Director Dharmasena Pathiraja and Donald Karunarathne during the shooting of Sakkaran
PART TWO OF THREE ARTICLES
The collaboration between cinematographer Donald Karunarthne and Director Dharmasena Pathiraja marked the most prolific era of the Sri Lanka’s film industry by heralding the Sinhala New Wave.
Conditions were ripe for a new beginning. There was a whole new generation of talented and largely self-made actors replacing the matinee idols of masala pot boilers. On the socio-economic front fresh themes were explored after the violent insurrection of April 1971 and the ensuing youth unrest.
Pathiraja, trusting the unerring eye and expertise of Donald was exploring new frontiers. The stepping stone to the modern era of film-making was trail-blazing Ahas Gawwa, taking a critical look at the emerging socio-economic forces widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.
Lester James Peiris portrayed the same issues through the eyes of the emerging bourgeois, land-owing class basking in their glory in the opulent mansions of Colombo Seven but Pathiraja’s characters were non-English speaking jobless youths working as pavement hawkers, pick pockets and petty criminals seeking their pound of flesh. Bambaru Avith, Para Dige, followed, breaking the dominance of light-hearted family entertainments, heralding a new generation of film makers following in the footsteps of Pathiraja.
Donald met Pathiraja while he was working as the assistant cameraman to Maestro Sumittha Amarasinghe in Hanthana Kathawa. “Pathi and I, got together to make our first short film, based on Ajith Tilakasena’s short story Sathuro. Wimal Kumara de Costa and Simon Nawagathhegama acted in it, and we won our first award in Borgamo short film festival. What a pity, we lost our original negative, both picture and sound, in storage at Hendala Vijaya labortary during the ethnic violence in the early 80s,” Donald said in an exclusive interview with newstrails.com
Films like Sakkaran, and Swaroopa which Pathiraja made during the latter part of his career did not attract the same kind of enthusiasm as his early movies did and Donald thinks the chaotic film distribution system existing at that time had something to do with it.
“Pathi was talking passionately about making a sequel to Ahas Gawwa set against the present socio-economic gridlock in Sri Lanka but he could not accomplish his wish,” said Donald.
“Award-winning Sri Lankan writer Chandrarathne Bandara (an old boy of Dharmaraja College Kandy like Pathiraja) who is living in Canada, is writing the script. It is shaping up quite well and I hope Ahas Gawwa II is going to be a film as controversial as the original one. We haven’t yet found a financer and after the script is done, we will think of a director,” said Donald, who will handle the cinematography, also working as associate producer.
One of Pathiraja’s passionate projects was a script titled Shade of the Robe which he completed with Sarath Kallepotha. “It deals with a highly controversial subject of modern-day religious tensions pitting the two main religions in the island on a collision course. It is about a Catholic priest and a Buddhist monk who are going to spread their respective religions in a remote village of Sri Lanka. Pathi spent lot of money and time doing research for this project,” Donald said adding, “I sincerely hope that someone will finish this film to celebrate Pathi’s legacy.”
Donald describes Pathiraja’s Tamil film Ponmani as an important and rare movie in the director’s career. “The film was shot in Jaffna as the ethnic violence was flaring up. We were asked to be careful by the army while shooting the film. We stayed in the house of former Jaffna mayor Alfred Duraiappa who was gunned down in the early 70s. At the time Pathi was working as a lecturer at the Jaffna University along with Sucharitha Gamlath and Sunil Ariyarathne. Professor Mrs. Kailashapathy who was working at the university at the time played a leading role in the Tamil movie”.
Despite living thousands of miles away from Sri Lanka, Donald is still active in the Sinhala film industry. He is scheduled to work on Sumithra Peiris’ next film while there are three more films awaiting release. The film is based on a Sinhala novel written by Thomson A. Vandabona. The first draft of the script has been completed.
Donald was in Sri Lanka in 2017 shooting for Vehi Dawasa, directed by LA-based artiste Bhadraji Mahinda Jayatilleke. The premiere of the movie had already been held in Los Angeles.The second film waiting to go for production in Sri Lanka is Outsider, to be Directed by Chamira Tillekewardene, a university professor, while the third one is a film directed by late Roy de Silva.
The speciality in Donald’s career is that he has worked with renown film makers like Pathiraja, Lester, Sumithra,Tissa Abayasekara, Dr Sunil Ariyaratne, Vasantha Obeysekera, and also with a large number of amateur and first-time directors.
There are also many foreign collaborations to his credit. The Gift made by Sri Lankan-born Dunstan Perera, a US-based fashion photographer, was a foreign film he worked very early in his career.
“Dunstan was a fashion photographer based in New York. We shot the entire film in Sri Lanka. It was financed by Dr M.J. Perera. Dunston was also a well-known fashion photographer. He designed book covers for James Hadley Chase, a popular crime writer of the 60s and 70s.”
