Midweek Review

The Gift of Music:Sons and Fathers

Published

3 years ago

2023/05/10

Sahan Weerasooriya

Kanthi with baby Mala.

a film by Sumathy – Part II

by Laleen Jayamanne

There is a recurrent discussion among the film industry personnel in the film about the desirability of ‘originality’ in Sinhala music and also in films, which translates as the need to abandon copying Indian genre films or anything Indian for that matter. One opposing view interrogates the possibility of originality itself, asking ‘what is originality? Are we original?’ Yet another view is expressed by Upul Shantha Sannasgala, in favour of anything that creates box office success, citing the triangular plot of his new film which describe exactly the outrageously plotted, sexist film, Samiya Birindage Deviyaya (The Husband is the Wife’s God,) with the leading star and singer, Rukmani Devi and its arch villain, Domi Jayawardena. The desirability of nationalising the film industry and the creation of ‘our’ studios (meaning with Sinhala ownership, breaking the Tamil monopoly) is also expressed as the racial tensions outside reaches a critical point, when several army officers are killed by the LTTE near Jaffna and kindling the State terror of July 83. When Rex is put on the spot by friends and asked for his views on politics, he says he doesn’t know anything about politics and all he knows is music, adding that music has no race or country, while Sannasgala comes to his defence with; ‘Master is music, music is master!’

Writing or Drawing a Character

In the world’s oldest film school in the former Soviet Union (USSR), there was a practice of getting the students to first draw their characters and ideas on paper before writing with words. The teachers who devised the practice knew that drawing a line, as in a line drawing, would activate a mental process different from writing using words. Highly experienced mentors like Mikael Romm practiced this pedagogy with his students, one of whom was Andre Tarkovsky. The stimulation of the student’s imagination and extra-linguistic sensory powers was one of their aims. It is said that he urged his students to reach into their ‘darkness’ so that they might be able to find a way to speak, find a ‘language’. He protected his students from the communist thought police. Honouring this process of teaching and learning, as I try to do also in my writing, I like to resist asking a director why s/he did such and such, a sad and intellectually feeble resort. Such blunt questions blunt one’s own imaginative capacity to make multi-sensory connections, especially when it’s about cinema. Lucky’s haunting question ‘Appa, what language?’ requires a critic to become self-reflexive about how she uses linguistic-language in writing on film, which doesn’t behave like language as such. As Pasolini rather impatiently pointed out (to the eminent semiologists, including Roland Barthes, at the Pesaro Film Festival) that unlike language with its denotative, finite number of words, there is no dictionary of images we can draw on for film and nor are words similar to images.

So, it’s best not to ask directors what they meant either, because when trying to write a book on his cinema, I once asked Kumar Shahani why an ‘epic persona’ in his film did something, he said ‘I don’t know.’ Was he being a Zen Master, I wondered, a bit taken aback. But then chatting with him I realised the truth of what he was saying, that sometimes artists make their characters do stuff in such a way that it is fruitless to try to find out the motivation for an action, as though every act is a perfectly rationally explainable response to a stimulus, like Pavlov’s poor dog, salivating at the ring of a bell. Some artists want to be able to sustain a degree of freedom in their thinking, that is, keep that which is barely consciously sayable, especially to themselves (at three o’clock in the morning, as they say in the Blues) in a shadowy subconscious state. They might feel its necessity, without being able to put it into words and not even wanting to do so, as it might kill their evanescent impulses. Artists are creatures who trust their impulses and fluctuating sensations trying to harness them in a disciplined and skilled way, lest they get derailed, overwhelmed by their surfeit. But then, I believe that it’s a critic’s responsibility to think about what one sees and hears and feels by posing questions that might open up a train of thought for oneself at first. This is not like revealing hidden meanings, but rather, understanding how something works or doesn’t, its aesthetic logic and feelings, pulses, and how they might connect with some other thing through a style of writing, hoping that readers themselves might take it yet in another unforeseen direction.

sivamohan’s main characters, Rex, Kanthi, Lucky and the quiet Mala, are created and act in such a way that not all their feelings are transparent, nor are all their motivations explained or even explainable. They have an interiority we can sense but to which we don’t have a privileged access and I suspect that the director also might feel that about the people she has created. This may sound strange as sivamohan has said that she modelled Rex, in part, on Rocksamy’s history in the film industry and that Lucky was modelled on the well-known musician Anthony Surendra, the son of Master Anthony, himself a musician. That they have in various ways suffered greatly as Tamils in the film and music industry is an important fact, which sivamohan builds on, with some of the best dialogue I have ever heard in the Sinhala cinema, for sure. And I am thinking here especially of the serious ‘Civil-War Films’ by some of our most talented, senior filmmakers. Some of them have crafted a new ‘anthropological type’ it would seem, with the silent, traumatised young Tamil women doggedly following former soldiers without uttering a word. Here, I don’t wish to comment on these films except to say that they appear to have constructed ‘The Tamil Woman’ as an enigma in her silence. Why Sinhala male directors are drawn to create such figures is something the Sinhala cinephiles and critics themselves should really take up, making a sustained study of the films, especially because now, sex, whether consensual or coercive as in rape, is permitted on the screen by the National Censorship Board.

sivamohan does assiduous ethnographic research for drawing her characters, but they are not Bio-Pics of these particular artists and nor are they phantasmatic figures, but appear to be composites of several real persons in the film and music industries. Hers is not the problem of ‘Realism in the cinema,’ which codes expression in the three-act drama I referred to earlier, and which Stefan Brecht (cited at the beginning) rejects. Within the known historical discrimination suffered by the Tamils of Lanka, sivamohan (who has lived through civil war years both in Jaffna and the South and lost a sister and close friends to it), has created her characters themselves with a degree of opacity, with regard to their subjectivity (reminiscent of Robert Bresson’s Models) but none of them is enigmatic. For me, this is part of the charm and subtlety of these characters who form a multi-ethnic Lankan family. The different ways in which Kanthi and Lucky sing the same song, his ‘mother’s song’, adds a rich affective density to their characters and the ballad-like song itself. Rex at first seemed the simplest, the most transparent, with his open smile, and yet gradually he too becomes much more complex, dark (as he faces direct racist violence), lashing out at those closest to him in despair as his soul is destroyed.

