On to advertising

THEATRE: Doo Daruvo which started being aired in 1990 went on and on for nearly five years and we had 'shooting' work all that time. Those days it took around three days of work to cover one episode. I believe now the pace is much faster.

Dulcie Akka's home was situated in a village called Pelenwatte, off Moraketiya junction, Pannipitiya. Most of the shooting was done there. It was the home of a former Village Headman. It had all the features that were necessary for Dulcie Akka's ancestral home.

All three of Dulcie Akka's daughters were married. It becomes clear as the story unfolds that all three sons-in-law had been given the impression that the ancestral home would come to them as dowry.

Two of the daughters - the eldest and the youngest have settled down in two rooms of the Mahagedara. Only the second daughter and her husband - Veena Jayakody and Neil Alles - have moved out on their own to a half completed house.

The eldest daughter, Kusumalatha, was played by Sunethra Sarachchandra and her husband Dias Mahattaya - the crafty one - by the inimitable H.A. Perera. The youngest daughter, Nandani was played by Chandani Seneviratne and her rather henpecked husband, Punsiri, by Jayalath Manoratne.

All three sons-in-law cling on to the hope that they will be the final owners of the Mahagedera. Some of the situations that arose from this triangular conflict were hilarious, some very sad and others even tragic.

There is nothing that the eldest son-in-law [Dias Mahattaya] would not try - from driving school to catering. The second daughter, Sudharma, [Veena Jayakody] runs a nursery school in the compound of her half completed house and she and her husband [Neil Alles] keep away from the tug of war in the Mahagedera.

The third daughter [Chandani Seneviratne] has occupied the largest room in the house with her Govt. servant husband and does not budge from her perch having high hopes of inheriting the whole house one fine day - being the youngest.

She has cramped all her wedding presents including a washing machine, inside that room. She does not take them out for use fearing that others will also use them. As far as I can remember, Jayalath Manoratne played the cuckolded husband to perfection.

Solace and guidance

Deepthi [Nilmini Tennakoon] is the daughter of the eldest couple and she is very close to her grandfather - Sudu Seeya. Whenever she has problems with her parents, she moves into Sudu Seeya's house for solace and guidance.

If the viewers were clever enough they would have found out that Sudu Seeya too - in spite of his benevolent attitude - is a bit of a miser, holding on to his house selfishly without letting any of the children have it or use it. There are only hints that eventually Deepthi will be its owner.

Sudu Seeya's only trusted companion is his violin which he plays when he is in a bit of a jolly mood. There is a story behind that violin playing. Apart from being unable to play a single note on the violin [or any instrument] I did not know even how to hold the blessed thing.

So we got my friend, Maestro Stanley Oumar to teach me how to hold the violin. That I managed fairly well. But the notes were all 'dud' notes! While I pretended to play, Stanley Oumar, out of range of the camera, would play the tune on his own violin. I must have done a fairly good job of imitation because most viewers thought that I was a master player!

The trials, tribulations and joys of Dulcie Akka's house were so compelling to the audiences of that time, they say that one could hardly find a taxi on the roads on Sundays, between eight and eight-thirty in the evening.

They also say that it was difficult to get a monk for a 'Mathaka Bana' during the tele-cast time. The Police had reported that there had been a marked increase of petty robberies etc. in homes while the entire family sat entranced to watch Doo Daruvo.

This could of course be a gross exaggeration! Anyway, I believe all of us enjoyed working with Doo Daruvo while it lasted. It tended to drag somewhat towards the end and the producers thought it wise to make a quick exit and did so. In spite of that lots of people still talk about Doo Daruvo.

Good demand

As far as I was concerned it was not all television work. We had to deal with many shows of Hunuwataya too. The book had been prescribed as a text for the GCE A/Levels in the Arts Stream and because of that there was a good demand for the play.

Most often I had to conduct a question and answer session too between shows and that was exhausting. Often I got some of my cast such as Manel, Warakagoda, Nimal Jayasinghe, Chula Kariyawasam and P.L.D. Perera to help me. I think I have written about this before too.

After Doo Daruvo, I did two more tele dramas with Susila Productions with Nalan Mendis as director. The one was 'Nedeyo' which was also scripted by Somaweera Senanayake. In that Iranganie Serasinghe was cast as my wife. I played the part of an autocratic 'Radalaya' - a bit of a buffoon called George Mahattaya in Nedeyo.

It had Sriyantha Mendis, Yashodha, G.H. Perera and a new girl by the name of Chamila Peries and quite a few more new faces. I must say I enjoyed playing George Mahattaya even more than I enjoyed doing Sudu Seeya. George Mahattaya was a 'pithy' character who tries to live like a 'Sudda'.

