The God King: Lester recalls

The best tribute I can pay Richard Boyle for the excellent 4- part series on the Anglo-Sri Lanka co-production "The God King" in 'The Sunday Times' is that it has exorcised some of the demons that have haunted me over the years since the production was launched in 1973.

Am I over dramatizing? Let me put it this way. Looking back on the 22 feature films I've directed, no film has exacted so relentless a toll of physical, mental and psychological reserves - nor filled me with so much anguish throughout the two years of its production.

This has tended to push The God King into the deepest recesses of my memory - a sort of voluntary amnesia. Whenever I'm compelled to write as I have recently done for a book on the films I've made I've tended to indulge in an orgy of self pity and recrimination.

Reading Richard's mini saga I was transported to a time, a place a film that was perhaps worth the agony. So balanced and fair was Richard's narrative, so impartial his manner in apportioning praise and censure, so vivid the details his elegant prose evoked that his monograph is as good a substitute for the book that can never be written.

The problem with The God King was that it was more than just a film. The issues it raised the implications on the technical, the racial, the working methods, the cultural conflicts, the historical implications of an epic story with its echoes of a Shakespearean tragedy - all these quite apart from the sheer size of the enterprise within the context of Sri Lankan movie-making- the logistical problems of locations, extras, horses, elephants, English and Sri Lankan artistes playing with and against each other were bound to lead to tensions and disharmonies; but one didn't quite expect a minor Balkan war.

I often wonder what went wrong with The God King? What was the jinx that pursued it through every stage of its production, distribution and exhibition? After all Manik Sandrasagara had pulled off the seemingly impossible: an epic production, a producer Dimitri Grunwald (brother of the late Anatole Grunwald) with a track record of some of the most memorable film in the history of British Cinema, experts; in key departments - Art Direction, Make up, production Manager, Assistant Director, three British actors for the three main roles, a constellation of the finest acting talent for starring roles from the local industry. Ravi, Joe, Iranganie, Vije.

Where the production was unique in its set up was that the key technological personnel were Sri Lankans - The Director, the Cameraman, the Music Composer, the Costume Designer and the entire technical unit. This was a radical departure from international film making where Asians upto that time invariably carried out subordinate functions.

In the new set up Willie Blake was flown in from his self-imposed exile in Canada to shoot the film in the giant TODD AC format. Soma Bandu executed the jewellery and costumes which set the screen aglow. Nimal Mendis composed the music played by musicians drawn from the London symphony Orchestra.

Manik, bless his heart, chose me to guide this behemoth of a movie and establish Sri Lanka as a location ideal, cheap for co-productions with responsibilities equally shared by any foreign country. Manik was a young entrepreneur of uncanny persuasion. He could, as I always said, sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo.

Richard Boyle in the first of his articles has recorded a blow by blow account of the humiliating and catastrophic debacle of that first chapter of The God King saga. It is futile for me to recapitulate the incidents that led to its collapse. But for me the irreparable loss was Ben Kingsley.

It was the first time I had to direct a professional player from the Royal Shakespeare Company - a sensation in Athol Fugard's South African plays. Would he be temperamental? A director's nightmare? Another Brando?

My experience in London was in the handling of British actors from amateur repertory companies. The first day's shooting dispelled all my fears. We started shooting on the wind swept heights of Sigiriya on a set ingeniously assembled in sections and dropped by helicopters.

No actor could have been more disciplined, more amenable to direction than Ben. That wasn't the important thing. In his glittering royal robes, his crown encrusted with jewels of rainbow colours, the sun's rays striking a halo of iridescent beauty, he strode the palace gardens - a Kassapa come to life?