‘Ammi, did he kill her to stop the music?’

Rex and Kanthi

Shamala Kumar (in her hauntingly personal account in the island), on seeing Sons and Fathers with Malin her thirteen-year-old son, tells us that he kept asking her questions loudly while watching the film, to which she had to say ‘I don’t know.’ She says that about the many incomprehensible events of racialised violence shown, including the burning of the film director Venkat in his car. Later at home Malin had asked his mother, ‘did he kill her to stop the music?’ The mother comments on her child’s thoughtful question saying, it was as though he was pleased to be able to piece together a tentative reason for why Lucky fired that shot in a movie theatre. Lucky had come to a cinema where the film of the opening song and dance sequence is repeated in colour, this time round showing us an utterly absorbed audience in a few shots. Lucky, standing at the back of the theatre appears to take a gun out and point it at the screen. Though no gun is visible, we infer that it is one because we see the familiar gesture (seen in countless Westerns and Gangster films), hear the shot and see the dancer on the screen falling down. Some viewers rise up in consternation, one which we share. The reverse shot cuts to a close-up of the bleeding singer who appears to be ‘real,’ rather than a projected image, but films can wound us, make us cry as in life. The next cut shows a singular image, a painterly shot of a splash of red on a white surface. The entire series of shots are hard to make clear sense of, hence the child’s considered question to his mother. It is a puzzle for me as well, because it doesn’t quite compute as a sensory-motor action, say, as a shot fired in a gangster film would be. Usually such a generic shot is clearly motivated, the gun essential to the action as are the hero and villain. I feel a bit like Malin, baffled and startled by that scene. And each time I try to work out how it works, it slips away but returns to me unwittingly just as I drift off into sleep. I feel I can’t quite compute it. But slowly I was able to see why it’s a scene that troubles the mind in a manner quite different from the horrific sequence of the burning of Venkat in his car.

Through this comparison, it dawned on me that sivamohan shifts planes of action and composition (in all three of her films), at certain critical violent moments. She plays with fire; there is the burning tea bush in Ingirunthu which does not turn to ash, and in A Single Tumbler, the single metal tumbler catches fire in the microwave, a truly disturbing, scary image. The fire power of Lucky’s gun shot is slightly different, but all three instances shift gear, so to speak. They do something which impels our minds (if receptive like that of a child), to return to the scene repeatedly. What is it about these sivamohan scenes that make our minds to return to them irresistibly? They are not played out on a clear realist spatio-temporal plane, though these films have a precise sense of historical space/time.

On a meta-cinematic plane, Sivamohan is paying tribute to the process of Montage which created the magical appearances and disappearances, what Eisenstein called, the defining cinematic act of the medium of film. These singular scenes puzzle the mind because their violence is not like the realistically presented violence of say, burning a man alive or the mass destruction of buildings and property with fire. The violence of shooting at the image of the dancer (but not the flesh and blood actor/dancer), enacts a form of ‘counter-violence,’ as response to the normalised violence of racism, exploitation, torture and murder, which we have become all too familiar with as Lankans (we hear a victim of the pogrom say, ‘last time we lost all’). How many more times will history repeat itself with such horrific violence, one wonders.

A beautiful scene honours actual persons from the film industry, the editor Aliman (a Muslim), with his old editing machine to cut (the now obsolete) celluloid film, expertly handling the film, searches for the 28 missing shots with the director Siva (a Tamil). These two men from the film industry, with their dry humour, were well known personnel who did pass away quite poor.

Allegory as Counter-Violence

There is a large body of philosophical and programmatic writing on revolutionary- violence in anti-imperialist national struggles, as a form of ‘counter-violence.’ I am trying to use the idea differently though, not by citing chapter and verse from, say Lenin’s What is to be Done, or Che Guevara, beloved of the JVP of the April ‘71 rebellion. Rather, I want to understand the precise imaginative ways in which the shooting of the dancer has been staged allegorically, rather than realistically, which I would argue to be an ethico-aesthetic decision by sumathy in her film, which is also about the State sponsored pogrom against the Tamils in July 83.

sumathy’s allegorical scenes are not cliches that she whips up to resolve her films when the situation becomes unendurable, when the violence reaches a level of horror and ‘The Scream’ appears to be the only expression available. It’s the internal dynamics of the fascist violence of the State and of reactive terrorism of the LTTE which is displaced in the movie theatre, with an allegory of cinematic violence, countering the sure-fire ingredients of ‘Action, Sex and Violence’ (mentioned as desirable by a producer in the film), as ingredients of exciting marketable films now. The process of countering these violent logics of actions and reactions is linked to how the theatre scene is constructed as an allegory, what I am calling an enactment of ‘counter-violence’ through a film-allegory.

The Lens as A Brush

Godard, when asked once why there is so much blood smeared liberally on his characters, in one of his polemical post 68 experimental films famously snapped back, ‘It’s not Blood, its Red!’ Similarly, the striking splash of red on a white surface (which appears soon after the dancer is shot down bleeding profusely on the floor), punctuates the scene emphatically and calls attention to its minimalist painterly gesture. Why is this striking singular painterly shot inserted there between shots of the bleeding dancer on the ground? A white surface, whether a wall or the screen itself is not visible there in the theatre. We have heard Lucky being repeatedly called a ‘tiger cub,’ even by his best friend and the other Sinhala musicians refuse to work with him as the suspicion against all Tamil young men as potential terrorists intensifies in the South.

