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Focus on Books:
Memorable moments and challenges in the life of a screen icon
Professor Sunanda Mahendra
Book: Rukmani Devi Liyu Jivita Vitthi (Ghost writen by Karunasena
Jayalath) and Yugayaka Swarna Gitaya
Author: A D Ranjith Kumara
Publisher: Sarasavi Publishers, 2008
Page Count: 311 pages
If I remember correct, the singing film star Rukmani Devi or Daisy
Daniels who was gifted with all the possible talents of a singer and a
screen icon, became a favourite historic figure in our household
outlook.
Her life story which culminated in a tragic accident in the dead of
night was full of fascinating trends, but packed with irksome events
which presumably go into the making of a modern parable of our times.
Rukmani Devi who hailed from Negombo triggered off as an actress from
the stage where she had the added gift of being an inimitable singer who
ushered in a new era to the screen with the Sinhala film debut Kadawunu
Poronduwa (Broken Promise). This was followed by a series of a Sinhala
films predominantly produced in Indian film studios.
Most of these background events that led to narrate Rukmani’s life
story had been verbally captured and recorded and printed with photos in
a series of illustrated popular features in the pages of a Sinhala
Sunday newspaper.
What the reader comes to know about the times she existed to narrate
these events are packed with historical events such as the transfer of
theatrical technique to visualise the birth of Sinhala light songs via
gramophone discs, the behaviour patterns of the theatre audience, the
nature of the promotions of show business plus love affairs, elopements,
and matrimonial situations.
Memorable events in her life presented as realistic vignettes from
her life, Jivitha Vitti, by a then young Sinhala film critic, Karunasena
Jayalath. As an honest unassuming journalist, Jayalath never wanted to
reveal his identity via this series of articles, which definitely raised
the sales of the said newspaper.
As I remember it, there were readers who collected these articles for
the sheer nostalgia - you may call it memorabilia. May it be said in
honour of Rukmani, that Jayalath who opposed as her ghostwriter
proceeded up to a point where something invisible had occurred on his
way for the termination of the series.
But later on, it is now upgraded by a present day film critic cum
writer A D Ranjit Kumara who had taken pains to sustain the same tenor
of presentation. As such the present day reader has the added advantage
of knowing in a different dimension, the significant events in the life
of Rukmani via various archival materials collected over the years.
Hence the outcome of the present volume is a double volume or two in
one. Jayalath’s Rukmani Devige Jivitha Vitthi is presented without any
textual changes. From there onwards the second part included is titled
as Yugayaka Swarna Gitaya written as an upgraded extension by Ranjit
Kumara.
For me as a common reader the most significant factor is that this
double-volumed book comes as both as a biography of a leading singer cum
actress plus the tracing of the history of the local cinema and the
background factors that led to its origins.
Through the wide gamut of materials presented in these two sections,
the reader gets the impression that the birth of a versatile actress
cannot be branded as an overnight success, but a painstaking, time
consuming at times break-neck series of events packed with bouquets and
brickbats and challenges.
This illustrated two-in-one publication comes a s a token of
remembrance of Rumani Devi’s 85th birth anniversary and the 30the death
anniversary.
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