Yasmin Rajapakse was the dance “specialist” in the Bonsoir team, herself a dancer with Aunty Oosha at the Oosha Garten of Ballet. The Chitrasenas had performed in France many times and so Yasmin decided to devote an entire programme to them. A programme of this nature needed careful and detailed pre-production so she got in touch with her pal Uppi (Upeka) and got going.
I remember Uppi telling Yasmin to “be VERY careful” with all the old photographs, souvenirs, documents and other memorabilia that Aunty Vaji, her mother had carefully stored in large wooden boxes laced with dried savendra roots...“or else Amma will get v-e-r-y cross”, she warned us. That look on Uppi’s face told us what lay in store for us if we were not careful with the precious Chitrasena archives.
Being a part of the French Embassy, we had free use of the Cultural Service’s DPL number plated car. This was a veritable passé-partout. There was only one front passenger seat which Yasmin and I eyed with equal compulsion. The one to run and sit in it first, got to ride in it. Ah now that’s stuff for another chapter.
And so we took off one morning to Mahara, Kadawatha. They were all there – maestro Chitrasena, Vajira, daughters Upeka and Anjalika, son Anudatta and wife Janaki, and granddaughter Heshma Melvani (who had cut school that day). They were a very hospitable family and lavished us with bibikkans and lavariyas and steaming cups of ginger tea.
Yasmin used different parts of their garden for the interviews. In their different ways, they all shared their love for dance and the sound of the drums. They all waxed eloquently, speaking to the camera, except that terribly shy and tongue-tied grand-daughter, 16-year-old Heshma. She gave us one hell of a tough time and refused to face the camera. When she did, she simply smiled into the camera without uttering a single word. We coaxed and cajoled and persuaded her.
We asked her whether she would take to dance one day and she replied rather incoherently that she would in a rapid five-word answer. This was 1991. Two decades plus later, today, it’s amazing to see Heshma (Arjuna Wignaraja), that tongue-tied teenager, a talented choreographer in her own right, give the lead to the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya with great confidence.
Then began the performance…an impromptu one at that. What an experience it was to see three generations of the clan perform for Bonsoir to the sound of throbbing drums. They danced, they jumped, they leapt, they catapulted, they froze mid air, they swirled...blood rising in their veins, joy written on their faces. It was a sight to behold. We were honoured and privileged!
I remember poor Chintha, camera on shoulder, eye glued to the viewfinder, running in circles around the Chitrasenas – on tiptoe at times, kneeling at others, lying on his stomach at times, perched atop a stool at others. We had only one solitary camera but at the editing stage, Yasmin and he ensured that our viewers had a multi-camera experience.
PS 1: Anu’s daughters Umi (9) and Thaji (3) were not around that day. Umi must have been at school at Bishop’s College. Thaji must have been around but who would have noticed a little three-year-old. Little did we realise that these sisters would one day join cousin Heshma and play their (perhaps) pre-destined role in taking their grandfather’s legacy into the 21st Century – Umi as administrator of the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya and Thaji as the brilliant and promising danseuse she is.
PS 2: Life and its coincidences are incredibly amazing at most times. I later realised that…
- Aunty Vajira and my mother Manel had been together in school at Methodist College in the year dot
- My ex mother-in-law Sujatha (de Zoysa) Dharmasiri had, years ago in 1957, briefly trained under Chitrasena when the Kalayathanaya was at Galle Road, Kollupitiya
- Heshma Melvani had been one of my mother’s students at Bishop’s College
- Arjuna Wignaraja had been one of my ex mother-in-law’s students at Royal College
- The co-incidence continued into 2013 and thereon when Anarkali, my daughter trained at the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya
- I wonder if I should seriously take up dancing at the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya to complete the cycle (my-tongue-is-in-my-cheek)...franchement