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| Sunday, 6 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
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Dharmasiri Gamage at 63 : The mentor to the literate young by AJITH SAMARANAYAKE Dharmasiri Gamage is singularly blessed because he has such an ardent
following. Normally artistes, writers, poets, singers and the rest of that
floating fraternity have their followers, hangers-on, But Gamage's blessings come from elsewhere. As compiler of the feature named 'Pahan Veta' in the now extinct Lake House publication 'Yovun Janatha' in the late 1970s and early 1980s the alumni of that page (who number some of the best names of Sinhala poetry, song and journalism today) treated him as a King yesterday at the Jana Kala Kendraya, Battaramulla. Not that Gamage is a King although he has all the features of a modest, good-looking peasant who in the classical days of the Sinhala Kings (according to folklore) was supposed to be called to the throne when a King had suddenly passed away leaving no successor and the Royal Elephant was sent out to look for a suitable aspirant for the throne. Gamage, of course, will be the first to dismiss such idolatry with his characteristically charming smile but the fact remains that as journalist, lyric writer, film-maker and broadcaster on both radio and television he has certainly produced princes in these media although modestly disdaining the role of King-maker. In fact his career is an exemplar of the times. Sixty three years old last Friday and for 43 years of that time a journalist and writer he has had a ringside view of the artistic and cultural developments of the time in which the nascent post-Independence Sri Lanka struggled to attain her still unsure nationhood. Beginning as a journalist on the 'Lankadeepa' under the path-breaking editorship of that bi-lingual legend D. B. Dhanapala, he was to find his metier as a writer, poet, lyricist and film-maker. What was that peculiar cultural milieu which fostered Gamage and his like? It was the time that the Sinhala language was coming into its own after centuries of colonial oppression and consequent Brown Sahib overlordship. Both in the classical as well as the popular arts, new works were emerging which sent a blast of fresh air through the hitherto petrified corridors of an acquiescent and servile culture. Lester James Peries made 'Rekhava', Sarachchandra made 'Maname' and Gamage's 'Lankadeepa' colleague Karunasena Jayalath wrote 'Golu Hadawatha', perhaps the alltime best-seller of Sinhala fiction. And there was Gamage's other colleague Sri Chandraratne Manawasinghe, no mean poet and lyricist himself, offering a witty and mordant daily commentary in the pages of the 'Lankadeepa' itself under the title of 'Wagatuga'. So that was the milieu and that was the man and for a young man in particular it was bliss to be young. And so Gamage matured. He first emerged as a poet and lyric writer and one of his first lyrics for Nanda Malini in one of her earliest radio programmes was 'Hada Wila Kalambana Pem Jala Rekha' which is still a hit with all generations. Another of Gamage's best-known songs is 'Ammawarune' written for the film 'Pooja' directed by himself, another Nanda Malini song. The chief hallmark of Gamage both in his poetry and his life is his humanism. That is perhaps because he came up the hard way himself climbing the ladder step by step and not attaining instant celebrity like most of the media stars of today. However paradoxically this has not deterred him from giving his hand to a new generation. As the compiler of the above-named 'Pahan Veta' he introduced a fledgling generation of poets and writers who have more than realised the hopes and investment which their mentor had bestowed on these starry-eyed arrivals in the urban jungle of Colombo more often than not from the remotest reaches of the countryside. Among some of the well-known literary figures of the new generation whom Gamage introduced through his pages have been Chandrasiri Dodangoda, D. V. Gallage, Ranjith Amarakeerthi Palihapitiya, K. M. I. Swarnasinghe, Pushpa Ramlani, Pushpa Illangatilleke, Kapila M. Gamage, Sepali Wathsala Ranaweera, Norbert Ayagamage, Vipula Heva Walimuni, Sunanda Ranasinghe, Wasantha Kumara Kobawaka and Bandara Eheliyagoda, the last two being among the best of the younger lyricists while the rest are poets, writers and journalists. They have in their own way (being basically a generation which came to maturity after 1977) kept the flame of a literate culture alive in a country being steadily overwhelmed by commerce. As a film-maker Gamage has belonged to the middle-of-the-road Sinhala cinema exemplified among others by K. A. W. Perera. As a lyricist he might not even himself have aspired to reach the heights of high poetics but his songs have been touched by their own tender lyricism. In recent times he has found a new vocation as a travel writer both within the country and outside introducing the sights, sounds and wonders of Europe and Asia to a generation to which is preached the gospel of globalisation but most of whom are sadly still prisoners of our insular island mentality. As a journalist, trainer of journalists and a mentor to a new generation of the print media he has been pre-eminent although wearing this laurel with his innate modesty. Difficult though it is to believe that he is 63 he thoroughly deserves all the plaudits, accolades and encomia which have been bestowed on him in abundance. |
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sycophants and the
like who are ready to sing their masters' praises at the drop of a
metaphor or a rhyme.
