Wathone was one of the best-known painters in Myanmar. He wrote books as well. He was not a rich person but he was fully content with his simple life in a charmingly idiosyncratic home. According to him, it was not easy for everybody to be able to do what he likes to do in his life.
Once, he wanted to put an ogre carving beside the main door of his house. (That ‘Ravana’ ogre is the main character of the book ‘Lanka Deepa Chit Thu’ – a comic novel of author Chit Oo Nyo, in which he drew characters and prepared/handwrote script.) But, he knew that ogres have aggressive nature. So, he hanged a shell necklace on the carving to soften the hostility.
The death of his son just after birth must be the saddest part of his life. He mentioned that he didn’t even name his boy. Later, he wrote a short novel for him in his book titled ‘Unnamed son and other short novels’.
A young female Burmese director, Kyi Phyu Shin, managed to capture a certain aspect of his life as a video documentary in which he shared his thoughts about his life. A Sketch of Wathone is Kyi Phyu Shin’s second documentary movie completed through the Yangon Film School three-week intensive documentary film-making workshop. And, she achieved ‘Best Short Award 2008′ for that movie at ‘All Roads Film’ film festival organized by National Geographic on 3rd of October 2008. Juries said they were touched by his tranquil life style.
She got a chance to inform Wathone about the good news just before Wathone passed away on 21st of October. Kyi Phyu Shin said
he said that honesty will eventually win out – those were his last words.
If you wanna watch the move, click the links below. (2 parts in total)
