Columns

It was May First, 1962. To many who were employed in the mercantile sector and those who led the trade unions at the time, it was a crucial day in the year when all the demands of the working class—to put it broadly—were articulated from every public platform from Galle Face Green to Price Park and Hyde Park.

It was the day when Colvin R. de Silvas, Bala Tampoes, D.G. Williams and others who did not need loudspeakers to carry their battle cries called it their day and, like Frank Sinatra, did it their way.

To me, it was the first day I would go to Lake House to join the staff of the Ceylon Observer, having been picked even before we could complete our final exams at Peradeniya University.

That seemed to have become a tradition from the days of Esmond Wickremesinghe, the then Managing Director of the several publications of the Associated Newspapers, who sought a wide cross-section of educated graduates to strengthen the quality of his staff.

So there I was, standing at the door of the editor of the Observer, the well-known journalist who had his hand in every aspect of production and did them expertly. I knocked on the door and was called in. I mentioned my name, and he said with a smile, “I know you because I chose you.”

Looking around for some work to give me on my first worker’s holiday, he pulled out a printed pamphlet and asked me to go to the Savoy Cinema at Wellawatte, where a preview of a Russian film was being screened, and write a review on it.

What brought all this to mind was the passing away of Malini Fonseka, a scintillating female star who I came to know many weeks later through Gamini Fonseka, also from my former college, S. Thomas’, that school by the sea which had produced many a figure who added glory to Sri Lanka, as did Gamini.

Gamini lived in a house not too far away from Ratmalana, and there were times we used to meet there to talk about cinema—Western and Sri Lankan—and many other things, for Gamini had widespread interests that dragged him away suddenly like a magnet.

But to Gamini, Malini and the rest of the galaxy that I came to know from the world of cinema and later the theatre would take more than a few columns to relate to our conversations late into the night. The more I came to interest myself in the world of cinema, especially Sinhala cinema, the more they had stories to tell and new stars to be presented in the firmament.

All this might not have come true, and I might have gravitated to other journalistic fields had it not been for that May Day and Denzil Peiris sending me to the preview at the Savoy.

The preview I went for was a Russian film titled “The Cranes Are Flying”, a wartime film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov. It was a moving piece of cinema that I came back to Lake House determined to sit down and do the review when told the Observer was closed for the day and come back the next morning.

Which I did enthusiastically and wrote what I thought was a moving review. I must say Denzil Peries appreciated it, so there I was, part of the arts and culture staff, not to mention other features. The more I got dragged into the cultural circle, especially gatherings of arts, artists and actors and actresses, the more one got drawn into it.

But the first time I really met with a whole cast, as it were, was when the ever-philanthropic owner of the Savoy Cinema, CV de Silva, had a luncheon buffet at the Savoy to introduce the cast of “Ranmuthu Duwa”, the first Sinhala film in technicolour and shot in the distant waters of Trincomalee with underwater scenes. It was directed by Mike Wilson, who later went deeper into the genre and became more involved in the cinema world.

What finally happened to Mike, I could not say, as vague as I am about the late years of Manik Sandrasagara having left Colombo for many, many years and away from the country’s wartime years, especially after the attempt on my life.

But in those many years when I wrote film and theatre reviews for the Ceylon Observer and the Ceylon Daily News, it often became a daily grind to make my way to the cinema every Thursday with the weekly change of the programme and even—at times—see three films a day for review.

But there was a significant difference between seeing foreign films at a theatre and seeing your own stars and starlets, directors and producers on the opening evening of a local film and mingling with those who you eventually come to know more intimately.

I remember the days when I used to meet with different groups at different places and pick up news stories that add colour and variety to the cultural and entertainment pages.

Quite often the meeting place would be the old Press Club run by Simeon, later acquired by the Indian High Commission. Those gatherings start around 11am or so. What time they end is anybody’s guess, not even Simeons, who has played bit parts in some films.

And as the ebb and flow of well-known stars is often interspersed with ‘visitors’, as we used to call them while exchanging news, views and gossip (where else would you find juicy stories?), not even time can tell when the day is done.

Some time during the week, especially close to the weekend, the gathering might move to the Art Centre Club on the upper floor of the Lionel Wendt, where one would often run into Winston Serasinghe and his wife Iranganie, who made English theatre come alive, be they Shakespeare or some world-known dramatist.

And if I liked a change of scenery and theatre, I would walk across from Lake House to Chatham Street, where I would find master craftsman Henry Jayasena with his eyes studiously turned to some cast until a whisper would raise his eyes.

And so over a beer at the White Horse Inn, if I remember, I would listen to him explaining why a certain actress was changed or a particular scene was altered. Then if one returns to the Press Club, the Sinhala theatre group “Ape Kattiya” would be actively engaged in slashing a scene.

So it was all theatre, all drama, but it kept us quite alive and provided the news we were after.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)