The Role of Popular Media and Human Life A review of the novel of "Kurulu Hadawatha" by Mr. Liayanage Amarakeerthi

The Role of Popular Media and Human Life

A review of the novel of "Kurulu Hadawatha" by Mr. Liayanage Amarakeerthi 

(Reviewed by M.M.Nirmal Chathuranga B.Sc. Business Administration (Sp.)University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka).

15 May 2017

What is meant by popular media? It is an umbrella term, we cannot give an exact definition that what the popular media is. Drama, singing, dancing, storytelling and proverb telling exist in many cultures and communities in over the world that people are using for the purpose of entertaining. Those components have become the foundation to the popular media. With the invention of radio, television, cinema and World Wide Web the popular media became an industry. That made a huge revolution in society and highly affected to the social, cultural and political behavior of the society. Hence forth we further discuss this topic with reference the of Liyanage Amarakeerthi’s Kurulu Hadawatha novel (the book which awarded the Swarna Pusthaka award, Vidyodaya literature award in 2014). But I have to say that do not represent the whole impact of the popular media to the society’s and individual’s life of Sri Lanka in 1985 to 1995 decade and also Kurulu Hadawatha is not a book which emphasize just the behavior of popular media. If briefly say it is a book that represents such the caste system, love, amorous, brotherhood, individuals’ feelings and behaviors, human attitudes… etc. Popular media culture is just a part of the novel. How the radio had become a decisive factor in people’s lives without discriminations of caste (Walau, Govigama, Badahela, Wahumpura… etc), race (Sinhala, Tamil), geography (rural, city) and class (rich/poor) in the period of 1985 to 1995 in Sri Lanka. That period was a time which happened lots of political, social and cultural changes in Sri Lanka. While there is a happening a civil war in North, the Southern youths held weapons for a social revolution. Among those big stories Amarakeerthi is showing another hidden war between the people’s lives and the media. How radio played the roles of friend and an enemy.

අප මේ ගෙවා දමන්නේ 21 වන සියවස වුවද, ශ්‍රී ලාංකේය සමාජය තුල තවමත් ඉතිරිව ඇත්තේ 19 සියවසේ වැඩවසම් ලකුණුයි. තවමත් අපේ සමාජයට ජාතිය, ආගම, කුලය යනු තීරණාත්මක සමාජ සාධකයන්. ඕනෑම ජීවිත කාරණයක් අවසානයේ නවතින්නේ ඉහත කාරණාවන්ට ලැබෙන පිළිතුරු ඉදිරිපිට. එක පැත්තකින් නව ලෝකකරණය මුලුලොවම වසා පැතිරෙමින් ලෝකයේ සියලු භූගෝලීය සීමාවන් අකා මකා දානවා. නව තාක්ෂණය හා නව මාධ්‍ය ශරීරයේ තවත් එක ඉන්ද්‍රියක් හා සමානව වැඩෙනවා. එයින් ගැලවෙන්න කිසිකෙනෙකුට බැරිතරම්. ඒ අතර අපි මානසිකව හා සිතුවිලි වලින් ගෝත්‍රික සමාජ පරිණාමය පෙරදා රාත්‍රියේ ඉක්මවූවා හා සමානයි.................................................................... (Gamage, 2014)

With refers to the Kurulu Hadawatha from the perspective of popular media culture I would like to divide it in to two parts base on the main character, Dinasiri’s evolution in this novel.