Donald assisted in a German film called Three Yellow Cats in the 60s which was shot in scenic locations in Sri Lanka starring Brad Harris, a popular actor those days. The studio shots of the movie were filmed in Hong Kong and there were local actors like Ananda Jayaratne, Joe Abeyewickrema and H.D. Kulatunga, playing supporting roles in the action flick.
Donald’s friendship with Helmut Trunz, the German Cinematographer of the film Green Emerald, paved the way for him to spend six months in Germany attending a workshop. He won a study tour and visited Arriflex camera manufacturers and the studio. Arriflex is still known for high-end movie cameras and other studio and outdoor film-making equipment.
A friend of Donald imported a new Arriflex camera from Germany in the 80s. It was in high demand among commercial producers in Middle East and South Asian countries. “I work as the camera operater as well as care taker of the camera and took it to countries like Malaysia and Singapore and met lot of future cinematographers who had begun their careers shooting commercials. I worked with Chris Menges who won several Oscars for Cinematography.”
Menges is the cameraman who shot internationally-known classics like The Killing Fields, The mission, Micheal Collins and The Reader.
“In Germany I had the unique chance of meeting Wolfgang Petersen, the director of critically-acclaimed war-time drama Das Boot,” Donald said.
Two international films he worked as the cinematographer were Sithadevi and Thousand Flowers, Sithadevi was an Indo-Sri Lankan co-production directed by Menik Sandarasagara with popular local and Indian film stars.
Donald handled camera for Sandarasagara’s popular comedy of the 70s titled Colombo Sanniya (Coming Sweet). This comedy became a runaway hit with a stellar Sri Lankan cast including Geetha Kumarasinghe, Joe Abeyewickrema, Daya Alwis, Eddie Jayamanne (his last film) and Denawaka Hamine.
Thousand Flowers directed by Dharmasiri Wikremarathne was shot in Sri Lanka, France and Thailand.
Donald shot the Sinhala film Saharawe Sihinaya in the Middle East. “It was financed by late Chandi Kannangara, who founded Trico International freight company, and Harsha Nawarathne, producer of Sagara Jalaya Made Handuwa Oba Handa. Vijaya Kumaranatunga was to play the lead role in this film based on Sri Lankan truck drivers in the Middle East but after his death Jeevan Kumaratunga was hired, with some adjustments to the script. It was directed by H.D. Premarathne with whom I did Apeksha and Parithyagaya”
Donald has also made several TV documentaries for Channel Four and DWR of Germany. He handled camera for Dialogue from North and South Directed by Vasantha Obeyesekera for Channel Four and also worked as the cinematographer for Amarnath Jayatilleke’s documentary on Buddhism in the United States.
He describes Shelton Payagala’s Golu Muhude Kunatuwak, a controversial film based on the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis, as one of his best films. “The movie was shot using Orwo colour negative films. Orwo colour and black and white negative were manufactured by a company based in the former East Germany. Not many cinematographers used the product as it was very difficult to work with. One main advantage was its low cost. Orwo reels were very beneficial to me to match the colour of the dark, ominous tone of the film which contained graphic violence. The late Balu Mahendra who was born in Sri Lanka and made many award-winning films in South India, praised my work after seeing the rushes of Golu Muhude Kunatuwak which he said successfully captured the grim tone of the drama.”
Donald worked with Shelton Payagala and Chandrarathne Mapitigama in the first ever Sinhala film based on a homosexual theme, Malata Noena Bambaru, in which Joe Abeyewickrema and Toronto-based actor Ajith Jinadasa played the leading roles.
Donald who is still keeps in touch with modern trends in cinematography, is busy in Califonia working in the industry, at the same time mastering new digital technology. “I had to master new technology to survive in the industry and now I work with modern high-end digital film cameras, Sony Alexa and Red. Red Dragon was used to shoot Sumithra Peiris’ Vaishnawi. The new products are easy to work with. They weigh less than half the weight of the first-generation cameras I was handling in Sri Lanka. There are even revolutionary changes in the field of lighting which now integrates fiber optic technology for easy maneuverability and greater effect,” says Donald.
Ultra high-resolution lenses and light weight digital cameras have made film-making quite easier than the early days of cinemas when cinematographers like Donald had to work with hand held, 50-odd kg bulky equipment of yesteryear.
There were dangers involved in shooting films in the early days with cameramen taking undue risks to go the extremes for the sake of reality and provide entertainment to the audience. Donald says he had some close brushes with death several times in his career. (Somasiri Munasinghe – copyright: newstrails.com)
Next week Donald Karunarathne will speak about the occupational hazards of a cinematographer and extremely dangerous experiences he faced while shooting films.
