Tissa Abeysekara is quite rightly celebrated as the best cinema script and dialogue writer, film director, film and literary critic, musicologist, an eloquent orator and arguably the best bilingual writer we had, certainly the best in our generation. Surely posterity will remember Tissa as an iconic figure in the contemporary cultural landscape just as Lester J Peries, Martin Wickremasinghe, Amaradeva or Sarathchandra.Celebrating Tissa Abeysekara’s works on his death anniversary (18th April), a critic recently lamented that Tissa’s sublimely beautiful cinematic masterpiece Viragaya (1988) had been destroyed for ever and the producer had arbitrarily shortened ("cut and chopped") the film whilst it was still running. The writer also had implied that disheartened, Tissa did not make any more feature films.
As a person who had been in contact with Tissa, I can vouch that Tissa always tried to resurrect his career as a filmmaker but could not find a producer. Eventually he turned to his first love- fiction and produced two literary gems in English- as his sunset achievement.
Between 2003 and 2007 I was in touch with Tissa on various issues including a book he was planning to write on Sunil Santha. The subject of Viragaya including the role of the producer had featured in our discussions. These discussions showed me a glimpse of the fascinating, intriguing and the enigmatic nature of this rare genius including his unusual stance on his masterpiece Viragaya.
Tissa steadfastly refused to acknowledge "Viragaya" as his best work and always gave that place to "Mahagedara". When I disagreed he provided a flimsy counter-argument that "Mahagedara" was his own story but "Viragaya" was not. That "Viragaya" is the much superior film is undebatable. Officially it is ranked as the third best film ever made in Sri Lanka behind Nidanaya and Gamperaliya.
moreFrom early nineties Tissa maintained through Sinhala newspaper columns that the full length movie of Viragaya was shown only in Regal and that too only in the first two weeks of the first round of screening. He also moaned that the Viragaya full print is lost for ever. In his writings (reprinted as Cinema Sithuvili in book form) he had implied that whilst the film was running its producer had visited the theatres and had "cut and chopped" the film. The comment had baffled me for a long time. When I told him that I saw the film in Nugegoda which ran over 3 hrs and that it looked in perfect order, he was quick to distract me by saying that he shot the film originally for 4 hrs, confusing me even further.
This specific discussion on Viragaya took place in Jan 2004 at his residence. When I asked for more details about the producer the great man became allusive. "She is overseas now for a long time" When I asked him where does she live- he retorted- "I donknow- must be in the United States", discouraging me to discuss the topic further.
Meeting the Producer of Viragaya
In June 2008 under rather fortuitous circumstances I made the acquaintance of the producer of Viragaya Chandra Mallawarachchi in Sydney. As I later discovered, Chandra too is an artist and had taken a very high financial risk in venturing to film a novel thought to be un-filmable. She is a poet and a painter of notable talent (her publication "Gaeheniya" contains her verse and paintings).
Naturally I was keen to find her point of view on the issues raised. Behind the production of Viragaya hers is a long interesting story. It is not my role to retell her story, but during the course of her responses she made one or two startling revelations with regard to the choice of the film and the cast which I think I must place in record.
I do this with no disrespect to late Tissa whom I admire as an artist and a person unreservedly. Facts need to be documented though, for posterity.
Chandra was a close personal friend of Tissa and the Abeysekara family and a widow when she produced Viragaya. She had come to Australia in 1989 to settle her daughter while Viragaya was still running in Sri Lanka during the height of JVP insurrection. She never returned to Sri Lanka.
She was aware of all the allegations made against her. Being away from Sri Lanka, she never got the opportunity to defend her. In her absence and silence, in all issues the director’s version had prevailed unequivocally.
Sanath was Producer’s Pick for Aravinda
According to Chandra, her dream was to make an art film. Contrary to the popular belief and the director’s claim, the choice of the novel Viragaya as the film and Sanath Gunatilleka as Aravinda is hers- not Tissa’s. As the joint cast director she was adamant in picking specific actors for key roles including Sanath as Aravinda.
Initial discussions with Tissa had included revisiting an abandoned script on Viragaya which Tissa had written for Lester (J Peries)- a venture that never took off the ground. Once she had decided on filming Viragaya, Chandra had visited Tissa to discuss the production and the cast she had in her mind, particularly the make or break lead role of Aravinda. Chandra Mallawarachchi insists that when she decided on making the film on Viragaya her choice for Aravinda was always Sanath Gunatilleka (She had seen a specific frame in a commercial film Podi Ralahami starring Sanath and was convinced that Sanath with his charisma was the right choice). She confided that whilst reading the abandoned draft script, she pictured Sanath playing Aravinda’s role.
In the meantime Tissa on his own had already gone ahead and chosen Laxman Wijesekara for Aravinda and had got Laxman to commit to the role.
According to Chandra when she announced that Sanath Gunatilleka is her choice for Aravinda, Tissa was flabbergasted and had dismissed her sceptically saying that Sanath could never play that role."Monawa Aravindata Sanath?" was his first reaction. Tissa had argued that with his "defeatist" look Laxman was the right man. Having given reasons for her choice, Chandra had cajoled Tissa saying that he is the director capable of getting the best out of Sanath. She had threatened not to go ahead with the production without Sanath. Tissa had to agree as the producer was taking the risk.
Consequently when the role became a success due to Tissa’s exceptional directional skills and Sanath’s unprecedented commitment, Chandra never got credit for being the person behind making the choice. The producer out of courtesy never openly refuted the director’s claims either. Since 1989 the producer had been living in Australia anyway. While shooting, the director also had tried to cast Asanka Monarawila as Bathee on the grounds that Sabeetha Perera was busy making a commercial film in Pakistan. This was stopped by the producer’s intervention (quoting personal conversations with Chandra Mallawarachchi).
In Aug 2008 Laxman Wijesekara was in Sydney for a musical concert with Amarasiri Peiris and Pradeepa Dharmadasa at the Joan Sutherland Hall and I made it a point to go backstage and pose him the obvious question. He confirmed humbly with a smile: "Yes, Tissa Abeysekara had invited me to play the role of Aravinda"
Length of the Movie
On the length of the movie in spite of her repeated objections on the running time the director had written a (new) script and shot the film for 4 hrs, paying scant regard for production cost impacts or the obvious impracticality of screening a 4 hr long film. Having shot the film for 4 hours and dubbing it, the director pruned it down to 3 hrs 20 mins on his own. As a precondition for public screening the SFC had directed to curtail it by a further 10 mins. Tissa had obliged by taking out one or two scenes. A three and half hour show time (with intermission) was still excessive and theatre owners struggled to even run 3 shows a day during those troubled times. It is logical that the theatre owners were the culprits who had skipped reels willy-nilly to minimize the running time.
The film being an undoubted masterpiece was a candidate for overseas film festivals. The length of the movie had to be curtailed further in a bid to satisfy the festival entry requirements. With the help of the editor the film was carefully edited to 2 hrs 20 mins and subtitled. Main changes were in the elimination of the third generation scenes (with Vajira and Wimal played by Radha de Mel and Richard de Zoysa). This edited version too was considered excessive for the festival’s competitive section. The specially edited version (2 hrs 20 mins) with subtitles was prepared solely for the overseas film festivals and was never shown or intended to be shown in the Sri Lankan theatres then.
Courtesy The Island By Jayantha Anandappa
Australia