This trend reaches a peak when his ‘girl-friend’ Champa, on hearing Lucky sing his ‘mother’s song (Tharaka Hanga) at the club, asks him what it is and if he would teach it to her. Like the sweetly naive person he is, he agrees gladly. But instead of waiting, Champa goes to Lucky’s house and learns the song directly from his mother herself. As he returns home they meet unexpectedly at his door and sees her guile when she tells him that she is off to India to be trained as a singer. As she walks away Lucky shouts out her; ‘My father is not a Terrorist. I am a Terrorist. I will carry the Tamil newspaper gladly.’ His mother has previously warned Rex not to be seen carrying a Tamil newspaper. The sense of the crescendo of Lucky’s surprising outburst is muted as it’s a Tamil newspaper which he thinks to carry, not a weapon of choice for a terrorist of any ethnicity! It’s the repeated branding of Lucky as a terrorist by his peers which makes his persona as a ‘terrorist’ in the movie theatre credible. There, Lucky is presented as an actor in the ‘film within the film,’ who acts out an allegorical scene of shooting at an image. Because, if he is an actor playing a Terrorist, then his sole imperative is that he must kill. But if it’s an allegorical action, then the question as to motivation can have no realist answer. The splash of blood-red on the pristine white screen is a sensuous abstract image of ‘pure’ violence, enabled by Lucky’s equally abstracted gesture of shooting an image with an imaginary gun, in the film within the film Sons and Fathers that we have been watching for over an hour by then. So, I read the entire scene of Lucky shooting the dancer and the audience watching it, as a film-within-a-film (a meta-film) crystalising, in an abstract image of violence, the discussions on the need for racial and cultural purity, also encoded in the song Jaya Pita Deas. The sonic montage, the contradiction between the hybrid image and sound, and between images themselves, is the kind of sequence which Eisenstein called ‘Intellectual-Montage.’ They cut across the compartmentalised brain. These conceptually sophisticated audio-visual montage techniques, stimulating feelings and thoughts all at once, would have been why Sons and Fathers received the prize for music, at the Jaipur International Film Festival in 2019.

The different views expressed about Sinhala cinema and the desirability of ‘cultural purity’ appears as an open question here. Historically, these questions were resolved in favour of the Nationalisation of the film industry according to the recommendation of the Royal Commission into the Lankan Film Industry in the 1960s. The examination of the successes and problems of that policy, in the creation of a ‘truly national (Sinhala) cinema’ by instituting the State Film Corporation of Lanka, is best left to historians. But the question of whether the significant new national cinema, created in its wake, also ignored Lanka’s ethnic minorities from the desired national identity, is also one for our film critics to worry over. The allegorical gesture of Lucky, shooting down the film image, in the guise of a Sinhala persona allegorised as a Tamil Terrorist, still remains tantalising to my mind despite what I’ve written here. But we Sinhala critics will learn much, I believe, through serious scholarship and critical writing on Lankan cinema and exploring how sumathy’s cinematic project might be theorised within its dynamics. Such work will require interrogating the long-standing (taken for granted) Sinhala idea of sanguine ‘generational change’ among talented men, because ‘history’ is not a natural event.

The Mother’s Song and its Loss

Towards the very end of the film we see Rex, Kanthi and their daughter absorbed in something on their TV. For the first time we see them in large close-ups (rare in this film), while the camera tracks between them, bringing each of them very close to us. A cut to the TV reveals Champa singing Lucky’s ‘mother’s song’ with orchestration, in a polished, well trained, sweet voice, dressed tastefully in a matching sari and blouse, producing the requisite well-rehearsed gestures and artfully-wistful smiles for the camera. What we have heard and seen so far is of this song’s unusual circulation from a mother to a son whose childhood was nourished by his mother singing it often. We see its social circulation when Kanthi is invited to sing a song by her guests who appreciate her voice and the song. She sings with ease and grace, dressed now in an Indian sari, wearing a pottu and her knee length hair in a single braid. But we also hear the song at intense moments of fear and sadness, as when Kanthi sings it to herself after having looked at a photo album. But on the television it appears as a song ‘stolen’ from the family by Champa, without a thought for royalties, having violated something above and beyond the provenance of a song. As the threesome watch Champa’s polished performance of their own song, Kanthi begins to mouth it silently, while Rex looks on utterly bereft but still beating time to the song he composed for his beloved wife, while the camera rests on Mala who looks straight at us for the first time, as the shot ends. Was she angry I wondered, trying to read her contained intense expression. The careless, cool ease with which Champa becomes a professional singer and sings the song publicly contrasts starkly with a singular rendition of it by Lucky. While in his bedroom (with a blurred poster of John Lennon on his wall), Lucky spits out a snatch of Rock music, but in the club, he sings his mother’s song almost to himself, in a caressing whisper, before the band has to strike a ‘Happy Birthday’ with the sound of breaking glass in the distance; a complex sequence in montage.

Lucky is presented as a tender, generous and most vulnerable young man, and through his allegorisation as The Terrorist, at the movie theatre, we might be able to see how even such a person may become a ‘terrorist,’ cornered, crushed, with avenues for professional movement all blocked for him and his family. In doing this the director makes an exemplary figure of a Lankan artist whose cultural heritage is mixed, hybrid, not monoculturally pure. It’s nothing to do with his ‘pure blood’ (Sinha-ley,) but rather a matter of access to learning, fair opportunity and a shared understanding of a rich multi-cultural world (including India), open to the outside world. That it is a Sinhala actor who is personified as a Tamil Terrorist (who in his actual life sings in Tamil), is significant, because some of that brutalising process is ‘demonstrated’ through the political device of allegory. There is no ‘conversion’ of Lucky into a Terrorist because we see both Lucky and the persona of the Terrorist in his gesture of shooting at an image, with an invisible gun. In the movie theatre, he is not a symbol or a metaphor, but functions as an allegorical body. Allegory makes us see double, and stays with the unresolved duality, and lets it trouble us, as it did Malin and me. That splattered red on white appears as both blood and some red paint, and the white background both a movie screen and a pure white surface, both at once. Such a mode of allegorical viewing goes against our habitual and ingrained ways of consuming films.

Some of us, who have spent all our working lives teaching film and have also grown-up watching lots of all kinds of films (in a long-ago vanished Ceylon in my case) believe that when it’s time to take leave, the Angel of Death will arrive and give us a chance to see just two film clips one last time. Now, I will unhesitatingly choose Dharmasena Pathiraja’s film Ponmani, made with his Tamil friends, while he was teaching Sinhala literature and Media Studies at the Jaffna University in the ‘70. It’s the haunting funeral procession of Ponmani, with her coffin in a horse-drawn glass carriage, led by a slender man in shorts, filmed in a formal long-shot against a lagoon and an expanse of sky, with her father walking alone some distance away from the mourners, as his Vellala family was estranged from her. For having violated caste taboos, she was shot dead by a killer hired by her betrothed, as she came out of a church with her new kin group. The Karnataka song we had heard sung repeatedly, by a group of seated female singers (about longing for Krishna to appear), plays across this desolate shot one last time.

