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| Friday, 25 April 2003 |
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Celebrating Malini Fonseka
by Carlo Fonseka Many years ago an Oxford professor called David Daube defined an old man as one whom a pretty girl can no longer make either happy or unhappy. It is a daunting challenge for such a man to be asked to put the enduringly beautiful and amazingly versatile actress Malini Fonseka under the microscope. The occasion is the celebration of the four decades of her artistic life during which she has been a spellbinding presence successively on the theatrical stage, silver screen and the idiot box. Malini vs Rukmani Let me say at once that Malini is much too young to have been the pinup girl of the adolescent boys of the generation to which I belong. When Malini Senehalatha Fonseka was born on 30 April 1947 - the very year in which the first Sinhala film 'Broken Promise' starring Rukmani Devi saw the light of day - we were in our early teens. Later on, the subject I specialised in was Physiology. Physiology teaches that the early teens are the critical years during which adolescents are hormonally conditioned to become emotionally bonded to heroes and heroines. As adolescents, Rukmani Devi, the unsurpassed embodiment of dramatic talent this country has ever known, was the irresistible dream girl and enchanting talent this country has ever known, was the irresistible dream girl and enchanting nightingale we fantasised about. That must be why I cannot see Malini Fonseka without seeing behind her the shadow of Rukmani Devi. Let me come straight out and declare it: for many of my generation, Malini is the next best thing to Rukmani. Question Lest you think that senility is loosening my inhibitions, let me pose the question why millions of ordinary people are enamoured of filmstars. In 1926 when Rudolf Valentino the original heart-throb of the film world died at age 31, thousands of women nearly rioted at his funeral. Marilyn Monroe who died a suicide at age 36 went from actress to icon overnight, and inspired more than 300 biographies. When M. G. Ramachandran died in 1987 eleven Indian killed themselves. I can attest from personal knowledge that Vijaya Kumaratunga's assassination in 1988 provoked two people to end their lives. How do we explain such behaviour? That is the question! Answer The most plausible answer known to me comes from Dr. Desmond Morris, the famous author of the million-copy bestseller called 'The Naked Ape'. His theory is that the human animal is by nature pair-bonding but polyerotic. In plain English what this means is that although humans set up families in pairs, they are sexually aroused by many. This makes biological sense. By keeping father and mother together pair-bonding serves the best interests of human offspring who have a very long period of dependency on parents. (About a quarter of a century if the offspring take up Medicine as a career!) The polyerotic nature of humans promotes optimal natural selection of mating partners. These behavioural traits did not create any serious problems during the long long, tribal hunting stage of human social evolution. Why not? Because - so the explanation goes - in those days the adult fertile females of a given tribe were all more or less in a constant state of pregnancy and all the adult males went hunting together. The tribe was so small that everybody knew everybody else. They were so united that the question of unethical behaviour hardly arose. Moreover, the bugbear of private property was a thing of the future. Voyeurism Modern times are, of course, radically different from those hunting days. For one thing, hunting has been replaced with 'working' in its myriad forms causing free intermingling of polyerotic men and women. For another, contraception has separated sex from reproduction. In the event, the human pair-bond has been stretched almost to breaking point. The wonder is that is does not break more often than it does. According to Desmond Morris, voyeurism has emerged as a strategy for preserving the biologically valuable pair-bond in a polyerotic species. How so? Let us see. Strictly speaking, voyeurism means obtaining sexual excitement from watching other people's sexual activities. In Desmond Morris' view the whole world of art - cinema, theatre, dance, painting, literature, music, sculpture - is largely a form of virtual voyeurism. We all indulge in it to a greater or lesser degree. And we handsomely reward artists, especially actors and actresses for pretending to go through sexual experiences for our benefit. How much art you wish to have in your dose of voyeurism is your choice. There is no conclusive evidence that voyeurism does physical or moral harm. To the contrary, it may do social good by helping to keep mated pairs together. The public is enamoured of film stars because they satisfy our polyerotic impulses in a socially sanctioned way. That is the ultimate (biological) reason for celebrating superstar Malini Fonseka. Enter Malini However that may be, as I was saying, Malini was much too young to have been a tantalising symbol for adolescents of my generation. By her own account, it was her school - Gurukula Vidyalaya Kelaniya - that launched her acting career by casting her for the role of the maid in a performance of the nursery rhyme "Where are you going to my pretty maid?" To this day, the school is immensely proud of its superstar. By the time she made her debut on the stage in 'Noratha Ratha' in 1963; became adjudged the Best Stage Actress for her performance in 'Akal Vassa' in 1965; and arrived on the silver screen in 'Punchi Baba' in 1967; movie-goers of my generation were stolid, mature, middle-aged men of the world. No actress could win the approbation of such men except by what she offered us in the way of psychological truth and emotional authenticity in her starring roles. Malini Fonseka's memorable performance as the guileless sacrificial lamb in Lester James Peiris's masterpiece Nidhanaya - acclaimed as one of the best 100 motion pictures of all time - immortalised her. Beauty and Cinema Cinema is quintessentially a visual medium. It exerts its hold on us by parading beauty which is nothing but the promise of