‘Sandesaya was my university’

Art Director of more than 75 films, Hiralu Pathirannehelage Dharmasena Hemapala recalls his launching pad into a strange but exciting world way back in the ’50s

He is 73 years old but for Hiralu Pathirannehelage Dharmasena Hemapala of Kumbal Oluwa, Veyangoda, unlike for many others of his vintage, retirement is not an option and does not seem for a while. Shuttling between his home and Dambulla, he is busy crafting a statue of Kali Amma as well as six of Saraswathie for a Canadian film which is to be shot there.

His life and the silver screen have been inextricably entwined since he was propelled as a shy youth of about 19 straight from his humble roots into a strange but exciting world.

Just two paintings, one of women collecting firewood and the other of women picking flowers, that Dharmasena put up for an exhibition held by the Jathika Kala Peramuna at the Art Gallery were his launching pad into the midst not only of famous film directors but also actors and actresses.

Niththathinma apu ekak, he smiles, when asked about his talent at painting, for what caught the eye of the film great Lester James Peries who was strolling around the Art Gallery that day so long ago, was the Sinhala mosthara (patterns) on the attire of the women in those paintings. Dharmasena was then a student at the Heywood Institute (now the Institute of Aesthetic Studies) down Horton Place.

Lester’s call came through the Heywood Institute. He wanted Dharmasena to join his film crew on a major undertaking way back in 1958 – the making of ‘Sandesaya’ or ‘The Message’. (According to Lester’s official website this black and white 35mm 120-minute first epic film by him with a cast of almost 150 dealing with the Portuguese occupation of then Ceylon, is one of the biggest box office hits in the country having 40 releases and 132 prints, at the end of which there was no negative. The film had been made on the request of Producer K. Gunaratnam for the 10th anniversary of his company, Cinemas Limited.)

The youth was expected to handle the preparation of costumes under designer Ariyawansa Weerakkody. Coincidentally, Dharmasena had also studied under Ariyawansa, so the offer was tempting.

However, there were doubts and fears. He had done fabric painting of liyawela, nelum peththa, pala pethi but there was no in-depth knowledge.......“punchi therumak thibbe,” he says although he had done some work for the Cinemas company located at Queenland Cinema on Armour Street. The other drawback was that he was studying and had never been away from home.

It was February 25, 1959 and Belihul Oya was the location. He was expected to tackle bolts and bolts of cloth, drawing Sinhala mosthara on them with a brush. Wavering whether or not to go as the persuasions came, he decided he would go during the holidays, along with Peramune Ranasinghe.

That decision changed his life, making him walk a pathway which would cross those of numerous Film Directors including Lester, Sumitra Peries, Gamini Fonseka, Mahagam Sekera, Manik Sandrasagara, Malini Fonseka, Dharmasiri Gamage, Sunil Ariyaratne (who has just released ‘Kusa Paba’) and many more not only from Sri Lanka but also countries such as Japan,

Cloaked in secrecy it was last year, when well-known Indian-born Canadian Director Deepa Mehta was in Sri Lanka to film an adaptation of ‘Midnight’s Children’ by controversial author Salman Rushdie on India’s blood- splattered independence.

To be released internationally soon, facilitation of the filming was by the local ‘Film Team’ headed by Ravindra Randeniya. With Errol Kelly as Chief Art Director, many of the sets had been the work of none other than Dharmasena.

The entry into an underground cell was “fashioned” from the front door of the home of the Principal of Wesley College, says Dharmasena, while a prison was established at the Racecourse along with a torture chamber.

The Economic Centre off Kirimandala Road at Narahenpita was another location as were the Mayor’s bungalow at Colombo and the turreted Jayakody Walauwwa at Ganemulla. England, France, Denmark and America.

For the wide-eyed youth, every move of Lester, the master film-maker was a lesson. He came to grips with the concept of “stills” be it men who were sawing and planing wood, running or fishing.

“Lester who had Sumitra as an assistant at that time was very thorough. He taught me through action more than words,” says Dharmasena. “If this happens what will follow, Lester kept questioning.” (Lester married Sumitra in 1964) Many of the actors and actresses who became icons of the silver screen such as Gamini Fonseka, Shane Gunaratne, Vincent Vaas, David Dharmakeerthi, Eddie Jayamanne, Kanthi Gunatunga and Iranganie Serasinghe were part of the cast while to portray the Portuguese, several Burghers were on board and Dharmasena says humbly, “apita huru ne” (“we were unfamiliar with the language as they were speaking in English”).

During the pre-production period, only a few clothes were necessary, he remembers, with the work intensity increasing to crazy levels as the filming accelerated.

The shooting was on a mist-shrouded hill opposite Belihul Oya rest-house at the 100th milepost, while their spartan accommodation was quite far away.

Their not-so-temporary abode, for the shooting went on for nearly a year, was a set of small chalets with a manna grass roof, gunnies for walls and cement only for the floors. There were several rooms for them to sleep, a dining room and a kitchen constructed of wood but when shooting took place elsewhere, food would be brought from village homes in the vicinity.

