Good Bye Ti Uncle : Creator of an Endearing Childhood

Written by Vindya Vithana



alt We grew up watching his beautiful creations that pampered our heart so serenely in a way it is impossible to get them off our minds in the entire life time. How can we forget adopted creations Dr. Doolitlle, Gulliver, Bugs Bunny and so many other nicely dubbed cartoons he gave us?

Renowned film director and Editor Titus Thotawatte, affectionately known as Ti Maama, passed away last evening (15th Oct.) at a private hospital in Colombo, aged 82 years.

As a person who made our childhood more beautiful, he will be remembered in our hearts for ever. His dubbed cartoons were not mere adaptations but taught us good values and touched our innocent hearts in a very subtle way unlike some dubbed cartoons that can be seen at present which spoils the little minds.

His dubbed foreign teledrama Osheen was also another heart touching work which got carved in our minds distributing beautifulvalues such as humanity, love and courage. Osheen was a heroine of our time. Again it stands up like a huge silhouette in the dubbed foreign tele dramas that can be seen today.

He was born Emmanuel Titus de Silva on April 17, 1929 in Borella. Thotawatte was born the youngest of three children with two older sisters. He attended Ananda College in Colombo and studied art under J.D.A. Perera and Stanley Abeysinghe. Subsequently he went to Matara Technical College.

Mr. Thotawatte made several popular and technically skilled Sri Lankan action movies in the 1960s and 1970s and later developed children’s programmes.

He joined the legendary director Lester James Peries and Willie Blake in making Rekava in 1956 as editor. It was an attempt to make a truly Sinhala movie to contrast with the Southern Indian copies in vogue. He struck out as a director with Chandiya in 1965 the film starred Gamini Fonseka in the first villain role of Sinhala Cinema. Other early films include Kauda Hari (1969), Thewatha (1970) and Haralaksaya (1971).

In 1980, Thotawatte wrote and directed the popular children's movie Handaya [5] which was awarded the Best Picture at the Sarasaviya Film Festival. In the 1980s and 1990s, he dubbed English cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Doctor Doolittle into Sinhala for Sinhala audiences. These continue to air on Sinhala Television channels. Thotawatte also created puppet characters like Eluson.

When The National Media Awards took place for the first time in Sri Lankan History he was one of the three to get it as a veteran film maker for his contribution to the TV media in Sri Lanka.

Rekava, Sandeshaya, Ranmuthu Duwa, Getawarayo, Dheewarayo, Chandiya, Parasathu Mal, Saravita Sorungeth Soru, Vasanth, Little Baby, Kauda Hari?, Hanthane Kathawa, Thewatha, Four Lakhs, Sihasuna Sagarika, Sikuruliya, Mangala, Maruwa Samage Wase, Handaya were the films he contributed to.

Dearest Ti Uncle, thank you so much for making our childhood filled with innocence and with so much beautiful memories. You are eternal in our hears forever! R.I.P!

ටයි මාමේ, අපේ ළමා කාලයත් ඔබත් යනු වෙන්කළ හැකි දෙකක් නොවේ. විදෙස් හඬ නළු සිංහල බසින් රසවත්ව අරුත්බරව හඬකවා අප වෙත ගෙනැවිත් ඔබ අපේ ළමා ලෝකය රසවත් කළේය. අපව දූපතකින් ලෝකයට යා කළේය. මේ නිර්මාණ තවත් බොහෝ කලක් ඔබේ නම දිදුලවනු ඇත.

දොස්තර හොඳහිත, පිස්සු පූසා, හා හා හරි හාවා, ගලිවර්ගේ සුවිසැරිය, කුංෆු, පුංචි ඉත්තෑවා, රොබින් හුඩ්, යවෙස්ලූ මිනිසා, මොන්තක්‍රිස්තෝ සිටුවරයා, ඔෂින්, පිනෝකියෝ, හිම කුමරිය,ලන්ඩනයේ අතරමංව, ජැක් සහ මායා බෝංචි වැල, හසරැළි රසාර, සුරූපී විරූපී, ඇලඩින් සහ පුදුම පහන, පුංචි ඇත් පැටියා මනුතාපය වැනි සදාදරණීය වැඩ සටහන් මගින් අපගේ ළමා කාලය හැඩ ගැන්වූ ආදරණීය ටයි මාමේ ඔබට නිවන් සුව !!!



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