1.      Dinasiri as an active radio listener.

2.      Dinasiri as a popular radio commentator.

Dinasiri as an active radio listener

Dinasiri was a young boy who was bittered with the social attitude of his caste and occupation (Badahela- the term that used to indicate the people who occupied with making clay pots). With some accidental words of his aunt (Rathu Nenda) he got an idea to make a revolution by using radio. He targeted to achieve the real place in the society for him, not only him but also whole people of his caste. His initial step was changing his name and the name of their village. “Dinasiri Kurulugangoda, Kurulugangoda, Budanapitiya, Wellawa” (Amarakeerthi, 2014; pp15). The people had highly tied with Dinasiri, his family, his villagers and whole Sri Lanka. Radio announcers were his heros. Dharma Sri Wickramasinghe, Bandara K Wijethunga, Kusum Peris, Jayantha Peris, Sumana Nellampitiya were his ideal characters, but his Super hero was Premakeerthi De Alwis. That is an one basic perspective of popular media. “Sumana Nellampitiyage hadin dinasiri kiyanakota e nama kellek wage natanawa, Indra Ramanayekege hadin e nama kiyanakota mukulu karana kellek, Dharmasri Wickramasighege hadin kiyanakota Dinasiri kurulugangoda kiyanne avurudu this gaanaka buddhimathek wage. Premakeerthi De Alwis kiyanakota tharuna koluwekuge nama wage. Eka eka prasidda katahadin thamange nama ahanna labeema bhagyak…” (Amarakeerthi, 2014; pp40). People believed that, listening their own name by such radio announcers’’ voice as a fortune, great opportunity. Dinasiri used that social attitude as a trick to achieve his hidden purpose. When the radio always telling his and his village’s artificial names, automatically it became a reality. Dinasiri became Dinasiri Kurulugangoda and Badahalagangoda became Kurulugangoda. The other radio listeners in the country did not perceived Dinasiri as a potting boy in rural, uncared village. They perceived Dinasiri as an gentleman. When Dinasiri went to the interview of choosing radio announcers he answered the interviewer, “Api inne walan hadana gamaka. Minissu kiyanne Badahelagangoda. Post kartteka damme krulugangoda kiyalagame nama wenas karala. Mage waasagamatath kurulugangoda kiyala dala. E kartteka thamai kiyavune. Ithin man hithuwa digatama liwwwoth minissu ape gamata kurulugangodama kiyai kiyala. Dan kavuruth e nam kiyanne na. Eka karanna thamai man digatama liwwe.”

“Exellent, that’s media can do, Eka thamai media walin karanna ona. Amaya Mannapperuma kiwwa.” (Amarkeerthi, 2014; pp164)

Also this book reveals that how the people were attached with the radio. All the family members and neighbors gather near to the radio to listen “Muwanpelassa” radio drama. Then they entertain the drama and also entertain by chatting and laughing by doing jokes with each other. The radio and its programs created a stage for those people to enjoy their lives and to get rid from their complex lives for a moment.

2.      Dinasiri as a popular radio commentator.

When Dinasiri was as a radio listener, he never felt this popular media as much more complex. He never felt any unfavorable thing regarding the radio. He ever loved it, his anton sanyo radio was his best friend. Subsequently Dinasiri Kurulugangoda became a radio announcer, program presenter and then he became “Kurulu Gangoda”. The popular media dressed new mask to Dinasiri as “kurulu”, the popular program presenter. Kurulu wanted to expand his revolution from using his new opportunity. That is why he started a program about the village. But actually what happed? Kurulu became a maul of the radio program directors. Kurulu was trapped by the complex, dissonant popular media culture. They always did what the listeners like to hear and see instead the reality. Pages of 198 and 199 in Kurulu Hadawatha is clearly describes that crisis. The media creates a very beautiful village with an  attractive nature, peaceful and happy people who work harmony and a society which is bounded by religion. The pretty rural women who are making pots with a delicate smile. People think that the village as a beautiful picture. They never think about the roughness, tiredness, strictness and the life revolution of the rural people. His programs never revealed that their hidden hell behind the villagers lives though he was a villager. That is the media do. Once during his one program he describes that how the farmers reap their harvest and their rituals in the field. “Me kaage me kamathaa… pase budunge kamathaa.. Me kaage me kamathaa.. ape budunge kamathaa..” (Amarakeerthi, 2014; pp226). There he describes how the Sinhalese engage with their agricultural activities by worshipping Lord Buddha and getting the blessing, he glorified that occasion by making his listeners more proud about the Sinhalese agricultural culture. But what was the reality? According to the novel “Muththu aatha” is a more honest and open character. What was his comment on Kurulu’s glorification about farming? “Appa mata be pacha kelinda. Meka oke kiyana tharamak kelinne pacha. Api kola paaganawalu sil gaththa wage- budun wedala… mata nam suduwa baagayakwath nathuwa dethi goiyek hollana be… mee harakunta wandinawalu. Honda wedilla. Pera kotuwen thalanne… oowa wedasatahan newei bola sellan. Sellan kathane ewwa.” (Amarakeerthi, 2014; pp276-277)

