Deadly Innocence

This article was originally published in Daily News on July 31, 2018.

Soon to be well-lit, the abode is ready for the battle. The guru steps into the ground and lights the brass lamp and burns the incense sticks to pay reverence to the Buddha statue. In the well-lit abode, the disciples prepare for the battle with meditation. Following meditation, the disciples take a few vows. The game they are about to practise is deadly, but the disciples vow never to use it for ungainly needs. The game is an art studied only for self-defence – and yes, self-defence alone!

Mere interest in this art would not qualify you to enter this abode. With the brass lamp well lit, Master Karunapala will penetrate into your mind and body to assess your eligibility. Tougher than any written or oral examination, you cannot afford to cheat here. Utter falsehood, and you will no longer be eligible to unearth this ancient art, angampora, which trains you to handle your own body with amazing dexterity.

G Karunapala is the eldest surviving angampora guru in Sri Lanka. Although the art comes under the martial art category, Guru Karunapala does not quite agree with it. It is a deadly art, yet you do not kill people.

“We take a vow not to engage in any misdeed before the training. You train yourself to kill someone in one blow, yet you cannot do it unless your life is in grave danger,” Guru Karunapala insists.

Angampora is a vanishing art simply because the masters have chosen not to pass it down. The disciple must earn trust in addition to dedication. No disciple is privy to the subject in its entirety, though they will be entitled to the nitty-gritty.

“Most artists are familiar with all kinds of martial arts. They learn bits and pieces of everything and claim to be angampora veterans. But none of them knows the real subject in entirety. It is easy to differentiate the genuine ones from the fake ones,” Master Karunapala warns.

One basic question on how many elements that the subject has is enough to drive the so-called angampora veterans crazy. The number of elements remains a secret confined to the angampora caucus. Anyone can dance. Anyone can play with the clubs. The angampora is an admixture of all this, yet remains unique as every weapon used serves a specific purpose.

The run-of-the-mill artiste chooses the easiest path of raking in money. What they engage in for the sake of a few rupees does not offer anything worth in return to the country, Master Karunapala emphasizes.

Guru Karunapala is the only academic at the Sri Jayewardenepura University who teaches angampora as a subject.

“I ask my students not to engage in the malpractices. Learn the right kind of art. If you don’t know the art, learn it somewhere. But don’t do anything bad. People teach karate and wushu in the guise of Angampora,” Karunapala laments.

His journey to protect the much-hallowed subject is filled with challenges and dare beyond the physical dexterity. On principle, Guru Karunapala never gets along with the swathe of so-called angampora artistes.

“I had to face a few angampora fighters at the request of the Cultural Affairs ministry. Before dealing with them, I invited them for a getapoottuwa (an angampora element) challenge. None of them accepted the challenge. I realized that I had nothing to do with such a crowd. It was a government-mediated event, but I backed off. I told them I deal only with the genuine angampora veterans who can accept any challenge,” Guru Karunapala recalls.

The art runs in the family. Master’s father was a veteran. His grandfather paid reverence to the sun and the moon and got certain work done. Guru Karunapala follows their footsteps and continues to pay reverence to the sun.

“This is the best art form in the world. You witness the best civilisation here. You see the unique costumes here. The royalty dwells in this art. If someone seeks to distort the art, they would not do well,” Master Karunapala insists.

He likens the subject of angampora studied today to a Malay pickle, a mixture of everything. The angampora that most artistes claim to be well versed in is not the genuine subject, as the master clarifies. The art form is used as a defence mechanism to fight any death threat. The art is pure in three kinds. First, it could be followed only in a Buddhist background. Second, it should be studied in Sri Lanka. Third, the disciples should be the Sinhalese. It is not studied to fight against each other. The foreigners approaching Grand Guru Karunapala would not get the complete training.