He was dissatisfied with a take, a look, a raised finger, a whispered consultation and off we'd turn the cameras for the seventh time. It was his first major role and he was, determined to make the best of it. What was astonishing was his vocal range from the subtlest nuances in his scenes with Joe Abeywickreme to the Wagnerian thunder of his great God King speech. He was absolutely a virtuoso of an actor's greatest instrument, his voice. When Leigh Lawson replaced him, charismatic as he was his vocal power could not match Ben's. I remember during the dubbing stages (lip syncing the dialogue in ideal studio conditions) he desperately tried to pull the stops but his voice hadn't the same power. Years after the collapse and Ben Kingsley's exit I met him in Manila. I was on the Jury. He was there for the world premiere of "Gandhi" which rocketed him to international stardom. When he spotted me, he rushed up to me, embraced me and said "Where the hell have you been you naughty blighter?"

"Ben" I said "that couldn't be a line from "Gandhi?"

"My dear fellow I am not Gandhi, I am Ben Kingsley," and laughed uproariously. He had married again. She was a TV camera director and he was very happy, he said.

I try never to miss a film in which Ben is now cast in major roles. We have not met since. But it was indeed a privilege to have directed him on what could have been his first major role - and had we completed the film with him the value of the "The God King" after Gandhi would have been incalculable.

One must however add that when the scenes of Ben Kingsley were screened at the Empire cinema to the British (Raymond Torin and his partners) and our local directors, the tide turned in our favour - they knew we could deliver the goods despite Greville Bell's cynical prognostications.

The image of Ben in his golden robes in his jewelled crown, his voice echoing across the blue sky, rushing up in Wagnerian splendour is etched in my memory 25 years later - on that fateful morning I could barely hold back my tears. To analyse the collapse of the 'The God King' wasn't difficult. Dimitri had left for London to sign Rod Steiger and Shirley MacLaine for his new production, a comedy, Anthony Greville Bell was deputised to take over.

Apart from the problems with the script over which I had openly expressed disappointment but had no power to change, he had no experience of the logistics of production.

The script was a bizarre incongruous union of the Mahavamsa story outline, Gauribala's own theories of which I had no notion, Sigiri as an esoteric centre for strange cults, Kassapa as a pawn in the hands of an Indian Swami (a precursor of Viceroy Dixit) as well as a victim of hallucinatory visions, triggering off the concept of a God King.

To make sense of this was my task. The shooting scheduling was his. The British back-up team had not arrived, in fact, I heard to my horror that they were not to be hired - to cut down on expenses - no Assistant Director, no Production Manager, no Art Director (Anne Greville Bell had designed the production).

It was to be an epic on a shoe-string Budget - the strings were there - where the bloody hell was the shoe?

Anyway poor Richard Boyle found himself elevated to the position of First Assistant Director.

As good fortune would have it only two artistes, Ben Kingsley and Joe Abeywickrema were involved even though filming over days on the summit of Sigiri wasn't exactly a picnic on the 8th wonder of the world - a plateau on which a set was built and a miniature lavatory to which Ben Kingsley would disappear in regal style - stricken by a wicked attack of amoebic dysentery. What Greville Bell proposed to do when 2000 extras, 22 horses, their riders and keepers plus 34 elephants arrived, I hadn't the foggiest notion; nor I suspect did he.

We plunged headlong into shooting, lugging up the Todd Ao cameras, equipment, lights, recorders and a crew of nearly 50 each day upto the wind-swept rock.

The two other British actors Stephen Murray, (Dhatusena) and Mark Burns (Migara) were diplomatically despatched on a tour of our island Paradise. For us Hell was staring us in the face. The vast palace complex was far from complete; the British financing had still to come in; Dimitri was in London, Greville Bell moved us to Anuradhapura, there was no filming possible, the production wobbled! and staggered and crashed. Predictably the villains were the Sri Lankans.

A secret and confidential meeting was held by the English group led by Greville Bell and wife. As spokesman Bell explained to me it was no longer possible to make "The God King" or any other co-production for the simple reason that our working methods were different, our disciplines were different.

