He remains pseudo-puritans change

Authentic application to art:

Speaking on the role he played in Jackson Anthony’s Aba, Saumya Liyanage believes that Habara’s role is a pivotal character which plays the role of a narrator in a modern mould. Though the film is made on a historical story, the story evolved through the fictitious character of Habara who connects incidents and the central theme. Pandu Abba was shot for sixty days.

The next important film that is in linefor release is Wijitha Gunaratne’s Wala Patala . It is based on a story associated with 1971’s insurrection.

Saumya is of the view that Wijitha Gunaratne who was a famous dramatist and produced Brecht’s drama, had to leave Sri Lanka for Switzerland due to the volatile political situation in the 1980s.

Another important incident is that academic and teacher of drama, Gamini Hattotuwegama plays the main role in the film. Saumya plays the young assistant doctor’s character. Primarily the story unfolds in a rural hospital.

Saumya stated Sri Lankan viewers unfortunately, will not be able to watch Asoka Handagama’s seminal production Aksharaya (Letter of Fire) due to the prevailing political crisis within the art and culture in Sri Lanka. It has become a tragedy. Saumya believes that the artist has a right to express his or her ideas.

He also subscribes to the view that there should be a classification for the production of art.

However, it should only be a classification and not a censor. Saumya further states in a civilized society, a board may classify work of art.

Saumya expressed deep concern about the numerous constraints imposed on artist and work of art. At the moment Sri Lankan society has no optimum socio-cultural environment that encourages proliferation of media of arts, especially given the high degree of militarization and political crisis. Men and women may not have interest in crying against suppression of art.

This is manifested in the crisis in the Art Council and expulsion of Art Council’s president and the resignation of the chairman of Drama panel over the expulsion, appointment of Chairman to the Public Performance Board. Saumya as a sensitive artist to the development in the field is of the opinion that Sri Lankan art is in a crisis.

If Sri Lanka is marching towards development, the present structure of the Art Council should be changed. He firmly believes that the task of taking decision affecting art and culture should not be in the hands of bureaucrats or politicians. Developed countries do not follow the models which Sri Lanka adapted to in setting up an Art Council.

For instance in Australia, there is an institution called Australian Council for Arts. The objective of the Australian Council for Arts is that the artists can submit project proposals and the Australian Council for Art will make grants.

However, Sri Lankan Art Council is a proverbial white elephant which only feeds bureaucrats. The decision pertaining to the Art Council is taken by Ministry of Cultural Affairs and officials. In this situation, officials in the Art Council are of no use.

There was proposal by former President of the Art Council Thilaka Jayaratne to make the Art Council a funding body for arts. Saumya perceives this proposal as a very constructive one. However, the officials in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs are not broadminded enough to accept the proposal.

The sheer irony of the sordid -affair is that the academics who maintained a deafening silence when artists were suppressed and campaigned for the establishment became victims of the very establishment they protected. The society critically questions the role played by academics. Where were these academics when constraints were imposed on artist?

Those academics could have protested against suppression and at least, form a public opinion against it. Contrary to this, they maintained a silence as if they were Rip Van Winkles.

Referring to his own experience, Saumya recalled that he had taken a right decision in declining the request for him to be a member of the Drama Panel. He realized that Sri Lankan drama cannot be salvaged from its present crisis by being a member of a Drama Panel. It needs a long process with policy decisions. Saumya also does not want to be an administrator.

The dominant ideology of the audience is also determined by diverse discourses of the power of the day. Now the viewers do not rise against suppression of a work of art as the umbilical code between the work of art and viewers has been severed. Speaking on the pathetic state of contemporary artists in Sri Lanka, Saumya states most of the artists are backboneless.

They have absolutely no problem with the establishment and suppression of the artists who are willing to support any political ideology. They are a weak creed with no world view, political ideology and literature. They are like jesters.

For decades, they have been freezed and extremely inactive. They cannot be called artist. Artists have their own personality.

However, Saumya believes artist have his/her own personality. For instance the Nobel Prize Laureate Harold Pinter in a speech accepting the prize severely criticized the World politics. Will Sri Lankan artist criticize? Intellectuals and artist were silent on the expulsion of Chairman of the Art Council.

In Australia, when Australia sent forces to support the US invasion of Iraq, university students and even Hollywood actors launched a protest. Artists have their own ideas on world affairs.

For instance, Saumya was invited by a certain newspaper to participate in an exhibition. It was a state function and the task was to be seated on the stage. Saumya states that he was perturbed over the public perception of an artist in Sri Lanka.

He believes that if an artist has no world view, he or she cannot be an artist. However, in India, actresses are social activists. Saumya is of the view that most of the artists are not aware of what happened in the arena of arts and culture in Sri Lanka.

Currently Saumya is involving in a drama. The drama, Aapahu Herenna Behe (no return) is produced by Rajitha Dissanayake. This is an original drama which depicts contemporary life in Sri Lanka.

The cast includes Jayani Senanayake, Bimal Jayakody, Prasad Suriyaarachchi, Anusuya Subasinghe, Shyam Fernando and W. Jayasiri, Dias. Saumya regrets the gross ignorance of Sri Lankan journalists of cinema, especially of those journalists in exclusive news papers on cinema.

Speaking of the conflict, Saumya stated that he had contributed to most of the work of art on the conflict in Sri Lanka and that the contribution was active contribution rather than a passive portrayal of characters. In an indirect manner, Saumya has expressed his ideas through those creations. He firmly believes that though a thirty year long conflict cannot be defined in a few words, he is an artist who believes in a country where diverse ethnic groups can live in harmony respecting one another’s cultures.

Each ethnic group is entitled to its own culture and way of life.

He says the venomous attack by Jackson Anthony on certain group of actors, and the view that ideas aired by Jackson Anthony at the time were part of the ideology of the dominant discourse of the day.

According to that discourse, a group of artist including Kaushalya Fernando, Saumya Liyanage, W.Jayasiri, Mahendra Perera were interpreted as actors who display their ‘ugly nudity’.

Unofficial decree to hang those artists was issued. However, Saumya believes that practice of art is an integral part of life and sexuality. Therefore, as an actor, he has no fear of being naked before the a camera.

“I am not afraid to be naked before camera because I have not yet striped behind the camera” he emphasised. Within the craft, he is not bounded by conventional morality. The rules and regulations within the craft are diverse.

However, Saumya says that he was chosen for one of the main roles in a film directed by the director who venomously attacked him, in 2008. Saumya emphasised that his stance on the matter has not been changed.

However, views of those who vehemently attacked would have changed their stance. Those artist who attacked certain application of art which is not in conformity with the dominant discourse, subscribed to the dominant discourse for reasons best known to them though they were well versed in the media. However, those views are not eternal.

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