biological happiness. From a biological point of view, beauty serves but one purpose: it promotes the perpetuation of the human race. Long years ago Havelock Ellis, who wrote extensively on the psychology of sex, published an essay titled "What Makes a Woman Beautiful?" In it he quotes the 14th century English poet Geoffry Chaucer's view that a beautiful woman is one "with buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye." Ellis points out that a woman with those physical attributes is ideal for bearing children and suckling them. Biologically speaking, physical beauty is a sign of health, fertility and genetic quality. Young women with large eyes, full red lips, smooth, moist taut skin and firm breasts have been rated as the ones who will give a man the best chance of leaving behind many offspring. Thushara Use that checklist, if you will, and judge any actress (or other woman) you care to evaluate. In my judgement, Malini Fonseka passes the test with flying colours. Her beauty predicates motherhood and that accounts for her enduring appeal in our culture. She is not just a fleeting sex kitten for us to gape and talk about - and forget. After his first look at Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton said: "Her breasts will topple empires before they withered......she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen". In our world of cinema in the film Thushara (1973) Malini Fonseka co-starred with Vijaya Kumaratunga at a time when they were lovers in real life. No wonder Thushara became the most popular film of our times. In Bambaru Avith (1978) again playing opposite Vijaya Kumaratunga, she depicts raw, calculating, female carnality dressed up as innocence. The performance won her the award for the Best Actress of the Year and Malini Fonseka became a movie superstar. From 1980 through 1985, year after year, for six years, tens of thousands of fans voted her as their most popular actress. Even today, after nearly four decades on the silver screen, Malini Fonseka's ripe, lustrous beauty visibly launches any number of picture spreads. Visual Medium You may wonder whether this sharp focus on the persona of Malini Fonseka is the academically correct approach to a valid appraisal of Malini Fonseka the artist. If you think it is not the correct approach please realise that cinema is first, last and always a visual medium. So its superstars have been and have to be beautiful people. Studies have shown that even three month old infants prefer to look at pretty faces! Like all great stars, however, Malini is not just a good looker. She is a bright and articulate woman with a mind of her own. She can intelligently discuss a range of subjects. She has acquired coping skills and has cultivated inner serenity. But, above all, she can truly act. To-date she has starred in 142 films and has been adjudged 'Best Actress' 13 times. She has been chosen to play major roles by almost all our best film makers - Lester James Peries, Dharmasena Pathiraja, Vasantha Obeysekera, Amaranath Jayatilleka, Sunil Ariyaratne, Vijaya Dharmasiri, Parakrama Nirilla, Sugathapala Senerath Yapa and Tissa Abeysekera. Malini Fonseka has also won international acclaim. In fact she happens to be the first filmstar from our country to have won an international award. That was at the 9th International Moscow Film Festival held in 1977, where she won the award reserved for the Best Actress from the Asian region. She achieved another first in 1979 when she was contracted to play opposite Sivaji Ganeshan in the Tamil film titled Pilot Premnath. The film called Sthree saw Malini Fonseka emerging as a filmmaker in her own right. She also played the keyrole in it - the role of a woman who takes arms against a fiercely patriarchal society. The film unfolds a gripping drama with a social moral: if women are to win their rights in this society they have to learn to fight for them. Television Having glittered on the theatrical stage and shone brilliantly on the silver screen for decades, in 1984 Malini Fonseka alighted on television, the reigning medium of mass entertainment. She has played major roles in 17 teledramas, eight of which she has also directed. Perhaps her most memorable role was in Tissa Abeysekera's Pitagankarayo for which she won a Best Actress Award. Malini Fonseka is a self-taught artist. She has learned the truths of life in the School of Life. Being the third child and first-born girl in a closely-knit family of 11 children, she blossomed into a charismatic personality. She has learned to enjoy more the pleasures of her life than to suffer from its pains. Her family has turned to her and received in full measure sustenance, guidance and inspiration. In 1992 she played an impressive role in a film called Umayangana which figured several Fonsekas. I was requested to review it and I went so far as to say: "When an innocent Fonseka as lovely as Malini is brutally murdered...even on the screen, my blood cries for vengeance. And Ananda Fonseka directs Malini Fonseka acting through Damayanthi Fonseka to give the murderers hell". It may be asked why I wished to avenge the screen death of this particular Fonseka. Is Malini Fonseka my own flesh and blood? The answer is "no", but it was by the skin of her teeth that she escaped becoming part of my kith-in-law. That, however, is another story. Great actress Malini Fonseka must surely be the most photographed woman in the history of our country. She attracts cameras in the way that a magnet attracts iron filings. At the Sarasavi festival held at the BMICH last year I had been allotted a seat directly behind the one in which Malini Fonseka sat. As a spin-off I received my longest and most widely viewed exposure on television to-date. The cliche about the inevitable woman behind every great man is still valid. For my part, I now know what a great advantage it can be for a man to sit behind a great actress! |
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Produced by Lake House |
In the landmark event where Sri Lanka's queen of the silver screen
Malini Fonseka celebrates 40 years in cinema, a film festival screening a
selected few of the actress's over-140 memorable films, is being held at
the Elphinstone Theatre. This festival ends on April 29.