The other clip is of the seemingly every-day banal high-angle-shot of the family of three walking towards us on a railway platform. In long to medium shots from Sons and Fathers, we see Rex, Kanthi and Lucky as a boy, walking between them carrying small suitcases of their possessions. The couple has just got married at a registry (with minimal formality, with just four smiling in-laws) and are coming home to live with Rex. Kanthi is dressed in a Kandyan sari and Rex has long curly hair tied at the back. Seeing that shot of the threesome, who are being observed by an adult Lucky leaning on a railway bridge (a pensive ‘recollection image’), it becomes an iconic shot for Sinhala cinema, suggestive in its promise of rich potential for our art and much else. Variations of this shot, of them climbing the long steps of the station, are repeated several times like the refrain of Lucky’s beloved mother’s song.

sumathy wrote the lyrics for two of the four songs in the film. Vantharu Vanthachu (‘He is coming’ with apocalyptic events of bombs destroying the earth, elephants in trees, wrapped in a love song), is sung in Tamil. The Mother’s Song, written in English, is translated for the film by Amarakeerthi Liyanage, a Professor of Sinhala and a specialist in Comparative Literature. Anthony Surendra, the Tamil music director of the film, wrote, composed and sang My Heart (Ma Hade) in the film at a recording studio and is the song Kanthi hums to Rex’s accompaniment at the keyboard (and also to an infant Kamala), in a most unusual romantic scene. When asked, sumathy said that she was thinking of Desdemona’s Willow Song while writing what she calls ‘The Mother’s Song’ for the film. The Shakespearean ballad was given to Desdemona by her mother who had received it from her maid. She makes a significant change in her song, the ‘betrayal’ there is no longer sexual as in the original folk ballad sung by Desdemona before Othello kills her in a fit of jealousy. But in the film, it becomes Champa’s thoughtless, cunning betrayal of Lucky and his mother.

The way Sumathy presents Rex Periyasami, Mudiyanselage Kanthilatha, Lakshman and Mala as a multi-ethnic family, makes one feel that they will survive the fire that set Lanka ablaze then, stronger in the essential values that bind them together, but no doubt at great cost to their livelihoods and futures, in creating the hybrid music, their very life-blood, which Kanthi says emphatically, ‘saved them’. Sumathy’s Sons and Fathers is her poetic tribute to those values that bind that family and the ethnically diverse Lankan popular film and music industry where those values also flourished, once.

However, Malin’s singular question to his mother, and Mala’s last look to the camera, perhaps of anger, make an old critic like me imagine that they must be big by now. And in so doing, I hear faintly Rukmani Devi singing, ‘mavila penevi rupe hade …swapneya chaya …’ (in my heart emerges a dream-image … of life) as I fall asleep, perchance to dream. (Concluded)

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Midweek Review

US paying the price for disregarding military advice

Published

13 hours ago

2026/03/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

March 4: General Dan Caine addressing the Operation 'Epic Fury' media briefing (pic courtesy official website)

Jayasekera

Sri Lanka recently sought Saudi assistance to introduce advance radar technology, capable of detecting approaching targets and drone capability to meet aerial threats. On behalf of the NPP government, that request was made by Deputy Defence Minister Maj. Gen. (retd) Aruna Jayasekera when he met Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Ghribi, Commander of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, on the sidelines of the World Defence Show 2026 in Saudi Arabia, in February, this year. They also discussed the possibility of Saudi ships visiting Colombo.

Jayasekera also sought training opportunities for SLAF in Saudi Arabia when he met Lt. Gen. Mazyad bin Sulaiman Al-Amro, Commander of the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces. Jayasekera discussed with Vice Admiral Fahad Al Ghofaily, Deputy Chief of General Staff, the possibility of securing Saudi assistance to surveillance and deep sea operational capabilities of the Navy.

Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly hit by Iran during its counter offensive. In fact, Iran stepped up attacks in the wake of the US bombing of Kharg Island, a major Iranian oil facility. It would be pertinent to mention that Admiral Steve “Web” Koehler, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, visited New Delhi and Colombo, less than 10 days before the outbreak of war, and here he met both Minister Jayasekera and Defence Secretary Air Vice Marshal (retd) Sampath Thuyakontha. It was Koehler’s second visit after the change of government in Sept. 2024. Don’t forget that it was Koehler’s command that alerted Sri Lanka, on the morning of 4 March, on the sinking of the unarmed Iranian frigate Dena.

The meticulously planned assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 28 February was meant to bring about a swift regime change and a victorious end to the war. The joint Israeli-US war machine assumed that such a high profile decapitation strike would pave the way for swift public uprising and capitulation of the Iranian government.

The aggressors, quite wrongly, assumed that those who launched the costly protest campaign in Iran, in late December last year, against the unbearable cost of living, would be able to exploit Khamenei’s assassination.

Unpredictable US President Donald Trump was so confident, on the first day of the offensive, that he urged the Iranian military to lay down their arms and its people to take over their government. International media quoted the Republican Chief as having said: “It will be yours to take”.

Trump disregarded his top military adviser, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Dan Caine’s warning against attacking Iran. US media reported that Caine, who succeeded Air Force General C.Q. Brown, sacked by Trump in February 2021, warned that war could be risky, potentially drawing the US into a prolonged conflict.

Over two weeks into the war, the Israeli-US assumption seems utterly wrong with those, who genuinely believed in the sure collapse of the Iranian administration following the decapitating strike, are struggling to cope up with the spirited Iranian counter attacks. While enduring a much larger devastating bombing campaign, compared to the 12-day war in June last year, Iran overwhelmed Israel and Gulf countries where powerful US forces were stationed. Their costly missile defences seemed ineffective against Iranian missile and drone salvos that caused unprecedented chaos in the region.