In defence I had to point out that we were rushed into production when we weren't ready and where, pray, was Dimitri? I countered back. Arguments were of no avail. The British artistes were determined to fly back home immediately. Eric Allright, the make up artist of Ryan's daughter and many outstanding films refused to abandon us. To them, I should imagine, he was the traitor to king and country of course the British Cinema Industry in one of its periodic terminal phases. To us he was our hero, the man who obviously knew that a blunder had been perpertrated and we were the scapegoats. He had seen NOT one single foot of film except the location still and yet he had faith in us - he stayed on to complete the job he came to do - and his contribution, the extraordinary transformation of British actors into 5th Century Sri Lankan members of a Royal Family was only possible by our expert make-up artist. Though Eric Allright offered to train any local make-up artist, the tragedy was that no one had the humility to understudy him.

Only Sesha Palihakkara our finest make-up artist, among his other accomplishments as actor and choreographer will bear witness. When he worked as Eric's associate on the final scenes shot in the studio , it can, even at the risk of perpetrating a bad pun, truly be said that Eric Allright lived upto his name. This faith was vindicated when The God King was revived with a back-up team of British technicians that sounded like a roll-call of honour in British Cinema.

Gus Agosti was hired as the first Assistant Director. Widely regarded as the world's finest, he had worked with David Lean on Bridge on the River Kwai and with William Wyler on Ben Hur.

It was my turn to be honoured. Bill Kerby as Production Manager and Herbert Smith as Art Director completed as strong a team as any director could hope for.

It would be dishonest of me to say that Leigh Lawson who replaced Ben Kingsley was as good, but he gave to the role the maximum of his concentration, his histrionic talents - his problem was his boyish film star looks, a feminine gentleness and grace so that he lacked the intensity of Ben Kingsley.

Poor Leigh had the misfortune that a quiet actor had already played the role and the comparisons are odious as they are inevitable. His vocal range too was limited, so that in the higher reaches, one missed the shattering power of Ben Kingsley's declaration of the 'The God King' speech on Sigiri's cloud- capped summit.

Both Oliver Tobias as Migara and Geoffrey Russell enjoyed the advantage of creating their characters freshly united, as it were, with no standard by which to assess their performances, except the favourable reviews of the critics. What pleased me most was the excellent playing of the Sri Lankan artistes - Ravindra Randeniya, who had the most exacting role of Moggallana gave one as powerful a performance as any of the British actors, combining moral strength with an athletic physical prowess as befits the man who brings about the downfall of his brother Kassapa.

I doubt whether any European star, even Sir Alec Guiness, could have been as convincing a Swami, the enigmatic Guru whose influence over the King brings about both his triumph and disaster, as Joe Abeywickrama. It took Dimitri and myself nearly five days of testing in London to find the voice that we finally chose - a Jewish actor to dub the English dialogue for his very individualistic rhythms.

Iranganie, in her fifth role in a film of mine, splendid even in the horror of the pyre scene...... and Vijaya Kumaratunge in his only romantic sub text, so moving in the final scene where he bids farewell to Kassapa on the battlefield.

In fact, so good were the Sri Lankan actors that one English critic was puzzled as to why all the characters should not have been played by them. However I must place on record an incident which profoundly disturbed and saddened me. One of the actors, whose name I shall not divulge came one evening to my room and complained that I was paying all my directorial attention to the foreign actors; whereas they were ignored, and left to their own devises against a bunch of foreigners. The Sinhala words were shockingly crude verging on the obscene - perhaps he had imbibed a bit too much of the local brew. For a moment I could hardly speak, the allegation smacked of an inverted racial bias besides being unfair in the extreme.

I explained to him that the three British players who had the major roles, were portraying characters who were alien to their own culture, religion and more of behaviour. If I gave the impression that I was spending more time with them, this may be the reason. As for them, the local artistes I spent more rehearsal time as the dialogue was in English and more declamatory than colloquial. The actor looked me straight in the eye, shook his head and walked out of the room.

(To be continued next week)

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