It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. It was a period when the sole medium of electronic entertainment available for Ceylon was none other than radio. Ironical enough, no award festival was available to recognize the talents of radio artistes until 2017.
Not so long ago, young filmmaker, writer and radio play writer Malaka Dewapriya launched his latest book on the culture of radio drama ‘Nihon Sepa Lebewa’ (May you attain comforts of worldly life in Nihon). Dewapriya won the
Malaka Dewapriya was recognized as the Best Radio Drama Scriptwriter at the State Radio Awards. Iranganie Serasinghe and Ramya Wanigasekara won special jury awards for their performance in Dewapriya’s radio plays. On a different terrain, however, Dewapriya earned much ire for his titles. Identified by himself as baseless handiwork of racist, religious and ethnic extremist groups for narrow political gains, the arguments are levelled against several titles: Tharuwan Saranai (Be Blessed by Stars) and Nihon Sepa Lebewa (May You Attend Comfort Worldly Life In Nihon). The titles claim to have had derogatory connotations against Buddhism.
A case has also been filed in the Magistrate Court of Colombo by the Organized Crime Unit by way of a ‘B’ Report under Clauses 291A and 291B of the Penal Code.
“The aims and intentions of many extremist groups in this country are to bring about disharmony. They aim to enjoy privileges by means of bringing about corruption, mayhem and oppression, based on feudalistic mechanisms, sycophancy and partisan ideologies. Today, the majority of media in the country operate on this agenda. Media in this country has become a business, devoid of communication ideologies and principles,” notes Dewapriya.
The scriptwriter insists that the contents must be inspected before placing any accusation. Just a twist of a name would not insult any religious connotation. A language is a system of the sign. The language is used to communicate as well as to innovate and create. The symbols of a language are not the sole property of any religious institution or police or political group or any particular individual. From times immemorial, poets, writers, novelists, dramatists have used these symbols to come up with direct or indirect meanings, contexts, nuances, satire and so much more. In using language, creators do not confine themselves to limitations set by narrow-minded authorities.
Nobody has a patent for language. The meanings created by any language can vary according to context.
“For instance, if you take the word ‘Jesu’ you have one meaning. When you say yo wada than pavaromanu jesu the meaning is different. Jesudasan gives another connotation. J Sunimal is another. The baseless attacks have been made by the narrow-minded insular ‘theorists’ who are pathetically ignorant and clueless of the scientific basis and mechanisms in which a language operates are nothing but abject mythology.
The golden era of radio drama kicked off in the 1950s. The radio dramatists ventured out to innovate, improvise and develop new creations, resulting in radio drama being recognized as a new, independent art form with its own characteristics and identity. In 2019, this art form has progressed beyond gold to achieve something like a platinum status. One can observe this clearly if one listens to, for example, the dramas broadcast daily on the BBC World Service. They utilize modern digital communication technology, experiment with themes as well as formats and come up with a huge output of innovative radio drama.
Over the decades they have won millions of loyal audiences all around the world. Commenting on Sri Lankan radio drama in the 1950s, dramatist P Welikala compared it to crawling on knees. Following a lapse of seven decades, where are we? This is painfully evident if you listen to what passes for ‘drama’ today, be it state radio or so-called ‘private’ radio networks. They are nothing but totally profit-oriented, cheap, frivolous melodramatic harangues, let alone radio plays!
Why such a decline? Malaka Dewapriya elaborates the need to develop the art of radio drama. A report authored by the Commission of Broadcasting as far back as the 1950s, chaired by Norman Edward Weerasooriya points out that what passed for radio drama those days consisted of stories containing shallow jokes and dialogues, interspersed with some indecent expressions. It further emphasized the scarcity of capable people to evaluate the quality of radio drama scripts.
Another problem highlighted in the report was the tendency by drama producers to engage people whose nature was authoritarian rather than creatively talented. The acting tends to be artificially owing to artistes’ lack of language skills and histrionic abilities. Even when the Drama Unit has good scripts, the tendency to engage amateur artistes results in substandard productions.
“What we need to understand is the fact that these shortcomings highlighted long ago in that report are still prevalent. We still do not have a cultural policy aiming to develop the arts of radio drama, stage drama and cinema. Various governments that come to power do nothing but implement agendas and projects for their own narrow gains,” Dewapriya notes.
On the other hand, we sadly lack an ideological base strong enough to develop these art forms. A majority of bureaucrats are stuck inside narrow ethnic, racist and religious frameworks. It is impossible to build a cultural policy within such confines. Nor is it possible to maintain a culture that promotes modernism.
Add new comment