Rhythm for change

Channa Bandara Wijekoon

Dharmasiri Gamage possessed an abundance of warmth towards society. A multi talented individual who contributed towards society as a veteran journalist, author, lyricist, film scriptwriter and film director, he bade farewell to life like a dew drop, creating a great void in the hearts of Sri Lankans. The evergreen lyrics he penned for versatile singers over many decades will linger in the minds of Sri Lankans forever. Chaminda Gamage, Dharmasiri’s eldest son, has many pleasant and cherished memories of his father to share with his fans.

Q: How do you perceive your father as his eldest son?

A: His role as a father was the ultimatum any father could aspire to be. He was a father figure to many of our relations who came to Colombo seeking greener pastures and also to youngsters in the country with raw talent.

He nurtured and shared values in the society with us. He respected my mother and even helped her in cooking. He prepared his daily kola kenda. We communicated well with each other. We were given enough freedom. He took us to see films, dramas and let us read any material.

He nurtured the budding creativity within us in a somewhat mysterious way. There was no domination at all. He was a person full of warmth. Once I bumped father’s car onto a light post and the car incurred severe damages. I was so upset since I knew in prior, my father was not going to blame me for what I did.

He did poetry and other creative writing mostly at night. We could only enjoy his lyrics once they were sung by an artiste and recorded. He firmly believed a song has three aspects: lyrics, music and singing.

He was a ‘nature-boy’ and loved traveling. Being a travel-journalist, he traveled with his buddies. Going on trips with family members was a different experience for him.

Yowun Pahan Weta was the platform he created for young writers to explore their talents.

Q: Your father was a lyricist, scriptwriter and a film director. How did he mingle with the film scene using these talents?

A: He entered films by writing lyrics in Senasuma Kothaneda which had the evergreen song Sulang Kurullo. He wrote scripts for the films Eya Den Loku Lamayek, Siripala Saha Ranmenika, Hulawaali and Sarungalae. He could write scripts and dialogues for serious films as well as for action comedies.

His film directions were Yasa Isuru and Pooja. He brought Gamini Fonseka and Joe Abeywickrama together in Pooja. They acted together after two decades. The song Budu Bawa Labana Piyawaru Wesena in Pooja, was a tribute to all fathers in the universe. He was a close associate of Joe Abeywickrama and Prof Sunil Ariyaratne.

My father’s companionship with Gamini Fonseka was a strong one. They were like brothers. When Gamini lived in Ratmalana, we lived close by. Gamini had a habit of getting into long conversations in late evenings with his close friends at his residence. My father was an active member of the clan. They spent sleepless nights talking on many subjects ranging from art to politics. The film Sarungalae was a result of these conversations.

Gamini once refused to accept an award presented to him which would have been ideally suited for my father. Gamini could not bear up my father’s demise. My father rarely showed emotion. One of the rare instances when I saw tears in his eyes was when Vijaya Kumaratunga died.

Q: What are your views on him as a lyricist and author?

A: His lyric writing had a long history. He wrote his first lyric at the age of 13 to G S B Rani Perera after he was groomed by Siri Aiya (U S Perera) of Radio Ceylon. He wrote lyrics like Ammawarune (Nanda Malani), Sihina Nelum Mala (Amaradeva), Kuda Gamae Maddahanae (Sunil Edirisinghe), Kelani Viharae (Amaradeva) as well as fast tracks like Gedara Hitiya Rosa Kekula Rosa (M S Fernando and Jothipala), Mama Gannemi Karakaara (Jothipala) during his heydays.

Musicians like Victor Ratnayake and Rohana Weerasinghe had claimed that it was pleasant and enjoyable to compose music for lyrics written by my father. The book Siripala Saha Ranmenika was one of his masterpieces. This was a very good of explorative journalism. He wrote the story first to Lankadeepa. He went to Anuradhapura to explore the life of Siripala alias Maru Sira and his beloved Ran Menika. The verses Maru Sira had written on the walls of his prison cell had inspired my father to dig deeper into his life.

Q: You are the CEO and Executive Creative Director of your own advertising agency now. There is a dialogue about unethical advertising.

A: We must be ethical and safeguard Sri Lankan identity in whatever we do. Advertising too should evolve with time. If we talk of the Sri Lanka context, there was this old school of advertising which relied on thinking in English.

