By Somasiri Munasinghe
Dr. Dharmasena Pathiraja who died at the age of 74 was an influential Sri Lankan filmmaker who left behind an unparalleled legacy and a remarkable body of work that pushed the frontiers of the native cinema during the latter half of the last century.
Up to his death due to illness on Saturday (January 27) he remained a beacon of hope for two generations of film makers.
Widely known as the Father of the Sri Lankan New Wave, Pathiraja, like the elder statesman of the local cinema Dr. Lester James Peries, were influenced by Bengali film makers. Rekhawa, Pieris’ classic and the film that fought heavy South Indian influences by being the first Sinhala film to be shot fully within the country and the first to be shot outdoors was inspired by Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray’s works.
Pathiraja, a product of the University of Peradeniya, began his career as a lecturer in Drama and Performance Arts and later obtained a PhD from Monash University in Australia. His thesis for the doctorate was ‘The Dialectic of Region and Nation in the Films of Bengali Independents: Ghatak, Ray and Sen’.
From his young age Pathiraja was influenced by Marxism which influenced his art. While Lester concentrated on portraying the clash between the emerging comprador class and the feudal society (Gampearliya and the other two parts of the trilogy), Pathiraja’s films dealt with the byproduct of this social and economic revolution.
His films were peopled by jobless, educated angry young men who were sidelined in the society. Unlike the usual staple of heroes, heroines, villains and comedians moulded in South Indian traditions, Pathiraja’s films had unlikely heroes like garbage truck drivers, loose women, trade unionists, rootless youth, petty thugs and village bullies.
Playing by his own rules
In the early part of his career as an unemployed graduate he dabbled in Sinhala theatre in its early days. He wrote the script for Dhamma Jadoga’s Kora Saha Andaya and produced his own drama Putu immersed in the Absurd tradition. Absurdism, like Magical Realism, is something alien to our art and greater caution has be exercised in its use. Putu became a failure. It is said some of the audience left halfway through the play.
Pathiraja was to confront such indifferent response to his creations later but he was undaunted by such reactions. He was his own man. He did what he wanted, guided by his artistic discipline and experience, without paying too much attention to what his audience thought or whether his films were commercially successful.
Though he may have been influenced by Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen I see him more like a young, Marxist-inspired rebel like Ritwik Ghatak.
Pathiraja launched his film career as the script writer of Hanthane Kathawa and made his debut Ahas Gawuwa just a couple of years after the first youth insurrection in Sri Lanka.
Bambaru Avith, his most iconic work which was screened in 1978 is his best and considered the fourth best film made in Sinhala cinema up to date.
Pathiraja may have admired the works of Shayam Benegal and I cannot help noticing Sri Lankan director’s similarities to the Indian great, particularly his Manthan and Ankur. These two films portrayed what happens when the city influences penetrated the village in the guise of doing something good. While Ankur had strong overtones of caste differences, Manthan was like Bambaru Avith in many aspects.
In Bambaru Avith several city youths descend on a fishing village to galvanize people into a movement against exploitation but leave disillusioned as the villagers were reluctant to renounce their way of life.
Most of Pathiraja’s works remain classics. They include Ahas Gawwa, Eya Den Loku Lamayek, Pon Mani (Tamil), Bambara Avith, Para Dige and Soldadu Unnehe, made in the early part of his career.
Artist ahead of his times
Para Dige, based on a short story by Ajith Tillekesena, a low budget film about a man who is trying to collect Rs3000 to abort the child his girl friend had conceived, remains one of my favourites. This was a box office disaster and was totally out of the family entertainment tradition. Late film critic Gamini Haththotuwagama described it as ‘a movie ahead of its times’.
Soldadu Unnahe, also based on Tillekesena’s short story, which Pathiraja made in 1981 about a man mentally affected in the Second World War is another film ahead of times. It was made at a time when the seeds of ethnic tension were barely visible in Sri Lanka with no one even dreaming that the situation would spiral out of control a few years later.
His only Tamil film Pon Mani, made while teaching in the University of Jaffna, remains the best Tamil film a Sinhala director has made so far. It was Sri Lanka’s entry to the 8th International Film Festival of India. The film was screened in Toronto several times.
With the advent of TV in the early 80s, Pathiraja diverted his attention to this media making more than 10 tele-serials from 1985 to 2009. Some of them like Ella Langa Walawwa remain classics by any standard.
Some critics argue that sex-shy Pathiraja’s films went out of favour as many new filmmakers began to make bold films with sex as a main ingredient to explore life and its struggles. Some of them are accused of making films with NGO money to win fame in foreign festival circuits.
A Sinhala journalist who visited the director when he was ailing said Pathiraja was distraught about the poor response for his films made in recent years. He goes to the extent of hinting that Pathiraja’s early death must have been triggered by that pain and tension. Swaroopa had been removed from theatres after a few days and replaced with a commercial potboiler. A similar fate awaited Sakkaran. He was said to be deeply hurt about the response by the ‘film mafia’ who asked him to make films for the box office. Visually-stunning historical film Sakkaran dealing with the clash of old and new was labelled by some critics as ‘backward.’
The problem with modern day critics is most of them were born after the 60s and 70s, considered as the heyday of local theatre and films. To make matters worse, most of the good Sinhala films were destroyed as film studios and theatres were burnt down during the ethnic hostilities in the 80s. Many young critics are feeling their way through what others saw and wrote.
Apart from film and stage, Pathiraja also embraced other art forms. He was a script writer, poet, lyricist (he wrote the theme song in Hansa Vilak) and an award-winning translator. Artists of his calibre are in short supply these days. Pathiraja will always be remembered as a filmmaker who played by his own rules and a pioneer in Sinhala parallel cinema. (Picture courtesy: newsfirst.lk)