දිනසිරිත් සවිඥාණිකව දායක වන යථාව ෆැන්ටසීකරණය කිරිම නැමැති මෙම විකෘතිකර භාවිතය මග කියන්නේ යථාව මඟ හැර, යථාව ලෙස වෙස් ගැන්වු පරිකල්පනාත්මක මානව විද්‍යාවක් (Imaginative Anthropology) ගොඩ නැංවීමටයි. කිසියම් සමාජයක අතීතකාමය නැමැති හැඟීම වෙළඳපොළ අරමුණක් වෙනුවෙන් සුක්ෂමව කුළුගන්වා ගැනීමේ ව්‍යාපෘතියේ ඵලය ලෙස එවිට ජනමාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ අපට මුණගැසෙන්නේ යථාවෙ නොමැති 'ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ රටක්', 'විශිෂ්ට ජාතියක්', 'පිරිසිදු ගමක්', 'නිර්මල දහමක්', 'ප්‍රෞඪ සංස්කෘතියක්', 'අභිමානවත් අතීතයක්'. මෙම ෆැන්ටසිය යථාවක් ලෙස සමාජගත කිරිම තමයි මෙම නව කාර්තුවෙ මාධ්‍යයේ වගකීම ලෙස හඳුනාගෙන තියෙන්නේ. මිනිස් විෂය මියයෑම වෙනුවට පවත්වාගෙන යැමට දායක වීම තමයි ෆැන්ටසියේ කාර්යය. (Udugampola, 2014)

ජනමාධ්‍ය හරහා යථාව ෆැන්ටසීකරණය කිරිමේ මුඛ්‍ය අරමුණ වෙළදපොළ ඉලක්කය ජයගැනිම වුවත්, එවැනි ෆැන්ටසියක් යථාවක් ලෙස බාරගත් සමාජයක් මුහුණ දෙන ව්‍යාකූලතා දෘශ්‍යමානයට එන්නේ තවත් සංකීර්ණතා රැසකට මඟ කියමින්. 'ශ්‍රේෂ්ඪ රට', 'විශිෂ්ට ජාතිය', 'පිරිසිදු ගම', 'නිර්මල දහම', 'ප්‍රෞඪ සංස්කෘතිය', 'අභිමානවත් අතීතය' ආදි යථාවේ නොපවතින්නක් අත්පත් කරගැනිමට සමාජය මෙහෙයවීම තමන්ගේ යුගයේ කාර්යභාරය ලෙස හඳුන්වා ගත් තක්කඩින් පිරිසක් මීට සමාන්තරව කල එලි බසිනවා. මානවීය අනාගතයක් පරිකල්පණය කිරීම වෙනුවට අතිතයේ තිබුනායැයි කියන කල්පිතයක් යථාවක් කිරිමට වෙහෙසෙන මෙම කණ්ඩායම් පිටුපස ඇත්තේ වෙළදපොළ අරමුණ වගේම සුක්ෂම දේශපාලන ව්‍යාපෘතියක්. ඊනියා දේශිය චින්තනය නැමැති මිත්‍යාව / ෆැන්ටසිය වැපිරිම තුළ තමයි මේ අයගේ  පැවැත්ම තියෙන්නෙ......................................................  (Udugampola, 2014)

The media always create the creative and attractive words to the society (Even today the social media has created a unique vocabulary). Here the Kurulu’s programs provided a unique vocabulary to the society such as pure village, legitimacy, nationality, mother land… etc. His purpose of using those terms to make his programmes more creative and popular. But different social/political groups such as racists, politicians, production and trade companies… etc. used those popular terms for their selfish purposes, as the advertising terms of their careers, to attract the interested parties towards them. Once Kurulu’s friend Sarath says, “Dinelage wedasatahanwalin gama, sinhalakama, jathiya, deshaya arawa mewwa puduma vidiyata uthkarshayata nanwala ithama gathanugathika chinthanayak thamai pathurawanne. Jathiwadiyoth pawichchi karanneth oya tikamai…” (Amarakeerthi, 2014; pp283). The media dressed up Kurulu as an ideal farmer for their advertising programs and also the multi-national companies used his popularity for their advertisings. Because a picture had been drawn in the famers mind by listening his programs and they perceived that Kurulu as an ideal farmer. But Kurulu was just an actor there. That is another perspective of popular media. Whether the media is a stage for the famous? Or mask to hide the face? The popular media made him a puppet of the multi-national companies and Kurulu started to follow money to achieve his dreams. Once he understands that all of these actings and useless and that is not the thing that he tried to do from media, but unconsciously he was captured by the capitalism media wave. “mata hithenawa smart wedawalin tikak ethwela inna sir… kurulu uba me magulak katha kiyanawada? Ge hadanna salli denne ube bappada?... Kurulu bari nam kiyapan, thawa ekek dennek hadila innwa hodata gama, rata, sanskruthiya gena danna. Un uba wage ambaren na…” He automatically agreed with his director, because he needed much more money to build his house and he wanted to keep his popularity.

