Fine-tuned!

Sachitra MAHENDRA

In this small island where sun often blazes down, he takes a deep glimpse into troubled and shattered human emotions with his picturesque music. That’s where Lakshman Joseph de Saram treads – extraordinary and unconventional.

Well known for his contribution in chamber music, scoring to art house genre and criticism, de Saram is listed as the top-billed composer for the Hollywood film Bel Ami as one of the few highest-paid Asian musicians. He is also rumoured to be in the running to score Khyentse Norbu’s The Cup, Travelers and Magicians. Lankan-born US-educated Lakshman Joseph de Saram, who calls himself Nouvelle Vague, is Artscope’s ‘Encounter of the Week’.

Q: How do you define Nouvelle Vague in your context?

A: I did not want to do that, it just happened. People see me as a new trendsetter in music. So I call myself Nouvelle Vague. In French Nouvelle means new and Vague is wave. So to say I have taken a detour from the tradition.

It started when Boodie Keerthisena wanted me to score something new to his Mille Soya.

So did Vikumthi Jayasundara. Film-makers of such calibre always wanted something new. They do not loiter around the traditions.

So I have started this trend, but I don’t know who is continuing it.

Q: Your forte is closer to Western music. It is an obvious observation despite your claim to be Nouvelle Vague.

A: After schooling I went to the USA. Coming back, I started working with Dr Premadasa Khemadasa. I’m a tree rooted in Sri Lanka, but my branches are spreading – more to the western and sometimes, a tad eastern. I work with emotions when I score for a film. For instance sadness belongs to everyone. We cannot say it is particular to a region. So working with Prasanna and Vimukthi I realized they need to transcend geographical barriers.

They need to convey meanings and pathos through music. You can’t do it in dialogues. Music is sans geographical frontiers. That’s why I don’t use the guitar or tabla. When you play a violin, people will say it’s Italian. I’m using sounds that everyone feels. Amaradeva and Sahan Ranwala represent our indigenous music at least a ninety percentage.

Q: You have worked with Boodie Keerthisena, Prasanna Vithanage and Vimukthi Jayasundara. Some quarters criticise these film-makers for ‘anti-social’ elements in their works.

A: If a movie tries to invoke violence or hatred, we can understand there is a motif behind. But that’s not the aim of these directors.

They express far more frustrations. The pre-war era, or the past few years, has to be had on some sort of canvas.

Just because a film-maker created one scene or two, we cannot be narrow-minded to say he has distorted the country’s military. He must have created that one incident for cinematic purposes. Even Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now were criticized for certain anti-social elements.

A critic can say a movie is horrible, so it influences a viewer’s decision whether to watch it or not. But a principal cannot dictate terms. Likewise government’s role is far more than censoring and banning films.

These directors have actually brought fame to our country. It is the talk in the world scene that Sri Lanka has a good society to allow debate. That’s the way I see it. In that respect I don’t think they have distorted the country’s moral values.

Q: Cinematic works such as Aba and Sooriya Arana are quite different, compared with Vimukthi’s Sulanga Enu Pinisa. They earned quite a good respect from the common local circles. Do you mean to say you don’t much approve of the former category?

A: No, absolutely not. In my case I go for both bitter gourd and cake. I need both. I enjoy both. I will enjoy King Hunther and Sooriya Arana as well as Sulanga Enu Pinisa. When you eat only sweet stuff, you are sure to get diabetics. Every movie has something to offer. May be it’s not the music I chose to score myself. But I believe every musician has some value. I get something from every musician. This is because I’m in the industry. If you ask me to criticize, I may only criticize the production values. You can see some works are done quite lazily, that’s not excusable. Motif of some movies is to make money – no worries, the industry has to survive. My take on Aba and Sooriya Arana is that they are fantastic.

Q: Where do you position yourself among Sri Lankan film musicians?

A: If you want to put on a label, then I’m definitely art house. Someone who wants to do something like Aba may not approach me. Their interests lie elsewhere. And I have my limitations too. When Dr Lester James Peries asked me to compose to his Wekande Walauwa I had to decline. I’m not familiar with the Walauva concept, because I have never been in such a place.

I have to be familiar with the subject before accepting the job. That’s how Mille Soya happened. Someone can say Matha is quite propagandistic, but I took on the job because I could handle it. All films I have done are emotionally charged. I work with emotions.

Q: Creativity seems to run in your family.

A: My mother was a music teacher at Visakha College. My father was a writer, a political satirist working with Tarzie Vittachchi. I’m grateful that I had some sort of art and culture at home. But that’s not really necessary.

Suppose my father was an accountant and mother a doctor, I may still do what I’m doing today. We all come to this world with a toolbox. Never mind where you stay, the toolbox is there. When your mother is a carpenter she would offer you a b c. But eventually you will do it anyway, in your own style. Destiny is destiny.

My brother, on the other hand, gave me a lot of practical lessons. He opened doors for me and made things much easier. If you are building a house, he gave me a digger. I didn’t have to dangle with a mammoth.

Q: You are the Artistic Director and Concertmaster of the Chamber Music Society of Colombo. You have often said that you prefer chamber music to live concerts.

A: I enjoy chamber music because it is intimate. It happens in a room - hence it is called chamber music – with a limited crowd. That makes chamber music much more democratic and interactive. Composers of olden days did it to please themselves. Chamber music is like an ultimate form of Western classical music. There have been times when listeners would stop and inquire if they feel something alien in the music. So the musician should be super alert. If chamber music is yacht, then live concerts are like a barge. In a barge you have hardly anything to worry. Everything runs almost smooth with so many human and other resources around. But in a yacht, you have no such luxury. If one person bungles up, everything goes wrong. Everybody should be super alert. Technically chamber music has more demand, and it’s expensive too.

Q: You have played with Pradeep Rathnayaka. You in violin, while Pradeep in Sitar means a fusion of two cultures.

A: I like playing with Pradeep. He likes playing with me. We first met working with Dr Khemadasa.

The fusion is of course so innovative. This is good, but does not work fine all the time. Suppose you are an Indian chef, I’m a Chinese chef. If we get together and throw grand parties everyday what happens is inevitable. You will lose the Indian crowd and I will lose mine. It is good for a change. Perhaps once in five months, they may love it.

Q: Dr Premasiri Khemadasa was instrumental in your career. Would you comment on your association with the late maestro?

A: Being born and bred in Lanka, educated in the USA and ultimately meeting Khemadasa was a lime juice for me. My music may be western on surface, but my roots lie in our soil. That is because I was greatly influenced by Khemadasa.

I have done 12 films with Dr Khemadasa. I was one of his closest violin players. My brother worked on his Pirinivan Mangalyaya. I’m following Khemadasa’s pattern. I don’t like to label my music western or eastern, but it is accessible to an intellectual audience.

I want music to convey the guilt and sadness. A character may not say she is guilty, but it is conveyed in the music. That is the path modern directors are looking for.

Q: What are your upcoming work?

A: I have completed my work with Matha. I have also completed scoring to one of the most anticipated Hollywood films of 2012, the multi million dollar budget Bel Ami, based on Guy de Maupassant’s book, stars one of the world’s most popular actors today, Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame. The film also stars Uma Thurman, Christina Ricchi and Kristin Scott-Thomas.

That will be released in February. I’m also working on Samy Pavel’s Le moulin de Daudet, La veillee, first new film in a decade, a film that spans many lands and cultures.

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