But, what really astonished the Gulf states was Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – the only maritime passage between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and the route for about a quarter of the global liquefied natural gas and seaborne trade from Gulf countries. This stunned the aggressors and those who blindly backed their despicable strategy.

Iran has categorically denied missile and drone attacks on Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Turkey. If Iran didn’t target them, who did? Whoever staged those attacks, their intention is clear. They want to involve NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in the Israeli-US misadventure by hitting NATO members Cyprus and Turkey. Why would Iran attack Turkey against the backdrop of Ankara’s condemnation of Khamenei’s assassination, and also denied the use of its airspace, territory, and territorial waters to the US armed forces for the ongoing war?

The US announcement on March 12 that curbs on Russian oil would be lifted till April 11 underscored the gravity of the situation. Having failed to achieve a swift ‘regime change,’ their much touted primary objective in Operation ‘Epic Fury,’ the US has no option but to swallow its pride and seek Vladimir Putin’s intervention. The US ended with egg on face. It would be pertinent to mention the US sanctioned Russian oil immediately after the launch of Moscow’s Special Operation against Ukraine in February 2022. That ban had been based on the assumption that oil revenue enabled Russia to prolong the war in Ukraine.

Does the 11 April deadline mean that the Israel-US combine seriously believed that Iran could be defeated by that time? Intense media coverage of the conflict indicated that Israel and US objectives in Iran weren’t the same. Regardless of repeatedly vowing to achieve regime change in Iran, the aggressors ended up examining ways and means of exiting the conflict triggered by them. The way Iran has been responding to Israeli-US attacks, the West cannot fully restore Hormuz by the second week of April. Prolong war may force US to extend waiver on sanctioned Russian oil, thereby further strengtheing Putin.

The US-Israeli strategy has suffered in the absence of an anticipated large scale public uprising, in Iran, immediately after the decapitation strike. When that failed to materialise, as expected, the overall picture of the largest ever combined Israeli-US offensive changed.

Unilateral US decision to lift the ban on Russian oil, even temporarily, divided the western grouping backing Ukraine. In spite of the US being a critical member of that grouping, the Iranian action left Trump with no alternative but to ease pressure on global oil markets at Ukraine’s expense. The Europeans realise that the failure to effect regime change may compel Trump to extend waiver on oil sanctions on Russia.

What really went wrong? President Trump has been so confident of Iranian surrender he mocked British preparations for the deployment of aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” President Trump declared on March 8. The humiliating Truth Social post appeared to be influenced by rash thinking.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” President Trump ridiculed the British. Reference to the UK as a ‘once great ally,’ underscored the US-UK rift.

But several days later, Trump sought deployment of other navies, including that of the UK to break the Iranian blockade on Hormuz Strait.

Modi phones Pezeshkian

Had the Israeli-US project achieved its primary objective, namely regime change, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wouldn’t have had to eat humble pie after declaring solidarity with Israel, just a few days before the unprovoked war. Prime Minister Modi, on March 12, nearly two weeks after the killing of Supreme Leader Khamenei, phoned Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Modi had no option but to get in touch with the post Khamenei Iranian leadership amidst growing turmoil in the country over disruption of vital gas and fuel supplies. India made its move as the US declared that New Delhi could turn to Russia for the time being. India desperately needed oil and required them as quickly as possible.

Having elevated India-Israel partnership to the highest level in the wake of Modi’s late February 2026 visit to Tel Aviv, on the eve of the unprovoked attack to decapitate the Iranian leadership, India found itself in an unenviable situation. The two-day visit led to what the two governments called “Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation and Prosperity.” In other words, the Israelis must have been working overtime on war preparations while Modi and Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar were visiting the Jewish State.

Modi’s call and a couple of calls from Dr. Jaishankar to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi facilitated the passage of fuel carriers. The US must have been deeply upset by the Indian move but that ensured the BJP, in power since 2014, brought the situation under control for the time being. The truth is India had been compelled to negotiate with Iran and the latter wouldn’t have given assurance regarding safe passage for vessels carrying fuel for India without being adequately compensated.

After rushing to Israel to show their servile loyalty on the eve of launching the unprovoked attack on Iranians, the Indian-Iran deal, in the aftermath of that folly, for safe passage for New Delhi’s vessels, proved that there were limits to the world’s solitary superpower. In the run-up to Modi’s call to President Pezeshkian, the Indian leader came under heavy Congress fire over India’s failure to promptly condemn the assassination of the Iranian Supreme Leader. Initially, the Indian government acted as if Congress criticism were irrelevant but it had to appeal to Iran in the wake of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran appeared to have exploited India’s difficulties. Having overlooked India-Israel/US partnership and the sinking of the unarmed Iranian frigate ‘Dena’ on 4 March, Iran’s Ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, on 13 March declared their readiness to grant safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz for vessels on their way to India.

Responding to a question from an RT India correspondent, the envoy highlighted that Tehran considered New Delhi as a friend and that there were converging interests between the two countries.

Asked directly whether India would receive safe passage through the Strait, he replied: “Yes, because India is our friend. You will see it within two or three hours.” (RT India is a New Delhi-based, English-language television news channel officially launched in December 2025 by Russian President Vladimir Putin).

At the time Israel-US unleashed war on Iran, India wouldn’t have anticipated such a scenario-direct negotiation with Iran to secure energy supplies and the US having to waive the ban on Russian oil sales. How would India-Iran deal on safe passage for energy carriers impact on India-Israel/US relations?

Sri Lanka, rattled by the developing situation, swiftly followed suit to explore the possibility of securing Russian oil. Russian Ambassador in Colombo Levan Dzhagaryan, on the invitation of the government, met Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, at the Foreign Ministry, and assured the Minister Moscow would be informed. However, whether that meeting would produce results, as desired by Sri Lanka, is not yet known. But, Sri Lanka, trapped in the US Indo-Pacific strategy, seems utterly helpless as President Trump’s unprovoked gangster-type actions roiled the world. Ambassador Dzhagaryan, who had served as Russia’s top envoy in Iran, from 2011 to 2022, during a recent interview with the writer explained how the West sought to defeat Russia in Ukraine and the events leading to the Special Military operation in February 2022.

