Today marks the 86th birthday and the making of his 21st Feature Film:

How Lester saw his fellow artistes

BY P. Wickramage

'HE would sit quietly in a corner watching you and listening to you with intense concentration.

'You as the Director would discuss the story of your film, expatiate on its theme and characters, giving indications of where you felt music will help most.

There he would sit, a gentle smile on his face, the flicker of irony, lighting up the eyes, but the gaze would be focussed somewhere slightly off you - as though he was looking at something else, wrapped up in his own private dream, concentrating on an inner vision to which you had no access, hearing melodies and patterns of sound which he was, at least for the moment unwilling to share.

This is my favourite snap shot of Amaradeva picture that always comes to mind.

(Lester James Peries' collected works P. 93, 'On Amaradeva' compiled by Piyasena Wickramage - Bhadraji Foundation)

When I compiled the first collection of Articles by LJP, I had a separate heading for a set of articles called 'Tributes to Maestros' - It carried four articles on film personalities which I felt were the best articles written by LJP, especially the article on Amaradeva.

Let's see, apart from that one interesting point he made in an article with the heading, "A New Chapter, Rekava", which I feel is something revealing of the youth of the mid fifties:

"It was a dreary dismal morning... A thin drizzle of rain was falling outside the Regal Theatre -

"There we were three young men, Willie Blake, Titus Thotawatta and I sitting downstairs in the darkened theatre wondering what our fate was going to be...

"We were running six reels of the rough cutting of our first film "Rekava" for Chittampalam A. Gardiner.

He was up in the Box, his charming wife beside him ....

The six reels were over, we were summoned to upstairs.

With a little prodding I am pretty sure from Lady Gardiner, there he was movie-mogul, beaming, not unreservedly but with a kind of sympathetic approval.

"Come over to the office" he said; .... Sir Gardiner thereupon proceeded to make what was almost a papal pronouncement.

"I have just seen the finest Sinhalese film ever made"

He has his own ideas of what a commercial film should be - but he was prepared to back the unconventional"

LJP Collected Works; P.P. 13-14

So that was how he felt as a youngster about a movie-mogul, which he mentioned in an article on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Ceylon Theatres - a pioneer film exhibitor & producer of Sinhala films.

How did Lester meet one of his life long friends the late Prof. A. J. Gunawardana?

"I first met AJ in a bookshop in 1960. "Sandesaya" had just been released and he had written a favourable review in the Ceylon Daily News. No introduction appeared to be necessary.

"Among many other things he stressed the importance of producing films which could appeal to a mass audience and yet avoid insulting the intelligence of the public.

The crucial factor he seemed to argue was that a Director must continue to work and not be forgotten as a 'Prestige Faliure - "

(LJP - Collected Works - p.105)

And how do LJP feel about his friend and colleague, specially after his untimely death?

"For those of us who followed his writings over the last three decades, found in him an invaluable guide, a compass, a communicator on the cultural history of our troubled times.

Though his innate modesty would deny it, he was in some respects our intellectual conscience; when values, cultural, aesthetic, moral were increasingly under threat - either by obfuscation, ignorance or pomposity.

"AJ did not find himself as some of us a stranger - He may have his own reservations, he was fascinated by the new media."

(pp. 103-4 LJP Collected Works)

LJP describes the personal features of his colleague:

"For his yellow Volkswagen no garage was necessary - He could dismantle the engine himself - carry out a complete overhaul and get the ageing jolopy back on the road again"

(LJP Collected Works P. 104)

LJP was very much associated with the world renowned Satyajit Ray - his Indian counterpart. They both, more or less, had similarities. At the age 86, LJP makes plan to do his 21st feature film. LJP thus discusses the theme "Survival":

"What is the secret of Ray's survival? He has certainly not tried to keep pace with technical innovations and gimmicks which make for instant success.

"Indeed he could be considered old fashioned. He has not been without detractors. Truffant of all people walked out of "Pathar Panchali" grumbling - "Europeanised and insipid".

But the opposition to Ray's work in 10 years of film-making has been slight, never very serious and as I pointed out earlier, has not affected in the slightest, the genuine critical admiration his films can still evoke.

Ray's success has been of one or two things - first the material out of which he has constructed his films is still totally unique.

The second factor which has made Ray's work unique in international cinema is his great affirmation of life -"

(LJP Collected Work, pp.101-2-3)