The collapse of the most civilized art form began with the British intervention. Following the Kandyan convention, the colonial rulers imposed a ban on the angampora practice. They used physical arms to ensnare the mental strength of the Sinhalese. The angampora training centres were polished off. Anyone caught in the angampora practice was shot under the knees. The art faded into oblivion, yet did not perish. A few families preserved the art form in secrecy until the country finally gained Independence.

The tradition was preserved. But the British act took a heavy toll on the authenticity. Like any other subject, the angampora began to resurface albeit with dilutions and distortions.

78-year old grand guru never utters filth. Nor is he into falsehood and other vices. He firmly believes that the art has to be passed down to the next generation before he breathes his last. Yet, he is very much careful and meticulous in choosing the disciples. Only a handful of disciples have been privy to the art form in its entirety.

Meditation is an essential ingredient of the Angampora. Your mind needs to remain in the centre. That ensures firmness. When the mind is focused on one point, then you will be able to grasp the art.

Yet, master warns, you cannot master the art with temper issues.

“A genuine Angampora artiste never steals. Plus they can control their temper. If you have temper issues, it will be your weakest point. When you speak to each other, you should be mindful not to hurt the other party.”

Angampora exists everywhere, Master Karunapala declares, but in many fake forms. Even the street drama artistes claim knowledge on angampora. The snake-charmers are no exception either. Anyone familiar with karate and wushu easily steps into the angampora territory and claims proficiency.

Angampora is also deemed as a human gym with no liabilities. You are prone to no injuries. Even if there is an injury, the art form has the healing therapies within itself. This well-fed art form must be practised slowly. The slowness ensures the steady mastery.

Monstrous milestone

This article was originally published in Daily News on July 24, 2018.

TripAdvisor once offered a tip for budget travellers: fly on rickety old planes for less. If you have come across that tip and given it a thought, go watch Hotel Transylvania 3 first. It will transport you to the horrors of flying on rickety old planes. The monster-driven aircraft goes into many spasms before finally reaching its destination. The destination is marked by the ships piled on top of each other. Before that takes you to the good old days of Titanic movie, you feel ripped apart within as you hear the lines: “Welcome to the Bermuda Triangle.”

That itself is the paradox. How can someone be welcome to somewhere that sounds terrific? But that’s the gist of this movie, Hotel Transylvania 3, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Before the opening credits, the movie introduces us to two lead figures: Dracula and a human who calls himself Professor Van Helsing. Following a series of Jack-and-Jill fashioned encounter between Van Helsing and Dracula, the vampire wraps up the deal. But Van Helsing vows to avenge. Van Helsing shares many similarities with Professor Moriarty of the Sherlock Holmes saga. Like Helsing, Moriarty was a fictitious character produced to create a rift between Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. He is the criminal mastermind whom Holmes describes as the Napoleon of crime. The writers, Michael McCullers and Genndy Tartakovsky, must probably have been largely inspired by Sir Arthur’s darling mischief-maker, Professor Moriarty.

Hotel Transylvania 3 is, of course, a silly animated movie that offers you a great deal of fun. That said, the production has a few interesting themes running underneath. First, it stirs up our memory of the Hitlerist fascism that wished to see a world purged of Jews. Second, the battle between the monsters and humans can relate to many oriental as well as occidental aspects. The orientalism, in fact, is brimming with such bi-partisan battles. Suras and asuras, manussas and amanussas can count in as a few examples in orientalism whereas the battle between good and evil is an ever-present phenomenon in the occidental lore.

Tartakovsky’s attempt is to erect a new platform to the already-prevailing themes. He poses the question of good and bad. How can we define the good and the bad? Who are we to define the good and the bad (and forget about the ugly)? The good is not superior and the bad is not inferior. Hotel Transylvania 3 is Tartakovsky’s attempt to celebrate monsterism or place it on part with humanity.