Times have changed and the world has shrunk. Thus precise communication and out of the box thinking has come into the fore. If one doesn’t have an ‘insight’ to his work, his survival in this field will be at stake.

Ours is a story-telling society. People in our country like folk stories and Jathaka tales. We must understand the values in our culture and find creativity there. At the end of the day what matters is not Sinhala, English or Singlish in advertising but precision in communication to target segments.

The advertising agency should not function as a mere supplier. It should have a healthy relationship with the client. We must have the expertise to guide client in the right direction.

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Action packed movies in town

Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt and Don of the Don series will be seen in action as Brad Bird and Farhan Akhtar’s sequel s to the hits will begin unfurling at the Majestic cinemas this season. M: I: 4 will hit the Platinum and Ultra from December 16 while Don 2 will unspool at the Platinum from December 23.

Cruise faced ‘moment of truth’

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol is shot mainly in Dubai, making use of its high-rise buildings including Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower at 828 meters (2,716 ft).

In one scene, tom Cruise, whose spy team is accused of blowing up the Kremlin, undertakes high-adrenalin acrobatics around the summit of the building. Cruise spent four months training on a set before coming to Dubai to shoot the real thing. But he said it was still a challenge translating director Brad Bird’s vision into reality.

“It’s one thing seeing it and another thing trying to accomplish that... The first moment, you know I have one little pick here and one little rope. I remember just being there saying ‘this is a moment of truth’,” Cruise, who is known for doing his own stunts, told reporters.

“I had to figure out how to fly. I had to figure out how to use my feet as a rudder because you have crosswinds up there. It took a while to work out how not to come slamming into the building head first,” he said.

“I was very excited because I thought it would be very entertaining for an audience and very challenging, and so that’s why I did it.”

The popularity of Cruise, 49, has had its ups and downs with U S audiences in recent years but he retains global appeal.

His last film, action comedy Knight and Day co-starring Cameron Diaz, got mixed reviews but the Mission Impossible series has been a safe bet with audiences and critics alike. Cruise chose to give the film a first, limited showing to fans in Tokyo last week before its official unveiling in Dubai.

Mission Impossible 4 has Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt moving from Budapest to Moscow to Mumbai, showcasing glossy locations around the world in classic spy genre style.

Bird, who comes to the franchise rly a third sequel, is you have a lot of audience expectation, going in,” he said.

“But I think you can run straight at those expectations and play with them, and zig when the audience are expecting you to zag, and I think that’s what we did in this movie.”

Don at the theatres

Don 2: The Chase Continues is expected to start from where Don: The Chase Begins had left the viewers. The first version of the Don saga had released in 2006 and Farhan Akhtar is returning to direction after a gap of five years.

Although there is no established theory about a good actor being a fine director but knowing the nuances of the craft always helps a storyteller. Rock On, Luck By Chance, Karthik Calling Karthik and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara have more or less shown Farhan in the same light as all the four characters belonged to the upper strata of society. He looked comfortable in the skin of the lead man despite a husky voice but the art of direction is something different. Here, the director needs to understand the particulars related with every actor and prop.

Farhan looked designer in his first film Dil Chahta Hai and has dealt with plots familiar to the upper class since then. His characters are well bred and belong to the affluent class of the society. Their sophisticated mannerism speaks at length about their backgrounds. Don was also not an exception.

Vijay, Shah Rukh’s character in the film, couldn’t boast of a comfortable upbringing but he does not give a trace of his past after becoming Don. Of course, it was part of the story and he was supposed to do so but any other actor could have done the same thing simply because Farhan Akhtar couldn’t polish an earthy and raw character.

Shah Rukh Khan looked the obvious choice because he is urbane in his normal life also. As far as crudeness of the role is concerned, Shah Rukh can’t pull off characters which require him to opt for dialects. Films like Ram Jaane and Duplicate featured SRK as bad mouthed gangster but the films were not accepted by the audiences possibly because they had developed a different picture of Shah Rukh in their minds after DDLJ and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman.

Farhan Akhtar’s Lakshya was about a guy who does not need to think about his daily bread and butter. He had the luxury of finding the true meaning of life without getting worried about the typical responsibilities that young Indians need to shoulder.

