Malani Fonseka:“I came here today looking for love.”

She was discovered by actor Joe Abewickrema during a school drama performance

Fortunately, she had a number of good commercial directors who understood how big her talent was

The 70s saw the great Gamini-Malani era, resulting in very enjoyable commercial films

Malani Fonseka was a legend in her life time. Now, after her death, that legend can only grow bigger and bigger.

Malani Senehelatha Fonseka was born in Peliyagoda in May 1947, four months after Kadavunu Poronduwa, the first Sinhala talkie, was made. A product of Gurukula Vidyalaya, Kelaniya, she was discovered by actor Joe Abewickrema during a school drama performance. Impressed, Joe gave her a big break, inviting her to act as co-star in Tissa Liyanasuriya’s 1968 film ‘Punchi Baba’. It is now recognised as Malini’s first film. But that may have been ‘Para Valalu’, according to what Anula Karunathilake, main actress in Para Valalu, told me. It may be that Punchi Baba was made later, but screened first.

I grew up with Malani’s films. Even in ‘Para Valalu’ (she had a cameo role as a domestic who gets murdered), she was striking. In ‘Punchi Baba,’ she emerged with the star status that she held unchallenged for three decades. 

She stood out among other talented, popular actresses-Anula Karunathilake, Shriyani Amarasena, Nita Fernando, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Swarna Kahawita, Sonia Disa, Veena Jayakody- because of a unique chemistry of charm, beauty, talent and intelligence before the camera. As Anula once remarked, with great good humour: “In our first film, (Para Valalu), I was the lady, and Malani was the domestic. In the second (Punchi Baba), she was the lady and I was the domestic.”

She wasn’t defined by cinema; instead, she defined and shaped the films she acted in. Everyone knows her ‘good’ films –- ‘Nidhanaya,’ ‘Bambaru Awith,’ ‘Beddegama’ etc. -but I think some of her most memorable performances came from the much maligned commercial cinema. With no film school training, or with a great cinematic tradition to fall back on, she instinctively understood the art of understated acting or underplay, and reiterated how hard it was working in those early years with some commercial directors trained in the South Indian, melodramatic style of film making.

Fortunately, she had a number of good commercial directors who understood how big her talent was. Let me cite a few examples.

In 1969, the versatile Titus Thotawatte cast her as village girl Subha in the romantic thriller ‘Kadwa Hari’. But it’s the much-maligned Lenin Moraes who gave Malani some of her best commercial roles. Who can forget her hitchhiking nervously hidden in the back of a lorry, dressed as a tomboy, in his ‘Edath Suraya Adath Suraya’? There was something tomboyish and irrepressible about Malani who enjoyed climbing trees during her school days (she said so in an interview). In the 80s, she raced cars at Katukuranda sponsored by Mannapperuma Traders.

Who can forget her acting as the shy, wide eyed debutante opposite the suave, debonair Ananda Jayaratne in Lenin Moraes’ ‘Den Matakada?’ when they dance together for the first time? But the 70s saw the great Gamini-Malani era, resulting in very enjoyable commercial films such as ‘Sadahatama Oba Mage’ and ‘Hathara Denama Surayo,’  ending all too briefly due to an unfortunate behind-the-scenes feud between  them. But not before this duo mesmerised us with great cinematic chemistry. I will never forget her acting the heartbroken, tipsy lover opposite Gamini Fonseka, swaying in a hipster sari with drink in hand, in ‘Sadahatama Oba Mage.’

Yasapalitha Nanayakkara’s ‘Thushara’ was a great Vijaya-Malani performance. But there were other memorable films in between these two eras. In H. D. Premaratne’s ‘Apeksha’, she is the rich girl in love with poor boy Amarasiri Kalansuriya, struggling against her father’s choice as husband. Virtually a prisoner in her father’s tea estate, her face is a controlled display of inner anguish as she walks slowly to the tune of ‘Sanda Thaniwela’ by Milton Mallawaarchchi and Angelene Gunathilake, one of the great film duets of all time.

Then came the Vijaya-Malani era. ‘Hathara Denama Surayo’, a Gamini-Malani film with Vijaya in a secondary role, showed the way.  Yasapalitha Nanayakkara’s Thushara, another rich-girl, poor boy yarn, is easily their best performance, though one can mention Timothy Weeraratne’s Sangeetha (1972) in the same breath. But it was a tear-jerking, overblown melodrama, and I prefer Thushara’s overall exuberance to that.

Malani tried her hand at directing with the 80s colour film ‘Sasara Chethan’. It was a martial arts film with mixed results. She even produced a cassette of songs, which is now largely forgotten. Her onscreen life was happier than off-screen; as one critic noted: “Malani always has a weeping heart.” During her last public appearance, a clearly ailing Malani tells her audience: “I came here today looking for love.” All her men deserted her, but she never gave up.

But she had great resolve, inner strength and stamina to overcome life’s fickle lovers. I wish she would be reborn as another Malani Fonseka. There has never been any replacement, and there’s no one within sight.