Singer Anuradha who lives in Toronto. (Top right) Her father Shelton Perera and brother Sathish.
When 12-year-old Omiru Sandira sang the melody Egodaha Yanno about a mythical boatman for Little Star musical talent quest, the haunting melody took star-struck Sinhala music fans back to the sixties.
Classical musician Shelton Perera originally sang the soulful melody with a religious theme in the 60s. A musical genius who did not get the recognition he deserved in his native land passed away at 47, leaving behind an immense body of work, some of which still remains unknown to many of his fans.
The popularity of Egodaha Yanno scaled to new heights when a 15-year-old extremely talented school girl, Erandi Heshani, sang it for a Blind Audition talent quest notching up more than 3 million hits almost overnight.
Sadly, the original melody had only 108,000 views in seven years, pointing to the emerging musical trends in Sri Lanka, where flagrant violations of intellectual property are committed in the name of mass entertainment.
Shelton (1939-1986) provided music for the haunting ballad about the ageing Buddha’s message of crossing Samsara to his followers. Prolific Sinhala song writer Dalton Alwis wrote the lyrics. Until Dalton’s son, Gaya Ramya Alwis, explained the significance of the message that song embodied during an interview, people thought the melody was about a village boatman.
Speaking to Sunimal Balasooriya at his weekly Sakman Maluwa programme over Toronto-based Sawana web radio (sawana.ca) the singer’s daughter Visharada Anuradha Perera said her talented father did not get the recognition he deserved for his enormous services to Sinhala music.
“After coming to Sri Lanka from India in 1966 fully qualified from the famous Bathkhande Music University, he worked as a teacher in Ampara, a remote area,” she said.
Shelton was unhappy about the appointment in a difficult area where usually the government sent teachers on punishment transfers. Her mother had told Anuradha that Shelton wanted to work in Colombo, lending the expertise he gained in India to enrich Sinhala music and train youngsters.
“My father worked in All India Radio as a tabla player and also backed popular Indian singers like Mohamed Rafi and Gopi Krishnan,” said Anuradha who is a popular singer with several hits to her credit. She is now living in Toronto with her husband and son.
She says that fans think that her father sang only a handful of songs. “It is a mistaken belief. I know how he worked hard for the development of Sinhala music. I hope one day, someone would take an interest in introducing the enormous body of work that my father left behind for the posterity.”
Anuradha said her father’s Budune Budu Piyaneni won the 1985 Sarasavi Film Awards for the best song. He sang it for the film Sasara Chethana directed by Malini Fonseka. Music was directed by Sarath Dassanayke. The song won another award for Prof. Sunil Ariyaratne for the best lyrics.
Anuradha is connected to three generations of artistes in Sri Lanka and the other side of the Palk Strait. Her mother Shashi was born in India and fell in love with her father while he was studying at Bathkhande. Anuradha’s paternal grandfather, T. Wilfred Perera, and grandmother L.K. Somakantha were well known Tower Hall artistes. Her maternal grandfather was a film director in India. Anuradha’s brother Sathish was a singer and revived some of his father’s forgotten songs. He passed away due to leukemia at the age of 43. Anuradha and her sister too studied music at Bathkande University. Apart from singing, she also learnt the sitar.
“My father married my mother against intense opposition from her father. The marriage took place in Colombo, and witnesses to the marriage were late announcer and songwriter Karunarathne Abeyesekera and singer Milton Perera,” she said adding that her father and Milton remained good friends until death.
Her mother could not speak Sinhala when she tied the knot with her father, but she mastered it within a few years. Though their parents spoke in Hindi at home, the children did not speak the language till Anuradha and her sister went to study music at Bathkhande.
Anuradha is married to a Tamil colleague who worked with her at a radio station where she served as an announcer. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil who worked as a director of the station
She started her career as a translator of Hindi songs into Sinhala and presented many programmes over Sirasa FM. One of her most popular programmes was Nim Nathi Nimnaya, a midnight feature playing popular Hindi melodies. “The programme was top-rated among the soldiers who worked in the north and east during the war, and I received a lot of praise for the programme from them. I was delighted to serve the soldiers who fought to protect country.”
After marrying a Tamil her life took a different turn. “My husband’s family is orthodox, but they accepted me as an equal with a lot of respect and trust. When I went to his ancestral home on vacation, they handed me all the house keys as I was considered the eldest daughter. The tradition requires that all the keys of the house be with the eldest woman in the family who usually has to manage and run the house,” she says adding that she has a son who is in high school.
Sawana web radio is the brainchild of Vasantha Lankatilake, a senior programme producer at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Services and several other channels. The radio can also be accessed through Radio Garden and Tunein Mobile Apps. – www.newstrails.com
