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Scrutiny by Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

A famous English critic once remarked that when one travels around the globe one perceives the transition of mankind from being barbarians to being civilized. The stages of development are clearly visible in the cultural patterns of human beings as portrayed by head hunting and cannibalism in remote places of Papua New Guinea to the presence of advanced technological developments in the micro-chip processes that the Americans are involved in and the Japanese kid who plays with gadgets called the J phone that sends screaming video signals, that are yet unheard of in America.

Sir George Yong said, "Greek Drama as Sophocles found it, was not emerging from a sort of chrysalis, a lyrical performance made up of song, ritual and the dance; such as may be met with, to this day, by travellers, in remoter villagers, among ruder races....." Nonetheless the people who perceive Dr. Sarachchandra as a destroyer of the Sinhala theatre may be a minuscule minority. But it is a fact that stylization or the theatre Sarachchandra sired is no longer created by others as the imitators fall far short of the standard of Sarachchandra, making his stylizations, a veritable mockery.

Once a year, in the month of August, the pupils of Sarachchandra make a solemn journey to the abode of the late guru at Epitamulla Road. The structure of the home represents to a large extent the thinking of the guru. Whoever the architect was, the stamp of Sarachchandra in its design and structure is quite evident. There we get to see the lady of the house, Lalitha Sarachchandra.

Sarachchandra accomplished, turned a new leaf and brought to the fore the 'nadagama' that made the intellectuals of his era play with words about the new innovative theatre and to pay homage to the product, which the majority calls the renaissance of the Sinhala theatre. Sarachchandra being a person of the highest intellectual calibre would rather live in rented quarters due to a professor of the university rather than taking up the mundane challenge of building one's own castle.

It was his lady, Lalitha Sarachchandra, who realizes the limitations of a professor, an intellectual living in a world of his own adrift from the pure mundane challenges which faces the ordinary human being. It was her efforts that made the abode of Sarachchandra a reality.

The entire house looks like a work of art created by medieval Sinhala artists. Whether the concept is a Sinhala, Dutch or Portuguese cannot be fathomed as we do not have a record of our architecture other than the ruins.

The first session of the intellectual session begins with a Pirith chanting ceremony. The house is filled with the leading lights of the Sarachchandra renaissance comprising his students, who have achieved eminence in their varied chosen fields. Their contribution to the development of our culture is immense. If we name one it would be unfair by the hundreds of others who were present.

The call to be present and to participate in a ritual close to one's tradition and culture cannot be entirely rejected, since the call came from the lady of the house - Lalitha Sarachchandra herself. The contribution Lalitha made to make Sarachchandra's life as comfortable as possible and provide him with the material artifacts necessary to indulge in the exercise of writing or producing a play is least spoken of by anyone.

It was her managerial skills, discipline and attitude that made Sarachchandra to do things which he would never have attempted on his own without the help of Lalitha. It was mainly her efforts that took 'Maname' to London to perform in front of packed audiences, assisted also by Namel Weeramuni, one of his students, who pays regular obeisance to his teacher with an immense sense of gratitude.

But it was Lalitha who was able to infuse in him the very idea and made a reluctant Sarachchandra agree to the invitation that represented a mighty challenge in those days. Similarly as the Ambassador's wife in France, Lalitha learnt the finer points of being a diplomat's hostess and the Sri Lanka mission came to be full of French artistes, writers and theatregoers and a cultural meeting place of elitists in Paris. Being herself of a village background, she faced a multi-dimensional problem of being an Ambassador's wife to wait on the VVIPs. For instance serving wine in a sherry glass in a society of elitists would make the guests murmur of the ineptitude and uncultured table manners of the host. Lalitha learnt every single piece of etiquette and mannerism which made others appreciate her with aplomb.

Though I was one of the minuscule critics of Sarachchandra's plays, Lalitha quickly approached me to fight for her rights when others printed 'Maname' and 'Sinhabahu' without her approval and tried to merchandize Sarachchandra's plays for economic gain. Her desire to protect Sarachchandra's rights was something that made me admire her greatly. After the death of Sarachchandra, Lalitha revived his plays with the influx of new faces and continued showing to packed audiences.

If not for Lalitha the fate that befell other artistes would have happened to Sarachchandra. It is pathetic to read of artistes who had excelled in their own field often crying and pleading for donations for their very existence.

Lalitha, by her own, has produced plays like 'Rathnawali', an excellent attempt at showing she had learnt a lot at the feet of the guru. If Sarachchandra was the patriarch, the matriarch indeed was Lalitha, his wife.

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