When four singers representing three generations of Sinhala music united on stage at Toronto St. John A. McDonald auditorium on December 16 we knew what we were in for: a nostalgic, aching peek into a past we have swapped for a different future depending on our own choice.
Music has always united Sri Lankans. When the country bled for 30 harrowing years and politicians were capitalizing on our misery, when new technology began to pollute what we thought was our pristine heritage, our native music had a healing effect on us. It became a catalyst, bonding communities, religions, languages, and found common ground among our seemingly irreconcilable differences.
Audience called for more and the quartet of our beloved songstresses obliged, earning our respect in a way for not fleeing away as we did and remaining behind, dodging bombs and surviving political chaos, doing what they were born to do: enriching our native culture.
When Indrani Perera who claims a record of singing for six decades appeared on stage the mood was one of overt jubilation. Her voice has not aged, still rich with that youthful cadence and power which give us goose bumps even now. Singing ‘Vana Dev Liya Thurule’ and ‘Dilhani’ which unlocked doors for her to reach stardom, she humbly thanked Annesley Malewana for introducing her to Clarence Wijewardene. But a haunting voice like hers was waiting to be discovered by someone. The 60s needed new voices like hers and she stepped at the correct moment. It was the era which took global music in new directions. It was no different in Sri Lanka.
The hardest part was to survive in a highly competitive field which discovered new talent almost everyday. Many of her colleagues who began with her are either dead or retired. Her iconic Three Sisters singing trio is no more – one sister is not among us and the other one in retirement – Indrani has become something like a lone voice uniting three generations.
She said she met musician Patrick Denipitiya ‘every time I came here but I miss him this year’. Patrick who shaped Sri Lankan music in the 60s and 70s in Sri Lanka, lived in Toronto for a long time and passed away this year.
Names of departed artistes surfaced from time to time – Stanly Peiris, Premasiri Khemadasa, Clarence Wijewardene, Premakeerthi de Alwis – while the four singers remembered how the late artistes inspired and helped them carve out their careers.
The musical evening titled Yuga Yuga Rydhma (Rhythms of Generations) is the first of its kind. Four female vocalists had never appeared together on a stage outside Sri Lanka. The show was the final and fourth leg of their Canadian tour.
When I left my native country almost three decades ago Deepika Priyadarshani was still a school girl who sang her debut, a catchy song with a Portuguese-inspired chorus, which became an anthem of her generation.
She said until two years passed everybody sang or whistled the number without knowing that it was Deepika who lent the voice to this evergreen number! Some believed it was sung by late Ramani Bartholomeusz, the actress who played the main role in Bhagya teledrama, she said.
Today she has blossomed into a highly talented singer far from the obscurity of her early days. When she mentioned something about looking at Ananda Boys’ College on her way to school I remembered how music director Rohana Weerasinghe famously announced on a Toronto stage few years ago that Deepika was ‘still available’. I have no clue why Ananda College surfaced in her chitchat!
Nirosha Virajini was relatively unknown while I was in Sri Lanka. I met her at a press conference in Dubai where I worked for sometime and saw her sing at Al Nasser Leisureland. She is also from the generation of Deepika and later trained in classical music in India. Nirosha who began by singing Hindi and Tamil songs is now a fully fledged semi-classical singer and a music director of a film, ‘Sinahawa Atharin’. She sang from her impressive repertoire including, the melody in her first cassette, ‘Sitha Handai’, which brought her to national attention.
The baby of the quartet was Uresha Ravihari, as exotic as her name sounds, with looks good enough for her to make a career on the silver screen. She was not even born when other three launched their careers. Uresha was a prodigy who sang her first film song when she was just eight years old and in her two-decade career she has become extremely popular by winning every major award and setting a record of singing for 104 films in a brief period of time.
Uresha who is married to a medical doctor is a mother of one child. She sang hits which are popular among both the millennials and the older generations. The speciality of her repertoire is her mastery over both semi-classical and pop.
I was waiting to hear her emotional anthem of communal harmony about a Tamil rebel girl who takes up arms. The melody, ‘I am Thamalini’, which has both Tamil and Sinhala versions was not included in the programme. May be next time!
Samantha Perera led the orchestra
The surprise of the evening was Samantha Perera, who led the orchestra of five musicians, and whose son played the guitar and lent his voice to duets. Sampath who learnt music under late maestro Premasiri Khamadasa worked with him for 23 years, is also a singer, music director and a university lecturer. I was unaware that Samantha sang the theme song of the popular film ‘Agni Dahaya’. He said the song was an accident.
“On the last day of the shooting we wound up the operations, the staff left after collecting their pay when director Jayantha Chandrasiri rushed in and gave music director Khamadasa the last page of his script, a song. We had only two instruments, a guitar and an octopad and we undertook the challenge.” The song is heavily influenced by folk traditions and he sang it with another singer. That ‘accident’ won him an award that year.
Samantha also directed the bands of the three security forces at a popular Super Star reality show held among the soldiers disabled in the war.
As all the good things should come to an end, the show wound up on a happy note with Uresha, Deepika and Nirosha, joining Indrani to sing a medley of her old hits. There was enormous respect for Indrani on the stage considering her pioneering career in native music and I am sure the three singers would have looked up to their senior as a mentor or even singing her songs as kids.
Students from three dancing schools – Roosara Dance, Chandi’s School of Dance and Rashanthi’s Dancing School – presented several items in native traditions. It is heartening to see young Canadian-born children encouraged to maintain links to their cultural roots.
The show was meticulously organized by a team led by Asoka Pinnaduwa, and the proceeds were for a charitable cause: construction of the monks’ residence at Toronto Maha Vihara in East Toronto. Compere Upali Ranasinghe, Kelaniya University alumni, was a joy to watch as always, providing us side stories and adding interesting titbits about the stars.- Somasiri Munasinghe