දෙවන අදියරේ දී අපට හමුවන දිනසිරි කුරුලුගංගොඩ නව මාධ්‍ය ගෝලයේ ගොදුරක්. ගමේ කම ගැමියෙකු ලවාම අලෙවිකිරීමේ වෙළඳ උපක්‍රමයට ඔහු ගොදුරු වන්නේ මුදල් නම් වූ ප්‍රබල සාධකය ඉදිරියේ තබාගෙන. ඔහුට සල්ලි ලැබෙනවා. ඔහුව මිලදී ගන්නා එෆ් එම් නාලිකාව ඔහු ලවා ගම අලෙවි කරනවා. ඔහු දන්නේ නෑ ඔහු අලෙවි නියෝජිතයෙකු බවට පත්වී ඇති ආකාරය. ඔහුගේ වැඩසටහන් අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා ඉතාමත් සූක්ෂම ආකාරයෙන් ඔහු ලවා ඔහුගේම ගැමි කම අලෙවි කරනවා. දිනසිරි කුරුලුගංගොඩ, කුරුලු ගංගොඩ බවට නැවත උපදිනවා නව සමාජ ආර්ථික ව්‍යුහයන්ට ගැළපෙන ආකාරයට. ඔහුගේ පෙම්වතිය කුලීන විශ්ව විද්‍යාල සිසුවියක්. ගම්පෙරළියේ පියල් මෙන් ඔහු විසල් නිවසක් ඉදිකරමින් තම කුලසාධකයට ඉලංගරත්නලා ගෙන් (පෙම්වතියගේ පාර්ශවයෙන්) එල්ල විය හැකි ප්‍රහාරයට බංකරයක් ඉදිකරනවා. තමා අතින් සිදුවන සමාජ සංස්කෘතික හානිය ඔහුට පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ සරත්. සරත්ට දේශපාලනික ඥානයක් තියෙනවා. මේ පෙන්වා දීම දිනසිරි කුරුලුගංගොඩ හෙවත් කුරුලු ගංගොඩ දැඩි ලෙස සසල කරනවා. විවාහයට ටික දිනකට පෙර ඔහු ඉදිකරන විසල් නිවසට යාබද දියවන්නාවේ ඔහු ඔරුවක් පෙරළී මිය යනවා. ඇත්තටම ඔහු මිය යනවාද? සිය දිවි නසාගන්නවාද?................................................... (Gamage, 2014)

The media built a Kurulu, the famous announcer, modeler in advertisements and the ideal villager. The media created a Kurulugangoda and vanished the Badahalagangoda. On the other hand what media did? They completely vanished Dinasiri. Media helped to achieve his dream and again destroyed his dream. Kurulugangoda which was born as a result of seven years effort of Dinasiri, finally it was killed by one singal program. With a recasting of an old programme about his village presented by Kurulu transform the Kurulugangoda in to badahelagangoda again. The people started to visit how the Kurulugangoda villages make pots and their rural lives. School children were coming field trips. Kurulugangoda people started the pottery again because that was very profitable with the visitors to the village. Automtically Kurulugangoda became the Badahelagangoda/walangangoda again. Kurulu may felt such a feeling when dieing his own child on his hands that he gave the birth. Media gave the birth to Kurulu but they killed Dinasiri. Finally Dinasiri had understood all the things. He understood the reality. He knew that his seven years revolution has become an empty then. His entire effort became useless. He was fed-up everything.  He did all these things to make true his dream. Dinasiri and media collectively gave the life to the dream, Kurulu and media collectively killed the dream. Kurulu’s death was not an accident. Although the boat was fallen accidently, Kurulu had the ability to swim. But finally he selected the death instead of a guilty life.

That is what media can do. This essay does not point out all the impacts of the perspective of popular media. But it discusses an important side of popular media and the human life.

Finally I would like to say that the popular media is a magic, it can appear as a faithful angel or a cruel witch.

References

Amarakeerthi, L. (2014). Kurulu Hadawatha, Colombo 10; Fast Publications (pvt)ltd.

Gamage, K. M. (2014. January 20). Kurulu hadawatha mage hadawatha matha pana labima. Poth boondhi.

Udugampola, I. (2014, November 4). Hadawath ugulla kurullan igillawima. Poth boondhi.