Gulf States in turmoil

Dzhagaryan

The stepped-up US naval build-up against Iran made it clear that a combined Israel-US offensive was inevitable. Against that background, the significance of an invitation received by the Colombo-based media to meet UAE Ambassador in Colombo, Khaled Nasser Al Ameri, in late February, this year, was realised only after the eruption of the war.

Ambassador Al Ameri, who had been here since February 2022, never called such a meeting before during 25 February dinner meeting at Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams discussed issues amidst rising tensions. The writer was among the invited along with Kesara Abeywardena, Editor, Daily News, and Nisthar Cassim, Editor, Daily FT. Perhaps the Ambassador felt the need to comprehend the pulse of the Colombo media due to the presence of a significant Sri Lankan community employed in his country.

The Gulf countries that accommodated US forces arrayed against Iran never expected Tehran to go the whole hog. Both the US and Gulf countries obviously miscalculated Iranian determination in the face of unprovoked aggression. They had to pay a very heavy price but none more so than the UAE. The Iranians shattered the myth of their invincibility due to the deployment of costly US armaments.

Paula Hancocks reported for CNN on 10 March that more than 1,700 missiles and drones had been fired towards the UAE since the war began. Quoting the UAE Defence Ministry, Hancocks said that more than 90% of them had been downed by interceptors, fighter jets and helicopters.

President Trump admitted in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper recently that Iran’s willingness to strike its Arab neighbours had been his biggest surprise of the war. But, faced with relentless Israeli-US offensive, Iran couldn’t have endured the pain without inflicting losses on all those arrayed against the country. The Iranian reaction must be examined taking into consideration the killing of the country’s Supreme Leader, some of his family as well as top military leaders.

The US-led coalition will eventually overwhelm Iran but the rapidity with which that country hit back even after losing the top leadership may embolden those opposed to US strategies. That is the undeniable truth. The latest Israeli and US claims of targets taken out in Iran cannot be discussed without taking into account their claims last June. During the 12-day war against Iran, Israel and US launched massive attacks but the retaliatory campaign launched by Iran after 28 February onslaught proved that debilitating losses couldn’t be inflicted by air campaigns alone.

UAE and others had learnt a bitter lesson by being part of Israeli-US strategy meant to overwhelm Iran. They had proved that Iran couldn’t be subdued the way the US succeeded in Venezuela in January this year. Venezuela appeared to have reached a consensus with the US following the abduction of its President Nicolas Maduro. The speed the new Venezuela leadership switched its allegiance to the US is not surprising though disappointing.

“I thank President Donald Trump for the kind willingness of his government to work together,” Rodríguez posted on X on 5 March, in perhaps her most shameless act of kneeling since Maduro’s abduction. But, in Iran, the attempted regime change operation in spite of it being overwhelming with superior firepower had been thwarted by that country. Their retaliation has exposed the weakness in the overall US-led defence of what can be termed Gulf Arab countries.

The recent relocation of a significant part of the US anti-missile system deployed in South Korea, particularly to meet the nuclear armed North Korean threat underscored the inadequacy of overall defence of the region at the time Israel-US attacked Iran. Foreign media reported South Korea protesting against the US move though it couldn’t interfere in the US action.

Status of Iranian proxies

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel in November 2024, following year-long clashes. In spite of the ceasefire, according to international media, Israel continued military presence in that country and there were numerous ceasefire violations. However, Hezbollah largely abided by the ceasefire until the assassination of the Iranian Supreme Leader.

Hezbollah resumed large scale attacks on Israel following the 28 February attacks. Combined Iran-Hezbollah attacks on Israel caused significant trouble. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and expanded ground operations in Lebanon where over a million people were displaced amidst massive destruction of infrastructure.

The French offer to arrange direct talks between Israel and Lebanon to find a lasting solution to the developing crisis seems irrelevant as long as Israel-US action continues against Iran. The issue at hand is the Israel’s desire to obliterate Iran with US support. US media, particularly CNN, reported how the American public resented the expanding US role in the conflict, with Trump issuing contradictory statements regarding US objectives.

Hamas, whose October 2023 raid on Israel resulted in the ongoing conflict, appeared to have surprised Iran with its recent plea to Tehran not to attack Gulf Arab countries in retaliation for Israeli-US aggression. Iran simply ignored Hamas appeal.

Iran should be held responsible for pursuing destructive strategy in the region by sponsoring Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen. The Israeli military action that followed the unprecedented October 2023 Hamas raid that caused well over 1,000 Israeli deaths weakened all Iran backed groups. Iran, in a way, used these groups as a buffer against the Jewish State. Lebanon, too, is a victim of Iranian strategy that empowered Hezbollah to take on Israel. US backed Israeli actions cannot be discussed under any circumstances turning a blind eye to Iranian funding of Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis fought back in whatever way possible. People have forgotten President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ridiculous declaration in late December 2023 that he would deploy an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) in the Red Sea in support of US-led efforts to counter Houthi attacks on the vital shipping lane.

In spite of reports and claims of the Sri Lanka Navy sending an OPV there, actual deployment never took place. Sri Lankan vessels are not equipped to face possible missile and drone threats and in case of deployment would have been vulnerable to Houthi such attacks.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Midweek Review

Digital Transformation in the Global South: Understanding Sri Lanka through India AI Impact Summit 2026

Published

13 hours ago

2026/03/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Artificial Intelligence has rapidly moved from being a specialised technological field into a major social force that shapes economies, cultures, governance, and everyday human life. The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held in New Delhi, symbolised a significant moment for the Global South, especially South Asia, because it demonstrated that artificial intelligence is no longer limited to advanced Western economies however can also become a development tool for emerging societies. The summit gathered governments, researchers, technology companies, and international organizations to discuss how AI can support social welfare, public services, and economic growth. Its central message was that artificial intelligence should be human centered and socially useful. Instead of focusing only on powerful computing systems, the summit emphasised affordable technologies, open collaboration, and ethical responsibility so that ordinary citizens can benefit from digital transformation. For South Asia, where large populations live in rural areas and resources are unevenly distributed, this idea is particularly important.