Four to five people shared a room, says Dharmasena, recalling those bitter-cold nights and chilly days when sometimes the manna grass would get blown away by the wind only to fall on the huddled bodies of the sleeping crew. The area was replete with blood-sucking leeches and snakes, he shudders, but he would sit atop a rock and take in the scene of the shooting curiously.

There were also the man-made issues that they faced, according to Dharmasena. With the film crew descending on remote areas, the practice those days was to entertain the villagers at the wadiya by tying up a screen on a tree and showing 16 mm films.the reels, however, would be brought by bus and on one such occasion with excitement mounting among the knot of people, the movie ‘Sujatha’ they were supposed to show got late. “The crowd got restive and started shouting. Lester was worried,” says Dharmasena. “Into the crowd was sent equally aggressive trouble-shooter Gamini Fonseka, and in keeping with many a role of the gangster that he portrayed later, he jumped into the fray, shouting ‘ kawda yakko’ making the villagers run away.” When people toppled the generator down an incline, once again, it was Gamini who defused the situation.

The memories of the events 53 years ago are still fresh and Dharmasena reminisces about how they had to get galvanised to provide props for a battle scene. “We were told the previous night that the battle was to take place the next morning but there were no swords, bows and arrows etc.” So up they were the whole night making the weapons, laying down their weary heads only at 1 in the morning and waking up bleary-eyed at the crack of dawn to take them to the set. On one occasion, they needed guns and Dharmasena had to hire a cart and go around collecting guns from the villagers.

It was so different from now, he sighs. They did not have a fleet of vehicles to go back and forth to aid the production process – just two Bedford vans. The small fry had to take the props early morning and the others would come sharp at 7.50. Another incident, now laughable, but then thoroughly taxing, was that of the missing comb, according to him. For a full day the crew had been on location with the main actress Kanthi Gunatunga framed by a waterfall, a bull’s horn comb in her hand, combing her hair. Everything was ready and set for shooting the next day too when realization dawned that the comb was missing.

“Usually, after shooting all the stuff is collected and heaped up in a kind of haphazard ‘stores’. Props such as guns, knives, swords, all coming under the Art Department would be kept there and taken back to the location next morning,” he says.

When Dharmasena looked at his colleague, he shook his head in dismay. “It was not with me and not with him.” In desperation, Dharmasena approached Kanthi and pleaded with her to use the sleight of hand, pretending that she had the comb.

With shooting atop a steep hill, he not only ran all six miles back to the wadiya stores but also the return six miles, he says.

For Dharmasena, another enduring memory is the erection of the bala kotuwa (fortress), the piece de resistance of Sandesaya. While Weerakkody designed it, he was given the onerous task of putting up the fort which was the scene of the final blast and battle between the Portuguese and the Sinhalese.

The fort was 23’ in height and 80’ in length and built in the shape of a triangle with kalu gal (rocks), he says and even at that time cost the princely sum of Rs. 25,000. The day it was to be dynamited, the army was in full force to prevent injury or death among the villagers. Hailers had warned the people to keep away and the hills which ringed the fort were manned by soldiers to signal that all was clear. However, there was one tiny detail that had to be carried out and that was to place dummies in the fort to look like fallen Portuguese soldiers as soon as the blasting took off with the first signalling shot.

Between the first and third warning shots, it was Dharmasena’s unenviable duty to place the dummies, with the clock ticking dangerously, and run for cover. “Doong gala medin pupurawanna thibbe,” he says. The fort was due to come down in different sections, with five cameras capturing its collapse and he recalls how a rock whacked the lens of one, shattering it.

After ‘Sandesaya’, Dharmasena vowed never to get involved in films again but inexorably was lured to numerous movies, climbing the ladder in this glitzy and glamorous world to the seat of the Art Director, winning about 15 awards as the “Best”.

He picks out ‘The God King’ (the movie on the clash between patricide king Kashyapa and his half-brother Mugalan at Sigiriya). “Part of the shooting was done in Mannar and I was told that ships were to be special props just two weeks before. We arrived in Mannar around 5 in the evening and filming was to begin at 7 the next morning.”

Falling back on his cadet training, he and his crew began the arduous task of setting up a line of ships. Counting the bokku along the beach, he drew a direct line connecting them, while three lorries unloaded their cargo of the ship bases and the sails.

As dusk and then night enveloped Mannar, with the lights of the jeep in which he had arrived trained along the beach, Dharmasena and his golayas set to work, erecting poles, placing the base of each ship and then putting up the sail to give the impression of a flotilla about to land.

By 6.30 the next morning there were 60 ships, with him and his crew having worked without food, water or rest. By the time Lester came on location fresh and bright, with his compliments.... “Kollo heduwa neda”, dog-tired Dharmasena and his golayas were ready to head back to the rest-house for a well-earned rest.

Although he has been Art Director for more than 75 movies, ‘Sandesaya’, still has a special place in his heart. “For that was my vishva vidyalaya (university),” he says simply.