The New York Film Festival is over;
the best actor award is securely placed in a little hamlet in Moratuwa and
everyone has now come to know Jagath Chamila. Great feat and nothing should
take away the luminosity he enjoys today as he richly deserves the accolade for
the role he played as Sam in Sameege
Kathawa. My lines are to praise him and state my humble or ‘not so humble’
opinion on an event that started on the banks of Bolgoda and crept its way to
the silver screen in the Big Apple.
I saw the movie more than 6 times,
from the first print that Director/Producer Priyankara Vithanachchi made. Let
the movie speak for itself. A book and a movie are not easy to compare. Authors
have space, and for them it is only a matter of spinning a story by minting words
and expressions to arouse the interest of a reader. They have a wide canvas to
beautify with colourful descriptions and well-constructed lines to fill their
books. Film makers have a much harder task. They struggle in turbid tangles and
battle multiple fronts. First with budgets, (do not forget this is Priyankara
and not Spielberg.) They have to use so much creativity and do a balancing act
in order to come out with the best possible combination to create a winning
movie. There too the probabilities linger, to slip on the last step when
victory is within reach. Priyankara made Sameege
Kathawa with varying winds that blew mostly from negative directions. This
was his first real film. How good is it? That you will see and decide for
yourself, yes, it is in the eyes of the beholder. I only hope that Sameege Kathawa will hit the cinema
halls fast as it is a people’s movie and they now have a national hero to
watch.
Jagath won the award and he is a
celebrity, a real one amidst the ‘card board Sandos’ we are forced to worship.
I am waiting to see how the cookie crumbles. Will the masses get a chance to
see Jagath playing Sammy, ASAP?
Let me now change the navigation and
head towards this fabulous young man who has ‘Done It.’ If anyone knows the
character of Sam that carried the movie, I think it would be me, simply because
I created Sam and wrote the book. Every time I saw the movie, I was amazed by
many aspects of the screen version. There were some scenes I felt could have
been done better, but the totality thrilled me immensely. Producer Priyankara
gets all the credit and without any hesitation I say, it was Jagath as Sam who
carried the show. He was simply fantastic. What I put into Sam, he acted and
came out with the exact replica of what I created. He did not over act and he
did not go below the bench mark. He really was Sam. Yes Dustin Hoffman played
Rain Man and Tom Hanks was Forrest Gump. Both Hanks and Hoffman came from the
‘hit-parade’ of Hollywood with great past reputations and had head starts in
any acting evaluation. Jagath was from Janasiri Mawatha, Moratumulla, a far cry
from the boulevards of California and yet was good enough for New York. Jagath
was a total stranger to the judges. They had not sat at cutlery-glittering
candlelit dinners with the actor from Moratuwa. Jagath was just an ‘also ran’
for everybody, a mere ‘ping pong’ player at Wimbledon. That was the playing
field, clearly stacked against smaller than small people like us amidst the
champagne campaigners.
In New York there was only a small
supporting team, Jagath, movie maker Priyankara, Wimal Deshapriya the associate
producer and Athula Sulthanagoda the costume designer who had crossed the
Atlantic to attend the great festival. They were almost insignificant pilgrims
on a glittering stage, crab-crawling amidst the sultans of the international
celluloid world. They did have some NY Sri Lankans for side support, ‘Boston
News’ couple Chitral and Vyomi and maybe a few more I do not know.
“And the winner for the best actor
award goes to Jagath Chamila” so said
the man with the mike, shooting the Moratumulla Cambrian to instant celebrity
status and giving Sri Lanka and all Sri Lankans a genuine reason to celebrate.
I have no words to describe what I felt when I saw Jagath standing up and squeezing
past Priyankara to make his walk of fame. That was a sight for me, to last a
life time.
Was Jagath that good? Yes he was.
There are some scenes in the movie that totally captivated me. I saw Sam in the
book and Jagath in the movie merged together in the portrayal of a difficult
role acted to a mercurial best. ‘Waiting for the postman, sitting with his
mother and watching her weep when they buried his brother Jaya, the hospital
scene and the telephone scene,’ they were classic. The walk, the grin, the
uncertainties of Sam’s little mind grappling with the world, they were streaks
of brilliance that flashed as the movie rolled on. Sopi Akka’s amorous advances
and Sam’s reactions were saucily class. No wonder New York decided he was the
best, of that there was no question. Jagath certainly did not win by sending
Christmas Cards to the Judges or carrying Dilmah Tea packets as gifts for the
movie Mandarins of the festival.
Where does it all go now? Yes Jagath
Chamila is a celebrity and he richly deserves to be one. Of course as the
saying goes, victory has a hundred fathers. There will be those now who will
parachute from the sky to steal the lime light and borrow credit. That is to be
expected. But there are the true stake holders too; Priyankara leads the
victory parade and his entire filming crew richly deserve total credit for what
they created. And the supporting cast, Nilmini Buweneka gives a stunning
performance as Sam’s mother. There was Kade
Mudalali and the estate kankani
(I do not know the names) they were great too and of course the veterans Sanath
Gunatilaka and Manik Kurukulasooriya added the extra flavour. The cast deserves
their share of the victory and I for one applaud them all.
One more name needs to be mentioned.
I met Jagath a month ago, before his NY skyrocket to fame. This was a pure
Moratuwa scene, I had gone to run at the Lunawa Lagoon track and Jagath and his
wife Madhu were there teaching their children to ride bicycles. We spoke of
this and that and in conversation I asked where he learnt to act. “In school
Captain, we had a drama master, Tissa Gunawardena; he was the one who taught me
to act. He was a great teacher and he taught us how to look into people’s lives
when we acted them.”
I do not know where you are Mr.
Gunawardena but you sure laid the foundation and gave Jagath firm ground to
leap to the world and shout “I won this award for my country.” And for the
record Mr Drama Sir, you are no parachutist, but a Grand Master who created a
Great Actor. Congratulations!
Let us all hope that the powers that
control the screening of movies in Sri Lanka would take into consideration that
“Sameege Kathawa” is special. Let
Priyankara Vithanachchi be able to show his movie before time corrodes the
excitement. People need to see how Jagath became the best actor in New York.
The
country owes him that, simply because his was a class act.
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