One of the most important concepts promoted at the summit was the idea of “people friendly AI.” This means that artificial intelligence should be accessible, understandable, and helpful in daily activities. In South Asia, language diversity and economic inequality often prevent people from using advanced technology. Therefore, systems designed for local languages and smartphones play a crucial role. When a farmer can speak to a digital assistant in Sinhala, Tamil, or Hindi and receive advice about weather patterns or crop diseases, technology becomes practical rather than distant. Similarly, voice based interfaces allow elderly people and individuals with limited literacy to use digital services. Affordable mobile based AI tools reduce the digital divide between urban and rural populations. As a result, artificial intelligence stops being an elite instrument and becomes a social assistant that supports ordinary life.

Transformation

The influence of this transformation is visible in education. AI based learning platforms can analyse student performance and provide personalized lessons. Instead of all students following the same pace, weaker learners receive additional practice while advanced learners explore deeper material. Teachers are able to focus on mentoring and explanation rather than repetitive instruction. In many South Asian societies, including Sri Lanka, education has long depended on memorisation and private tuition classes. AI tutoring systems could reduce educational inequality by giving rural students access to learning resources similar to those available in cities. A student who struggles with mathematics, for example, can practice step by step exercises automatically generated according to individual mistakes. This reduces pressure, improves confidence, and gradually changes the educational culture from rote learning toward understanding and problem solving.

Healthcare is another area where AI is becoming people friendly. Many rural communities face shortages of doctors and medical facilities. AI-assisted diagnostic tools can analyse symptoms or medical images and provide early warnings about diseases. Patients can receive preliminary advice through mobile applications, which helps them decide whether hospital visits are necessary. This reduces overcrowding in hospitals and saves travel costs. Public health authorities can also analyse large datasets to monitor disease outbreaks and allocate resources efficiently. In this way, artificial intelligence supports not only individual patients but also the entire health system.

Agriculture, which remains a primary livelihood for millions in South Asia, is also undergoing transformation. Farmers traditionally rely on seasonal experience, but climate change has made weather patterns unpredictable. AI systems that analyze rainfall data, soil conditions, and satellite images can predict crop performance and recommend irrigation schedules. Early detection of plant diseases prevents large-scale crop losses. For a small farmer, accurate information can mean the difference between profit and debt. Thus, AI directly influences economic stability at the household level.

Employment and communication

Artificial intelligence is also reshaping employment and communication. Routine clerical and repetitive tasks are increasingly automated, while demand grows for digital skills such as data management, programming, and online services. Many young people in South Asia are beginning to participate in remote work, freelancing, and digital entrepreneurship. AI translation tools allow communication across languages, enabling businesses to reach international customers. Knowledge becomes more accessible because information can be summarised, translated, and explained instantly. This leads to a broader sociological shift: authority moves from tradition and hierarchy toward information and analytical reasoning. Individuals rely more on data when making decisions about education, finance, and career planning.

Shared conditions

The impact on Sri Lanka is especially significant because the country shares many social and economic conditions with India and often adopts regional technological innovations. Sri Lanka has already begun integrating artificial intelligence into education, agriculture, and public administration. In schools and universities, AI learning tools may reduce the heavy dependence on private tuition and help students in rural districts receive equal academic support. In agriculture, predictive analytics can help farmers manage climate variability, improving productivity and food security. In public administration, digital systems can speed up document processing, licensing, and public service delivery. Smart transportation systems may reduce congestion in urban areas, saving time and fuel.

Economic opportunities are also expanding. Sri Lanka’s service based economy and IT outsourcing sector can benefit from increased global demand for digital skills. AI-assisted software development, data annotation, and online service platforms can create new employment pathways, especially for educated youth. Small and medium entrepreneurs can use AI tools to design products, manage finances, and market services internationally at low cost. In tourism, personalized digital assistants and recommendation systems can improve visitor experiences and help small businesses connect with travelers directly.

However, the integration of artificial intelligence also raises serious concerns. Digital inequality may widen if only educated urban populations gain access to technological skills. Some routine jobs may disappear, requiring workers to retrain. There are also risks of misinformation, surveillance, and misuse of personal data. Ethical regulation and transparency are therefore essential. Governments must develop policies that protect privacy, ensure accountability, and encourage responsible innovation. Public awareness and digital literacy programs are necessary so that citizens understand both the benefits and limitations of AI systems.

Beyond economics and services

Beyond economics and services, AI is gradually influencing social relationships and cultural patterns. South Asian societies have traditionally relied on hierarchy and personal authority, but data-driven decision making changes this structure. Agricultural planning may depend on predictive models rather than ancestral practice, and educational evaluation may rely on learning analytics instead of examination rankings alone. This does not eliminate human judgment, but it alters its basis. Societies increasingly value analytical thinking, creativity, and adaptability. Educational systems must therefore move beyond memorization toward critical thinking and interdisciplinary learning.

In Sri Lanka, these changes may contribute to national development if implemented carefully. AI-supported financial monitoring can improve transparency and reduce corruption. Smart infrastructure systems can help manage transportation and urban planning. Communication technologies can support interaction among Sinhala, Tamil, and English speakers, promoting social inclusion in a multilingual society. Assistive technologies can improve accessibility for persons with disabilities, enabling broader participation in education and employment. These developments show that artificial intelligence is not merely a technological innovation but a social instrument capable of strengthening equality when guided by ethical policy.

Ultimately, the India AI Impact Summit 2026 represents a symbolic shift in the global technological landscape. It indicates that developing nations are beginning to shape the future of artificial intelligence according to their own social needs rather than passively importing technology. For South Asia and Sri Lanka, the challenge is not whether AI will arrive but how it will be used. If education systems prepare citizens, if governments establish responsible regulations, and if access remains inclusive, AI can become a partner in development rather than a source of inequality. The future will likely involve close collaboration between humans and intelligent systems, where machines assist decision making while human values guide outcomes. In this sense, artificial intelligence does not replace human society however transforms it, offering Sri Lanka an opportunity to build a more knowledge based, efficient, and equitable social order in the decades ahead.

by Milinda Mayadunna

Midweek Review

‘Conversational reading’ with children

Published

13 hours ago

2026/03/18

Sahan Weerasooriya

Enhancing Sensibility

In our contemporary culture, we have lost our age-old tradition of intergenerational transmission of stories through spoken word, and our children have lost their romance with the printed word. These were the observations made by several learned contributors to this journal in recent times. In this context, I was interested in reading the informative article titled, ‘The Art and Science of Communicating with Your Little Child’ [The Island, March 5, 2026] by senior Paediatrician Dr. B. J. C. Perera, in which he underscores the significance of meaningful communication of children, mostly with their parents, in designing the ‘architecture of their minds’, a task which cannot be served by apps, vocabulary flashcards, or educational television. Dr. Perera, has drawn a consilience between science and sensibility.

