|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
'Api Nodanna Live' : Scattering the seeds of satire SUNDAY ESSAY by AJITH S AMARANAYAKE Two young men, fresh out of school, have taken the medium of Television, in imminent danger of being drowned in phantasmagoria, by the scruff of its neck and rubbed its face on the rock solid ground of reality. 'Api Nodanna Live' telecast every Sunday at 11 am over Sirasa is a hilarious send-up of television itself which punctures the pretensions and pomposities of the presenters, talk show hosts and the advertising agencies as reflected in the Idiot Box.
Contrary to appearance satire is not an easy trick to pull off. We Sri Lankans may be humorous people but somehow particularly on the screen and the television humour often degenerates into slapstick. It is often vulgar as evidenced by the current series of nauseating comic films. This, of course, was not always so. Most of the early stage plays such as Sarachchandra's 'Kapuwa Kapothi', 'Ibe Veda' etc., were humorous plays adapted into Sinhala mostly from French and Russian works. But in recent times there has been a sad degeneration of humour and this is why the efforts of the two young men associated with 'Api Nodanna Live' is all the more noteworthy. For the program is not merely humorous. It also has a sharp satirical cutting edge. Thus the creators of this program have not had a substantial satirical tradition or a body of work to draw on. Most humorous programmes in Sinhala depend on slapstick comedy for effect rather than drawing on the language or situations. 'Api Nodanna Live' on the other hand mines the whole rich field of satire to make its point. It ranges over the whole spectrum of satire such as parody, pastiche, improvisation, songs etc: Written and presented by Shaminda Preethiviraj and Suneth Chitrananda it satirises and lampoons all aspects of television. There are parodies and caricatures of talk shows, advertisements, cookery demonstrations, interviews and the gamut of television while the substitution of other words to popular lyrics is masterly. The plethora of advertising was lampooned for instance by showing the whole screen being filled by small blurbs during the telecast of a Cricket match. In another instance a young father on the beach is cautioned that his child is going dangerously close to the water only to receive the reply 'Not to worry. He has got Kalu Kaputa insurance cover.' At the butt end of the programme's satire are the Sinhala talk show hosts and those who are interviewed by them. The tendency of these presenters to talk too much, waste words, assume an empty punditry and ask inane questions and the pretentiousness of those celebrities who appear on these shows are all parodied. The two presenters are a perfect foil to each other. Preethiviraj who is known as 'Podi Malli' uses English words profusely while Chitrananda who goes as 'Chooti Malli' adheres to chaste Sinhala. The program also makes use of look-alikes to caricature the celebrity interview. Among those appearing in recent weeks have been look-alikes of Muttiah Muralitharan and Sharouk Khan. The two presenters reveal a wildly zany imagination which is the necessary prerequisite for satire. Of course, the true flavour of the humour and the word play can only be captured in Sinhala but English readers will be able to identify with the programme because of the sophistication of its satire which is worthy of a western programme. It is unlikely that the two presenters have heard of or watched such BBC Television programmes as 'The Goon Show' or 'That was the week that was' which first introduced television satire to English audiences but 'Api Nodanna Live' comes in a direct line from such satirical programmes. This was the time in the 1960s when such programmes, magazines like 'Private Eye' and satirical sketches and revues in night clubs sought to strip British society of pretence and pomposity. The idea was to dissipate the complacency which seemed to be settling on society as exemplified by the then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan's famous remark 'You have never had it so good.' It was also a time when the Establishment was being violently rocked to its foundation by the Profumo Affair which exposed the Sanctimoniousness of the ruling classes. The growth of the satire industry during this period gave a much needed shot in the arm to English journalism and writing. In Sri Lanka 'Api Nodanna Live' is in a direct line which stretches from Chintana Jayasena's satirical magazine 'Columna' which is published periodically if erratically. The roots of 'Columna' itself go back to the newspaper which Jayasena began his journalism at, namely 'Udaya' which was published for several years in the late 1960s. It brought together a group of such talented journalists as Richard Wijesiri and Tissa Gunatilleke and was known for its bright columns of opinion and brought a breath of fresh air into a Sinhala press which had become frozen round three major newspaper groups. Taking off from 'Udaya' Jayasena brought a new dimension to Sinhala journalism through 'Columna' which was somewhat like the English 'Private Eye' and was a spoof on the conventional newspaper. At the height of the Eelam War for example Jayasena inserted a fictitious advertisement for the Sri Lanka Army. It read, 'Come join us.' Go by air, comeback in a coffin. If you die we are saved 'which sounded much more pungent in its original Sinhala. It is therefore nice to see that Sinhala satire is alive if not exactly kicking through 'Api Nodanna Live'. The one area which the programme does not explore is politics and this is perhaps understandable in the context of the self-censorship imposed on the subject by the media. However, in its exposure of humbug and bogusness in the media the programme is dead on target and shows a sure grasp of satire on the part of its young creators. Satire stems from the introduction of outrageous or incongruous situations and word play into a conventional context. Then the world is turned upside down and inside out and things are stood on their head. Our complacent outlook on the world is disturbed and our eyes opened to a new universe and new ways of looking at things. This sense of irreverence marks 'Api Nodanna Live' for good measure. For example soon after Vesak Preethiviraj produced a yarn about a Vesak show. Apparently there was a notice outside a wayside cadjan shed announcing the staging of 'Mara Parajaya' inside. This is the trouncing of the forces of Mara or the God of Death by the Buddha. But what they were showing were the highlights of a Cricket match on a wide screen. The match? The World Cup encounter between Sri Lanka and Kenya where Sri Lanka was trounced. Satire, whether used as rapier or bludgeon, is therefore a salutary corrective of pretence and humbug and can serve to expose the clay feet of the gods. It is of course, ironical that this programme should start off with the medium of television itself but that itself is the paradox on which the programme turns. There is far too much piffle spewed forth by the Idiot Box in a situation where the presenters and their guests have become transmogrified into a pantheon of idols in a society desperately on the lookout for heroes. Today we live in an age of instant celebrity and 'Api Nodanna Live' is a necessary corrective to the cant, commercialism and bogusness of this age of an all-pervading and all-embracing popular culture. POSTSCRIPT: A direct television influence on this programme was no doubt the redoubtable. Titus Thotawatte who took the English cartoons and gave them his own inimitable Sinhala dialogue on Rupavahini in the 1980s. He also did his own Sinhala muppet show of a rather restricted social nature. So are Preethiviraj and Chitrananda the inheritors of Thotawatte's torch? |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
