Arts

Yahaluwo (Friends)

Boiling ethnic cauldron through the eyes of a child :

by Ranga Chandrarathne

Yahaluwo, the latest film by veteran filmmaker Sumithra Peiris depicts Sri Lankan society in a miniature form within confines of a house and through the eyes of a child who symbolizes the hapless third generation which is bequeathed with the legacy of division, ethnic hatred and ethnicities in conflict with one another.

The story takes place within confines of a house where a child of mixed parentage (Rajive) grows amidst ethnically heterogeneous servants.

Rajive is a middle-class boy from Colombo. His mother, Manorani, is a doctor and his father Asoka, is a very successful businessman. As his younger brother dies prematurely, he is left with servants at house.

As the parents leave, Rajive starts to explore life involving in love and hatred of his ethnically heterogeneous servants. He gradually comes to terms with grim reality of the world outside the confines of the house through the disturbing ethnic relations of his servants. Through his Bugher teacher of music, Rajive learns that minority ethnic community had to leave the country due to language issue.

As the tremor of ethnic tension begins to affect personal relationship with Rajive's Tamil grandparents who take a painful leave to Canada. The separation was painful for both Rajive and the grandparents. However, it was alleviated by his Sinhalese grandmother, Mrs. Nugawela who helps him to recover from the deprivation of his grandparents.

Rajive demands justice and humanity when problems between Sinhalese driver Jinadasa and Tamil gardener Thotayyah disrupt the ethnic harmony of his house. The Tamil Gardner is always at loggerhead with chauvinistic Sinhalese driver brilliantly portrayed by Kamal Addarachchi, though plays on a lighter tone, carrying a deeply-entrenched organic ethnic hatred of a linguistically segregated generation.

It is this hatred which is from time to time flared by generation of shrewd politicians often in the hide of patriotism. Sinhalese driver has a kind of romantic feelings towards Muslim servant and the intermediary between them often becomes the child.

Though with a light heartedness to the very core of the film, it is a serious story narrated through the eyes of a child. Each and every character is well delineated to represent diverse ethnic identities and dominant dogmas.

For instance, the character of the teacher of Sinhalese is erupted when the little boy questions how his mother tongue being Sinhalese while having a Tamil mother. The teacher of Music who is a Burgher reveals another facet of the history of the country and its short-sighed language policy. Ms. Jansz describes how Burhers had to leave the country as they were unable to teach in Sinhala.

At the end, Rajive who is sandwiched between, conflicting servants plea for social justice, humanity and for equality for all the ethnicities. It is the plea of the third generation who grew with this horrible nightmare which we are living in.

One of the salient aspects of the film is its contemporaneous which is amply manifested through animal kingdom at the house and the child mimicking the role of Sanath Jayasuriya in playing cricket with his servants.

Himasal Thathsara Liyanage as Rajive (Son) brilliantly portrayed the main role and he is supported by Sujeewa Senasinghe, a new comer to the field of cinema, who also showed aptitude in portraying the character of Asoka (Husband) while Pooja Uma Shankr, plays her real ethnic role as Manorani with her own voice which will certainly infuse credibility into the character.

For most of the roles, genuine ethnic actors have been used adding coloure to the film. Vasanthi Chaturani as teacher of music depicts her role convincingly with much gusto while rendering her voice for the background song. Kamal Addarachihi who plays the role of Wijepala- Gate Keeper, shows his inherent talents in depicting a role of a romantic youth who tries to tie up with servant Noorie played by Gangu Roshana.

The film, though in a minuscule scale, explores diverse issues confronting contemporary Sri Lankan society and would be enrichment for deserving children and adult souls who have not corrupted their minds with hair-splitting dogmas. It strives hard to drive home the truth that humanity knows no boundaries and divisions although we are all clad in different cultures and that the doors are open for all to live life as members of the human family.

The film will be outstanding in music as perhaps for the first time, Pandith W.D. Ameradeva and Arundathi Sri Ranga Nadan presents a duet and the music for the film is directed by veteran musician Navaratne Gamage. Art Director Gayatri Mustachi and K.A Dharmasena (Photography) have also contributed to make "Yahaluwo" a colourful venture.

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Pulimood Oration

by Ranga Chandrarathne

Seventeenth Susan George Pulimood Oration will be delivered tomorrow by veteran poet, short story writer, novelist and academic Sita Kulatunga on 'Creative Writer and Social Change'. Mrs. Pulimood, an outstanding principal of Vishaka Vidyalaya, was an impressive personality. It will also mark the hundredth birth day of Susan Pulimood.

Mrs. Sita Kulatunga met Mrs. Pulimood at the selection test at Vishaka Vidyalaya which was personally conducted by Mrs. Pulimood. Mrs. Pulimood dressed well and the Saris she wore suited her very well.

As Vishaka is considered as a girls school which prepared good future wives for upper middle class men, Mrs. Pulimood had done much to change this tradition and she had the vision of what kind of role women asked to play decades ahead of her time.

Accordingly she strengthened Science Stream resulting in producing large number of professionals such as doctors, engineers and scientists who work all over the world.

She was a botanist and authored a botany book for Advanced Level Bio-Science stream and was a must at the time. Her other love was literature. Commenting on the oration, Sita Kulatunga stated that the lines in journalistic writing verges on creative writing.

Element of creativity is found in journalistic writing of authors such as Arundathi Roy. Even in the Independent struggle, the propaganda, especially by Anagarika Dharmapala and Piyadasa Sirisena worked both as journalistic writings. They converted Ceylonese women from Western dress to Sari and Kandyan Sari. T. G. W. de Silva criticised the Western attire.

A city of vintage tune

The second solo exhibition of water colour paintings by the young artist S. Nuwan Nalaka will be held at the Indian Cultural Centre from July 25-28, 10.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. On July 25 the opening day, the exhibition will be from 6.00 p.m.

The exhibition is titled Kolkata - A City of Vintage Tune and Nuwan Nalaka's twenty exhibits depicts Kolkata as a city of joy. "I've tried to capture the vintage essence of the oldness like in the house of colonial design, the extraordinary Ionic Gothic and Corinthian columns of architecture.

My last exhibition portrayed the social and political aspects of Kolkata life. In this year's exhibition I'm depicting the spirit of the city life - the cars, taxis, autos, rickshaw pullers and the market place," says Nuwan Nalaka.

Influenced by the impressionist painters he has mastered the transparent water colour technique which is reflected in the colour and light strokes. A student of the Gampaha Bandaranayake College, Nuwan after his A Levels joined the Rabindra Bharathi University, Kolkata to further his technique and to achieve the Master of Visual Art.

Next year he says he intends having two solo exhibitions, one in Sri Lanka and the other in India.

M.P.