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Tissa Abeysekera: Film Personality turned Littérateur

The late Tissa Abeysekera was a phenomenon both in writing and speech. He handled them in both Sinhala and English like his mentor, Dr Lester James Peries. Both received their doctorates for their life long achievements. The comparisons stop there for they were different personalities with a few strings of commonality. The point here is not comparisons but see Tissa as a sort of innovator in his two different media: cinema and literature.


Dr. Tissa Abeysekera

There are many who had estimated and evaluated his valuable contributions already but my attempt would be simpler based primarily on my personal associations with him.

I came to be associated with him for the first time during the 1960s when the now defunct Film Critics & Journalists Association (FCAJA) was doing a marvellous service in understanding the cinema in many ways, particularly making us view international cinema. The untiring work of the late Neil I Perera, the late A J Gunawardene and Gamini Haththotuwegama and later Tissa Abeysekera should be remembered and recorded. In these endeavours I saw Tissa active with his independent views and articulated speech both in Sinhala and English. I became an admirer of him.


Shooting Viragaya


Tissa’s books


Mahagedera

My association with him was minimal and not so close at the beginning. He invited me to a special showing of his documentary in Thamil called Kamam (Agriculture). It featured the versatile Sillayoor Selvarajan (a multi-faceted personality who had contributed immensely to Lankan culture both in Thamil and Sinhala) and Kamalini Selvarajan (well known media personality) who became his spouse later.

When Chitra Ranawaka nee Malalasekera was the director of the English Service of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) he compiled and presented “The Arts Magazine,” which was originally compiled and presented by the evergreen and versatile broadcaster and thespian, the late Vernon Abeysekera and produced by yet another colourful personality, Delorine Brohier. May I add that I had been invited to appear in the presentations of both.

Since then my relationship with him became stronger and recognizable even during his tenure as the Chairman of the National Film Corporation and the Director of the National Television Training Institute and later connected with the SAARC writers Meeting.

It’s only after that he came into full limelight with his brilliant efflorescing of English Writing in Lanka. After reading his fiction and criticism in English my admiration of his creative talents almost doubled.

Of course I liked his films and commentaries and voicing commercials in English and Sinhala and his frequent lectures and speeches in English on various occasions. I liked his film *Viragaya* based on the novel of the giant Martin Wickremsinghe best. I think he made Sanath Gunathilake become an ‘actor’ from being a mere popular and glamorous star. In this piece I am not particularly writing about Tissa as an actor or a filmmaker or a

cinematographer or a script writer. That every knowledgeable critic knows.

And yet another occasion where Tissa and I took part separately in seminars was in New Delhi when the organization known as Katha conducted a three-day seminar on Literature and environmental issue. That was indeed a memorable occasion of two Lankans meeting again in a foreign clime. Adieu my friend Tissa Abeysekera.

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