While acknowledging the developmental benefits of appropriate social interactions, stories listened to and read by children in their formative years, I wish to address the allied topic of conversational reading [also known as dialogic or interactive reading] which provides a wider area of growth and sensibility. Not pretending it to be a novel idea, I write with the hope of raising the awareness of parents, grandparents and teachers alike, of the wider scope of the topic, in view of recent research of its developmental benefits for children,

Nowadays, children spend countless hours immersed in electronic media [e. g. smart phones, social media, gaming etc.] without guidance from parents who are occupied with busy work schedules. Children have less time for reading outside the school curriculum and to have a meaningful dialogue. While not denying the immense benefits of technological advances, social media mainly provide sensation and impression, offering less depth and complexity of thought. They also provide an escape from a ruthlessly competitive education system with tuition outside school hours and burdensome homework. It is now becoming increasingly evident that overindulgence in social media use has the potential to cause pervasive detrimental effects on children relating to their emotional stability, impulse control, sleep pattern and interpersonal skill.

Before embarking on the subject of Conversational Reading and its developmental benefits, I wish to briefly address the topics of intergenerational storytelling and reading.

Intergenerational Story-telling

The tradition of intergenerational storytelling is a universal exercise, perhaps dating back to the development of language itself. Typically, stories are told for transferring information or education or for entertainment. Early humans such as the Aboriginal People of Australia, who lived before the development of the written word, story-telling by tribal elders [‘knowledge keepers’] was the primary mode of transmission of knowledge, values and life lessons. It was a powerful tool for education, intertwined with art, songs and dances, fostering beliefs about creation, ancestral spirits, and connection to the land. The stories helped to pass down generations, a sense of cultural identity and the need to live in harmony with each other and with the environment.

Story-telling through Printed Word

Following the development of the written word by Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3500 – 3200 BCE and printing on paper by the Chinese in 868 CE, stories were delivered to some extent through the printed word. The first printed children’s story on paper, ‘Orbis Sensualium Pictus’ [The World of Things Obvious to the Senses drawn in Pictures’] published in 1658 by John Amos Comenius, the Czech educator, was an educational book with illustrations that inspired joyful learning in children. Since then illustrated story books were marketed for pleasure reading. Combining pictures with words became a delightful way to tell a story, as in the fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Stories were presented in both prose and verse.

We Sri Lankans are endowed with a wealth of children’s literature pioneered by such literary figures as Kumaratunga Munidasa, Ananda Rajakaruna, Tibetan [Sikkimese] monk Rev. S. Mahinda, V. D. De Lanarolle, Piyadasa Sirisena, G.H. Perera and others. They transformed folk tales into prose and poetry for supplementary reading. Edwin Ranawaka translated children’s stories from English to Sinhala with modifications to suit the local readership. They were men of vision who inspired the young with their literary work aimed at enhancing their creativity, sensitivity and tranquillity to prepare them for the challenges of the future. Our literary icon, Martin Wickremasinghe, was ahead of his time in recognising the importance of children’s literature and its positive impact on their psychosocial and intellectual development. In his book ‘Apey Lama Sahithyaya’ [Our Children’s Literature] in the immediate post-independent era he made the astute observation that a nation without children’s literature rooted in its heritage may face intellectual and moral decline. Wickremasinge regretted that despite the above contributions, we have been slow in developing a children’s literature of our own, although such a literary genre has long been established in the west.

I apologise for not being able to add to the above any Tamil authors of children’s stories due to my lack of knowledge.

Regular exposure to reading books has a long list of benefits for children: reading expands exposure to language and new vocabulary, builds foundational skills such as prediction, sequencing, and summarising, and introduces characters and worlds far beyond a child’s family or neighbourhood. Reading is a powerful technique in broadening social, emotional and cognitive development of children.

Conversational Reading

Recent research in childhood education and psychology has shown that conversational reading with children in their early formative years [in the main the pre-primary and primary school years] can both broaden and deepen the already known developmental benefits of the reading experience.

Conversational reading is the art of reading to and reading with children of an age appropriate piece of prose or verse by an adult, in a two way interactive process, exploring their thoughts and feelings about what is read and helping them to articulate their views within their capacity. It is fundamentally different from simply reading the words in a book to a child. It promotes the use of open-ended questions to create conversations while reading. In this dynamic, the child and the adult [parent, grand-parent, or teacher] contribute to the conversation in equal parts. Conversational reading in the school setting with a group of children offers greater benefits as it encourages discussion amongst them.

Research findings on conversational reading shows a wide range of developmental benefits – cognitive, emotional, and social.

Significant improvements in language development, especially in the areas of expressive vocabulary, word acquisition and sentence structure through modelling and meaningful conversations.

Such meaningful conversations enhance reading comprehension by reflection on characters and events and encourage critical thinking by looking beyond the narrative. Their active participation increases their imagination and creativity and their motivation to read.

Children being active participants, rather than passive listeners, improve their communication skills and encourage respectful discourse and help raise their self-esteem.

It enhances social and emotional understanding through exploration of feelings and relationships, being insightful of others’ perspectives and the development of empathy.

It enables strengthening of emotional bonds with adults through meaningful dialogue.

It is a joyful exercise that facilitates learning.

Reading with children and talking with them about what matters is more important than ever before. Reading fluency, comprehension, and ability to relate the ideas in a story to yourself and the wider world are the building blocks of imagination, empathy, critical thinking, and creativity—all crucial qualities which give children the ability to better understand themselves and others and to find their place in the world.

by Dr Siri Galhenage,
MBBS, DPM, MRCPsych, FRANZCP
Psychiatrist [Retd]