Van Helsing in a Hitleric wavelength is giving a chase to the monsters. But then at the end, his own life was saved by a monster itself. When he questions why he was saved, the monster (Dracula) responds the obvious: “Because we are the same!” Dracula voices similar concerns in the opening scene by saying that hate should not be entertained to which Van Helsing turns a deaf ear. He never forgets his revenge and continues the scheming with his great-granddaughter. Following the opening credits, Van Helsing becomes a distant memory until we are halfway through. On that note, we see how Dracula makes every step to save Ericka without knowing she is the daughter of his eternal enemy. This humanity of the monster finally leads Erica to change her attitude towards the monsters. Though she admits, at first, that the monsters are disgusting to her great-grandfather, she later changes that attitude with teary eyes.

It rips apart our thinking which seems to stagnate on a conservative plane. It leads us to believe that we need to crack down our own attitudes towards monsters. Who are the monsters? We need to crack down all the monsters in the fairytales. Perhaps the future of humanity might change on this wheel. That change will be the antidote to the current chaos. The so-called die-hard Hitler followers will be forced to abandon their fascist attitudes because of its obvious catastrophic murderousness. In terms of Hotel Transylvania, it is the cluster of monsters that are equipped with over-powerfulness in contrast to the intellectual prowess of the humans.

We live in a maybe monstrous world that it’s hard to imagine a phenomenon without monsters. We have to employ the monstrous tone to make our voice count – it is part of who we are in the global population, especially in Sri Lanka. Hotel Transylvania 3 weaponises that part of the human condition.

Throughout the production, the monsters seem to share all the human features: a fondness for entertainment, being emotional and looking for soft companions. Ultimately it is the socialization that steps to the fore. Monsters are supposed to be anti-social. But inside Hotel Transylvania all the monsters ache for socialization. Only Count Dracula is without a partner. Even his daughter has a partner, a human.

Dracula, though a monster, teaches us the core values of family. He places family over and above everything else. He applies the element in love as well. The crux of the plot unfolds with the relationship between Dracula and Erica the captain of the ship who is also the great-granddaughter of Van Helsing. At first, Erica feigns her romantic feelings for Dracula as she wants to implement her great-grandfather’s scheme. At a certain point, she admits that a relationship between a human and a monster is unthinkable.

Interestingly, and incidentally, Dracula takes us to Edwin Markham’s famous lines from ‘Outwitted’:

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle and took him In!

Both Van Helsing and his great-granddaughter detested Dracula because he is a monster. For them, Dracula was a heretic, rebel and a thing to flout. But Dracula and his love had the wit to win. He drew his own circle and took both great-granddaughter and great-grandfather in.

It was Erica who entered his circle first. Her feigned love turned out to be a feigned attempt to revenge. But she could not go on with either. She gave in. Finally, she was the one to save the life of Dracula who had almost given up hopes in the death throes.

Van Helsing’s attempt to crush Dracula with the mystic music that awakens the death giant is another core element. Each time, Dracula’s party had to outscore Van Helsing with a positive note of music to lull the death giant into a softer move. Even the most horrible creatures can be calmed down with the aesthetic sense.

Funny enough, the contest between the Van Helsing and Dracula’s party reaches the bottom line with the ‘Macarena’. Van Helsing himself begins to dance to the tune of that song.

When it comes to fun, yes, Hotel Transylvania 3 is absolutely a thumbs-up experience. When it comes to themes, the production deserves a heavier yes as we leave the theatre with much to meditate on.

Beat that beat

This article was originally published in Daily News on July 17, 2018.

Sri Lanka’s dance narrates an extraordinary tale. Its timeless allure continues to inspire us. It does not just show us the move. It celebrates the move of the country’s aesthetic wheel.
Long before the Indian edition of this perpetual art called dance reached the shores, this land housed its own traditions. Kandyan and Low-Country dance traditions have been spoken of in the same breath. Though not spoken of in the same weight, the Sabaragamuwa dance tradition has also completed some chapter in Sri Lankan aesthetic history.

The Sabaragamuwa tradition has received the step-motherly treatment though. It remains largely undocumented to this date. Interested in studying this less-spoken tradition? No direct flight is available, unfortunately. Unless you pick Saman Kumaratunga’s latest research work.