Amitabh’s role also had the charm but he had managed to look like a common man’s hero. On the other hand, Shah Rukh Khan is always Shah Rukh Khan, the superstar of Bollywood. Farhan Akhtar was not successful in making SRK a gritty commoner despite all the lip twisting and neck stretching.

Nobody can ask any director to mould his characters in a particular manner but probably a less sophisticated gangster will be closer to the non-multiplex going audiences.

Goethe joins hands with GFU

Uvindu Illeperuma

The Goethe Institute in partnership with the Government Film Unit (GFU) held a display of documentary films and newsreels produced by the GFU during the early post-Independence period. The two docu-films were Meditation and Nelungama.

Meditation had been directed by Paul Zils who was a well known German film Director. It is said that he had been greatly associating with the Nazi regime and he was working under Nazi Regime Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbles. Before the outbreak of war Paul fled the country and took to film-making.

Meditation is all about the Buddhist doctrine. It is about a middle aged doctor who finds peace in becoming a monk after reviewing his thirst to gathered experience. When he was a kid he remembers the Buddhist backdrop he had within his homestead. He made a Vesak Lantern to hang up on Vesak eve and lights it. The wind caused the Vesak lantern to burn.

While engaging in medical studies he was in love with a girl who ultimately became his wife but they could not live together for a long time since wife went on the journey of no return. Thereafter, he dedicated himself to serve people While serving as a doctor he experienced what is birth as well as what is death. Both birth and the death are agonizing. So he thought everything is mutable and transient.

The film includes scenic footages of Sri Pada and portrays Buddhist practices in Sri Lanka. The film was narrated by the well known theatrical and film director Henry Jayasena. The music for the film was by maestro Pandit Amaradeva.

The other documentary film was directed by a British documentary film-maker, Ralph Keene. It depicts the bucolic environment which is found in villages in Sri Lanka. They portray the typical virgin beauty of nature.

Though the pictures of the film are totally focused on village beauty, it has the socio political aspect pertinent in a typical Ceylonese Village which traces back to 1953. An eligible style of music for the film was directed by Deva Surya Sena in collaboration with Lionel Edirisinghe.

The news reels were produced after Sri Lanka attained independence. They are a rare sight and are not easily available for everyone to see.

The programme initiated by the Goethe institute included showing newsreels which were produced in the wake of winning independence. They relate to the political, socio economic and cultural affairs of the country during that time.

The Dirty Picture is not a biopic

Ekta Kapoor’s production and Milan Luthria’s directorial The Dirty Picture

since its inception grabbed immense attention, in the process generating enough rumours and hype.

Not only for its oomph factor, the movie was mainly touted as biopic of South sizzler Silk Smitha. And now the banner Balaji clarified with an official statement that the movie is in fact not actually what has been speculated.

The statement quotes “With reference to the legal notice received and the ongoing speculations about the film, Balaji wishes to clarify that The Dirty Picture is the romantic journey of a fiercely ambitious starlet who dreams of making it big on the silver screen.”

According to the production, The Dirty Picture draws inspiration from the strugglers in the 80s whose indomitable spirit made them emerge triumphant and create a unique space for themselves in a male-dominated film industry.

“The film is not a formal biopic or biography, as is being speculated. It is a work of fiction with fictitious characters. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

The Dirty Picture, a spectacular musical entertainer, is in essence, a love story, and a celebration of the never-say-die spirit of every industry newcomer,” concludes the statement.

The Dirty Picture stars Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Tusshar Kapoor in lead roles.

Indiaglitz.com

Radcliffe is Entertainer of the Year

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was named Entertainment Weekly’s ‘Entertainer of the Year’, capping a successful 2011 for the young actor.

Radcliffe, 22, took his final turn as the boy wizard in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” the last installment of the film franchise, earlier this year.

The film crossed the $1 billion threshold at the global box office as fans rushed to see their favorite wizard battle evil for the last time.

The Harry Potter star also broke out of his magical role to take on Broadway in the musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, stepping into the shoes of stage veterans Robert Morse and Matthew Broderick and receiving positive critical reviews for his performance.

Radcliffe was joined on Entertainment Weekly’s list by British singer Adele and X-Men actor Hugh Jackman.

Dawn.com