What a night it was… it was
“Handapane handapane” a choir of children paid tribute to the Master’s simple yet immortal melody with devotion and the much awaited concert to commemorate maestro Sunil Santha’s 99th year of birth had begun.
To everyone’s bewilderment, the concert was found to be a fully sponsored one with no ticket sales. It was meant only for invitees. Even the souvenir with myriad of useful material about the Master and his music was distributed free of charge. Many were contemplating the generosity of the sponsors and the daunting task undertaken by the organisers. What a meritorious act.
There were people of all walks of life but the majority were elderly or in their prime, all intellectual music lovers. In the front row was the ardent Sunil Santha fan, Prof Carlo Fonseka, Sinhala scholar, Prof. Winnie Vitharana and Dr. Victor Ratnayake who entered the music scene by singing the lead on Master’s “Thel gala hisa peeran nano” in the sixties. There were distinguished Christian clergy present as well.
The Master’s most notable disciple and the only one to be blessed with not only a trace of that silvery voice but the inimitable style, Ivor Dennis sang Hubert Dissanayake’s “Adara nadiye” and a couple of other famous group-songs with the choir. The choir had style and was nimble with their body movements each time a note meandered. It was indeed a pleasure listening to such greats like “Emba ganga” and “Walakulen besa” penned by that erudite poet Arisen Ahubudu, before the Mahaweli was dammed. It must have been the first time senior citizen Ivor’s sonorous voice was made to echo across the magnificent Nelum Pokuna.
Current industry giants, Amal Perera and Kasun Kalahara both made the familiar songs “Mewan pitisare” and “Suwanda rosa mal” their very own adding their youthful vibe to the heartfelt renderings. Perhaps a piano accordion should have been introduced to balance their powerful raw styles with the flowing cadence and marked mellowness of the originals.
Two beautiful ladies, Indika Upamali and Nelu Adikari wore sarees in contrasting styles to suit their soprano and alto but their duet “Sigiri landakage” from the film Rekawa was simply outstanding. The delivery would have made the great Latha Walpola who sang the original way back, very proud. It is known that the Master composed the melody using the chanting technique of historical loweda sangarawa verses.
The closest to originals were delivered by Jagath Wickramasinge and Keerthi Pasqual in classic “Bovitiya dan” and evergreen “Olu pipeela” respectively. It was heartwarming to listen to their renderings. A queen of the music scene as of now, Deepika Priyadarshani sang one of the Master’s gems, “Nalawi senasenne” in her usual mellifluous voice to steal many a heavy heart. Her pitching was impeccable and so was her grace on the stage.
It was up to the strong man, Ishak Mohideen Beg to sing in his baritone the lilting rhythm of “Kokilayange” which was highly applauded. Though different in styles, his late father and the Master may have recorded music together for Radio Ceylon in those very early times. Popular youngster, Sashika Nissansala covered the famous Rekawa songs of Indrani Wijebandara with authority to cap the evening and towards the end a nonstop session of the Master’s film songs from Rekawa and Sandeshaya were gregariously delivered by all who sang for the riveted listeners to travel back in time. The immortal melodies may have evoked sweet memories in many an elderly mind.
The music was enthralling and held the audience spellbound. The genius in the young conductor Suresh Maliyadda became quite evident as the show progressed and his use of Western instruments like the clarinet which was noticeably woven around by the flowing flute, slide guitar, bass guitar and the folksy mandolin was highly commendable.
In between, musician Nadeeka Guruge delivered an analytical speech of Sunil Santha’s music and its uniqueness with technical assistance from the band and performed the Master’s 1967 solitary English song composed by Shelton Premaratne for the film Romeo & Juliet, “My dreams are roses” with only his own guitar as accompaniment. It was quite remarkable.
At the end the audience stood up for the unofficial National Anthem of Ahubudu’s “Lanka Lanka” which was sung in unison by all vocalists of the night. An exhilarated crowd thus joined in the singing, paying tribute to a major pillar holding the structure of Sri Lankan music together, eminent maestro Sunil Santha. Thus they sang into the moonless night!