Apart from being a practical dancer, Kumaratunga is Head of Sabaragamuwa Dance Studies Department of University of Visual and Performance Arts. Years of his experience and experiment with the subject is now available in the form of two books: one dealing with the history of the tradition, while the other dealing with the instrumental instrument of the tradition, davula.

“The three major dance traditions of Sri Lanka, upcountry, low country and Sabaragamuwa are significant because of their unique features. The Sabaragamuwa tradition originates from jith thong nan. The uniqueness of the Sabaragamuwa tradition depends on the physical features, drum tunes, davul tunes, melodies and theatre costumes,” Kumaratunga assesses.

Davula is an instrument unique to the Sabaragamuwa dance tradition. The instrument has its own share of contributions at ceremonial occasions such as Shanthikarma (rituals performed for healing purposes), dance and temple processions.

The Sabaragamuwa dance tradition is stretched across Ratnapura and adjunct areas such as Ruwanwella, Deraniyagala and Yatiyantota. Much akin to its counterparts, the Sabaragmuwa tradition is named after the place of its origin – the Sabaragamuwa province.

“You cannot find any specific or specialised group interested in the Sabaragamuwa tradition, unlike the other traditions. That is why this tradition is not quite popular,” Kumaratunga notes.

But that’s not the only reason. The intricate rhythmic structure of the tradition has made itself the unsightly lass. A vast swathe of students seems to be satisfied with the five mainstream melodies of the tradition though there is more to it than they could imagine. The subject is much larger than you think. So to say, it needs a deeper crackdown. This call for a deep study does not hold much water in the popular territory. If your knowledge on the subject is half-baked, then the need to delve deeper into the subject recedes.

The genesis of the Sri Lankan dance rests in the healing rituals. However, the Sabaragamuwa tradition goes beyond the mere rituals, Kumaratunga anatomises. The tradition had also been practised in the presence of the royalty. However, a profound research is yet to take place on the real genesis of the tradition. If someone does not take up that responsibility, the tradition will soon die away, Kumaratunga warns. That is exactly why the Sabaragamuwa dance has become his sole preoccupation.

“That fear led me to compile these two books. I opened the pathway. Anyone can delve into deeper studies.”

Although choreography is a marked presence in many functions, Kumaratunga points out that the traditions are not properly upheld.

“The traditional artistes preserved it. But that preservation does not seem to take place in today’s context. Therefore the University of Visual and Performance Arts has initiated that project of preserving the traditional dances. Yet most traditional dancers have shied away from the art,” Kumaratunga laments.

Although the healing ritual of the good old times is not prevalent today in abundance, various other methods of practice used for exorcist-related activities could still be seen in certain domestic environments. Yet whether these rituals are conducted in the proper way remains a question.

“Any expert drummer of an offering ritual artiste should be able to recite the verses for 60 hours in one go. There are no repetitions in the ritual literature. You are required to memorise the verses of every kind. But most of the younger generation is lazy to memorise them,” Kumaratunga explains.

Laziness is not the only aspect. The supply of the rituals has no social demand. That said, no stimulation or catalyst is available for the modern generation to take up the ritual studies seriously. On the contrary, the dancer of the yesteryear was versed not only in singing, instrumental music and dance, but he was also a master of medicine, carpentry, architecture and engravings.

The ancient dancers have used various medicinal techniques. A ritual is beyond a mental relief. But what is required of the modern dancers is to have a traditional procession or some choreographic event for a special function. Even if it is a special occasion, they pay special attention to the upcountry dance.

“If Sabaragamuwa dance tradition prevails that is mostly because it is a subject taught at the university. There is a considerable growth in the Sabaragamu tradition since 1980. But the knowledge does not disseminate properly,” Kumaratunga said.

Knowledge falters when interest dies down. But when someone comes forward to re-ignite a dying interest, exclusivity barges in and finds its own way to a novel uniqueness. May Kumaratunga’s work offer chapter and verse to that phenomenon!