Latte with Vimukthi
 I find myself hanging out with the versatile Vimukthi Jayasundara
(friendly and charismatic too) over a latte and I prefer to inquire
about his life in advertising. "How was it like working with Lowe LDB's
CEO Lilamani?"
He replied "We had a good working relationship because she treated me
very well; she will be my first and last boss". Speaking of which, he
did go on to say that he has become somewhat the person he is today as a
result of working with her because of her continual support.
"I was a regular filmgoer of various cultural institutes in town and
one day while passing Lintas, I just walked into their office and asked
whether they had vacancies", he reminisces.
Thereafter, he found himself getting a creative copywriting job and
getting paid 'handsomely'. "A memory of the first creative brief I
received was selling a colour television set to a person having a black
and white television", he remembers and says that he brainstormed a
chameleon changing its colours, which was impressive.
"Once the Art Director and ECD (Executive Creative Director) had to
stop the film I was watching at a theatre to get me to approve an
advertisement that had to go to Lake House for publication", he states
humourously. Even though he found his true calling in cinematography, he
did mention that he found some inspiration and creativity while working
there from 1998 till 2001.
He is still widely known in the advertising circles and has plenty of
'ad friends' to have a whale of a time with. He is an intrinsic
scriptwriter and film critic and it should be emphasised that he is also
a creatively worthy copywriter.
"While I was still working at Lintas when I produced a black and
white peace documentary titled 'The Land of the Silence' for the
Government Film Unit, part of the Department of Information", he said.
Thereafter, he was asked to join Rupavahini as a Guest Producer and
this was when he thought about venturing into the film scene seriously.
Vimukthi also underwent training at the Institute of Cinema and
Television of Pune, India where he learnt about the technicalities of
film-making.
Later, while being a familiar face at the French Embassy's cultural
centre, Vimukthi met its director who played a motherly role in his life
as an influential figure. She got him to apply for the renowned
Moholy-nagy Scholarship at Le Fresnoy, a post-graduate art school and
production place with audio-visual research as the mainstream which he
won.
Vimukthi has worked with many distinguished film directors including
the great Tasi Ming-ling whom he was inspired by, Straub and Huillet and
Alain Fleischer. He went to create his first short film called 'Vide
pour l'amour' or 'Empty for Love' in English which was welcomed with
open arms at the Cannes' Cinefoundation for film-making students.
Born in Ratnapura to a science teacher father and a home-maker
mother, Vimukthi's sibling is a younger sister.
He shifted from his mother's hometown to his father's place in Galle
and attended the Mahinda College and went on to complete his Advanced
Levels there.
Vimukthi comments "Out of Sri Lanka's 19 million population, we are
governed by about 1.5 million who are the decision-makers but for the
rest of us, our voices aren't heard". It is for this reason that as an
artist he plans to depict the world through his art-form and point on
the most intense parts of society and mindsets.
When I ask him about what language he thinks in "I think in all three
languages - Sinhala, English and French so it's all very confusing". It
might explain why his films have a twist in the tale even though it
delves into particular lines and traits.
Yet, it's really difficult to define what Vimukthi wants to reveal
but it's definitely to do with his life's experiences and the way he
perceives the world and Sri Lanka in relation to it. He highlights "In
Sri Lanka, we are experiencing an age when Europe was like in the
1960s". We are still developing hence war and struggle is commonplace,
he says.
About his views on dating and relationships, he tells me that
marriage sometimes (more often than not) ruins people so it's best to
just be a dating single and he doesn't have anyone 'serious' at the
moment. Famed as the first Sri Lankan to win the Camera d'Or Best Film
award for his controversial film 'Sulanga Enu Pinisa' (The Forsaken
Land) at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Vimukthi has definitely made
his mark in cinematography.
Right now, Vimukthi has just finished filming his second feature
film, 'Fallen from the Sky' or 'Ahasin Wetei' in Sinhala starring a
Chinese actress. He is currently finishing it production phase here and
will reveal it soon to not only unsuspecting audiences here in Sri Lanka
but also to the world. Probably a Hollywood hit, who knows?
Avanthi Fernando
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