He even decides to run for parliament and some of his 'campaigning' scenes were hilarious. He ends up going completely nutty ["Sixteen men on the dead man's chest - yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"] and I enjoyed the opportunity it gave me to be someone else other than dull old Jayasena! Incidentally Manel also played a role in Nedeyo and we had quite a few scenes where we played together.

Although it was not her first tele drama it was her first appearance in a 'Susila' production and directed by Nalan Mendis.[Later she was to become a favourite of Susila productions and played many memorable roles. In fact she appeared in many more teledramas than I ever did]

Few readers would know that I had a stint with 'advertising' too. About this time I got a call from one Mrs. Shirani Rubera who offered me the post of chief Copy Writer in her Advertising Company called Thompson Associates Ltd.

I told her I was not keen on doing a full day's office job once again and agreed to join her on a half a day basis - the morning. She agreed and for the first time I joined an Advertising Agency. I did not realize at that time that I was going to replace a giant in the advertising field - my good friend and fellow actor, Upali Attanayake. After a short stint with the stage and cinema he had taken to advertising on a full time basis.

If I am not mistaken, he was in the Directorate of Thompson Associates Ltd. and was a very popular figure in the field until his untimely death - in 1992, if I remember right.

Copy writing

This advertising - or rather, copy writing - business was a totally new experience to me. All this time I was used to writing plays, novels, children's poetry etc. and also translating celebrated plays such as The Glass Menagerie, The Chalk Circle, Mother Courage, The Dragon etc.

I soon found out that the language of Drama, Theatre, Novels and Poems is certainly NOT the language of advertising. It had to be much more pithy, simple and 'sales oriented'. I believe I got the hang of it after a while.

Advertising is a very elaborate process. To begin with it has to suit the whims and fancies and demands of particular companies and their products. It has to appeal to a particular targeted section of society. A product like soap is a very good example.

There are the 'Toilet Soaps' and the 'Washing Soaps'. Certain toilet soaps are supposed to be far superior than the others and they are always advertised with the latest stars in the galaxy of filmdom and television. There are others for the not so affluent - say the house wife and the office girl.

There are yet others targeted to the village community. There the girl who appears in the ad does her bathing NOT among suds and bubbles and various other 'ethereal' dream world stuff, but at a village well or a pool or a stream. She comes after the bath with all her lovely black hair cascading down her back while a boy is revealed playing his admiration on a flute reclining against a tree.

Subtle differences

One has not only to understand all these 'subtle' differences if one is to survive in advertising, but also the very advertising 'office system' itself. Most of the young men and women [most of them, pretty] themselves behave as if they are featuring in an advert, themselves.

There are Account Executives to each product and she or he conceptualizes the whole campaign. The Art Dept. in an advertising firm is a highly prized entity. They have to put into pictures and graphics, the conceptualization of the Account Executives and the 'creative' scripts of the copy writers. What is called a story board is drawn in respect of each ad - however small it is, even for a 30 second one.

Sometimes [especially if it is a big and important client] slides are also made. After all these visual and audio material is ready the Agency is ready to meet the client and prove their worth at an all important 'Client/Agency' meeting. I have attended a few of them and managed to convince at least one client that my 'copy' was acceptable.

Actually Shiranee Rubera did the talking while I contributed very little in the way of persuasion!

Shiranee tells me that I left TAL - Thompson Associates Ltd. - in March 1994 after a stint of a little over one year. The parting was mutual and friendly.

Thought of the week

I have found a new friend through these columns. She is none other than the celebrated poet Jean Arasanayagam. She had seen a TV interview where I featured and sent me a note of congratulations through ARTSCOPE.

I replied to thank her and the next thing is I received a gift of a book of her poems - a beautifully bound hard cover - titled 'DESTINIES and DESTINATIONS'. I have been reading it the last few days and I find it extremely interesting.

Of course I had read her poetry before too. Not much - a couple of slim paperbacks and what appeared in newspapers. The present book is based on her travels in India, Bellagio and Australia.

Some of Jean's poetry has a 'haunting' quality - rather like the poetry of Anna Ahkmatova - a sad, lingering quality and she uses very unusual imagery. - "You trod gently on the grass,/appeared, then vanished,/was that rainbow stripped off the /sky, folded and put away in your/handbag, violet, gold, pink, orange, yellow....."

Of course I am no poet nor a critic to comment on the creations of a poet such as Jean Arasanayagam. I just want to say that I was very much moved and touched by her gesture of the gift. Since you are a friend I found from ARTSCOPE, I take this liberty to thank you once again from the same source.

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