Spanning generations…

‘I will return to the stage some day - Iranganie Serasinghe

by Carol Aloysius

Born in 1927, in a family of two sisters and a brother, and despite being Sri Lanka’s most famous stage and screen actress one thing is evident whenever she pauses to recall her childhood:. That she is rooted to her village upbringing

Actress, wild life conservationist, wife of a celebrated actor, mother and grandmother, Iranganie Serasinghe, now in her 90th year and virtually retired, her once active life hampered by two heart attacks, says her greatest wish is to return to the stage. Given her willpower which she has in plenty, she may do just that.

Our meeting, though planned ahead was almost stalled if the repeated phone calls to cancel it had reached us before we set out to her Pita Kotte house. “I have to undergo an emergency eye operation tomorrow,” she said. But, observing my disappointment she agreed to talk to us for a few minutes.

Except for the four poster bed with pink curtains on which she sleeps which is the centre piece of her white washed room, and a single iron bed on a side of the room, a wardrobe containing her clothes and a small table with books and newspapers, her room is bare. Lit by Chinese lamps, with windows that open to a little garden outside, the atmosphere is soothing and serene.

Untouched

For a woman who has had to meet the challenges of a demanding career, be it on the stage, on radio, in journalism or acting in television and cinematic roles, Iranganie’s face is remarkably untouched by her punishing lifestyle.

The smooth golden complexion owes its glow, to the absence of layers of powder and make up and the full lips are naturally red. “I never use powder or lipstick unless I have to”, she says. Her wavy dark hair is now naturally grey and shiny, and the large as expressive as ever. To oblige cameraman Vipula Amerasinghe who requests for a photo shoot, she changes her nightdress to a colourful wrap around skirt with matching blouse exiting from her room unaided and as gracefully as a dancer, her slim figure erect and poised, into a sunlit filled corridor. The barefoot slim figure which glides ahead of us along the sloping marbled floor stops at the entrance of the dining room and stands in front of a large picture of a typical village scene. “The life sized frieze drawn in sensuous colours which contrast strongly with the stark white walls on which it has been drawn by an artist friend using an acrylic pen, brings to life a village community engaged in day to day activities - women planting rice, harvesting the crop, pounding paddy, and men ploughing, sewing paddy seeds and taking time off to have a betel chew or a smoke of beedi.” When I get homesick for my village which I often do, looking at this picture which evokes so many wonderful memories of my youth|, soothes my spirits”, she says with appealing candour.

Dining room

Her dining room serves many purposes, she tells me. Reading is one, she says pointing to a number of book cases filled with books - her son’s collections and those of hers and her late husband Winston Serasinghe. The antique table is for writing and dining.

Childhood

Born in 1927, in a family of two sisters and a brother, and despite being Sri Lanka’s most famous stage and screen actress one thing is evident whenever she pauses to recall her childhood:. That she is rooted to her village upbringing. No matter the changes life has brought to her life, the girl who spent her childhood and early teenage years sailing down the Gurugoda oya stealing rides on paaruwas in the peace and quiet of Moodugamuwa is still a simple village girl at heart and mind.

Ancestral home

The massive house in which she lived as a child had three meda midulas (open courtyard). I noticed that Iranganie had tried to re create this peasant atmosphere in the present house she lives in, which has a small meda midula at the entrance with a scatter of large rocks and some ferns.

Religious and ethnic harmony

A significant feature in her own household Iranganie recalls, was that they practiced two religions - Buddhism and Christianity. Boarded in an Anglican school, Bishop’s College, during the outbreak of the world war, she says, “Although there was a mix of ethnic groups from Chinese, Japanese, Scottish, English, Maldivians to Sri Lankans we all got on famously and never thought of each other as belonging to a particular community,- but people who belonged to one nation.”

Entertainment - then and now

“We had little entertainment unlike today. No TV, no mobile phones. When we went for a film our focus was on the characters and acting. There were no mobile phones to distract us. That is how it should be. Yet, we never missed out on the simple pleasures of life. So to have relatives coming over was seen as a great event in our otherwise uneventful life. The highlights of those events were the Kandyan dancers and Kandyan drums”. Even today she admits, “when I hear the sound of Kandyan drums I want to leap and dance”...

Ruk Rekaganno

She is happy the Ruk Rekaganno Society has been able to raise more awareness among the villagers especially in protecting their natural forests.

Drama

Her gifts for mimicry, and love for the opera, she believes, must have sown the seeds for her passion for drama.

Her first public performance was at Kandy Girls High School when they performed Pygmalian and she played Prof. Henry Higgins. “It was also the first time I met my second husband Winston Serasinghe, then working in the Prisons Department. After seeing our play he saw me and said, “Ah that girl can act”. I was flattered.”

Actual professional training in drama however came when she went to London accompanying her first husband. Hearing the news of her imminent departure, her erstwhile English lecturer Prof. Ludowyke advised her to join a Theatre school.” At that time I didn’t know there were institutions called ‘Theatre Schools”, she confesses with disarming candour. “Until then I believed that one simply got up and acted.”

Marriage and children

Of her second marriage she says of Winston, ‘Sera was a very happy-go-lucky person. He was a ruggerite from Royal College and married late in life. We had a 17 year age gap. He was also an actor. It was the first time I heard of a ruggerite being an actor”, she admits wryly.

More than anything, Iranganie says she yearned to be a mother. ‘I loved babies. And I wanted to become a mother.’ So when their two sons Ravi and Ranjith were born she was over the moon...

Unforgettable stage roles

Two memorable roles she recalls were in Antigone and Macbeth.

“Both roles were very complex. Macbeth is still a favourite play. I can read it once gain and see something different even today”.

Films

The first time Irangani faced a camera was when she played the role of an old woman who hogged the middle of the road in a docu drama ‘Be Safe or Sorry’ by Lester James Peries in 1955.

Acting in Rekhawa was a memorable experience, she recalls. She was 29 years old and not yet a mother, but had to play a much older woman in the film. Although initially scared of playing the role as she felt she hadn’t mastered the Sinhala dialogue well, she says, “It was my village background that helped me. I didn’t imitate those women. I knew their body language and the way they spoke”.

Most frightening moments

“Almost being burned on a funeral pyre in God King. It was Lester James Peries who save my life or I would have ended up as a charred skeleton!”

If she lived her life again would she still want to act? I ask before we leave.

“ Acting is in my blood and my passion. My secret wish is to return to the stage even after two heart attacks and my advanced age”.

Mother roles

‘I have come to accept them and some are quite interesting as in Bak Maha Deega which I enjoyed as it was a comedy”.

Things she misses most?

Bathing in the river and silence. Even in Yala the roads are now overcrowded with vehicles unlike in the past and animals flee disturbed by the noise they create, she complains. She also misses walking in paddy fields, and interacting with village folk.

Dhamma

To our final question, “If you could live your life again what would you wish?

She furrows her eyebrows in deep thought and then replies, “To have studied the Dhamma much earlier in life, because I would have seen life in a different way. The Dhamma enables the human mind to achieve inner tranquillity shutting out everything else that is rooted in, basically greed (thanha ).’

(Pix: Vipula Amerasinghe)