor had agreed to meet on a later day, which led to the discussion of the film. By then Rutnam had already had thought of doing a film based on the vicarage double murder and wanted to proceed.

“I asked him whether it was ok, and he said it was fine. And named a fee. He said ok, then go ahead.” And Rutnam had been given the green light to begin writing the script. There had been meetings and discussion afterwards and the meticulous Rutnam had a person make notes of the discussions. At the point when things were coming together at script level Fr. Mathew had asked a crucial question, “who was going to play the lead role? “I said Gamini Fonseca and he said no, no, no! I then asked who then? He said “I will play myself”.

I got a little shock and I said – Father you’re in prison!”

Fr. Mathew had been hopeful of being acquitted in the appeal said Rutnam, and on that belief had thought of the possibility to play the role in the film. “How is the screenplay coming?”, he asked me.

I said, “I just started it.” And then he said, “You must show my innocence.” I said, “Father if you are innocent, then we don’t have a movie.”

And upon saying that Mathew Peiris’ response, had sent shivers down Rutnam’s spine. “Then he came close to me. And he said, “Chandran, I’m like a scorpion.

Anybody who crosses me, I will sting them with my tail.” That had been the last time Chadran Rutnam met with his former pastor to discuss the film project that is now finally coming to fruition.