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by Somachandre Wijesuriya

Artists are individualists by their very nature and rarely will you find them inside a company board room. Gunadasa Kapuge was no exception and I had the fortune of meeting him inside a water-hole in Borella one night a couple of years ago.

I was there arguing a point on meaning of art with a couple of TV artists and technicians of Rupavahini who had accompanied the dramatist, Kapila Kumara Kalinga of 'Rhinoceros' fame. A diminutive man dropped in. Kapila and he embraced like long lost blood brothers and I was introduced to Gunadasa Kapuge. He was on his way to Rakwana to take part in a musical show.

It was nearly 10 pm in the night..Kapuge immediately ordered a round of amber liquid and Kapila urged me to continue the debate with him. We discussed many topics relevant to artists, the class struggle and interpretations of Marxism.

Under the influence of the liquid we hardly realised the time until the bar-keeper came and told us that he wanted to go home. It was past midnight when Kapuge left for his destination with his faithful driver.

That was my introduction to one of the most popular singers of our times..Gunadasa Kapuge was born in 1945 at Miriswatta, a village in down South. He lost his father early in his life. He passed the fifth standard government scholarship examination and entered Karandeniya Central School where he studied music.

Later he studied in India under famous musicians like Pandith Ratnjanker, Ostard Makshood at Bathkandha University at Laknow and received his degree in 1969. He received appointment at Radio Ceylon as production assistance in 1969 and in 1975 he was promoted as a programme producer.

The 1977 General Election was a turning point in the life of many artists. The betrayals of the class struggle paved the way for a massive victory for the rightists and artists were thrown into the complexities of an open economy.

The placid life at 'Radio Ceylon' was over. The welfare economy was being transformed with mass sackings of workers and suppression of rights. Famous was the struggle of the nurses which was supported by singer Nanda Malini who was banned from SLBC for her efforts.

The slightest chord of protest was met with suppression of rights. It was not easy for an artist to exist without the incomes received from programmes or employment at the state owned SLBC..In the existence of serious artists writers and thinkers this question is posed in their lives at one time or other. It cannot be separated from the politics and the class in power in the society they live in.

When the question is posed either you can betray principles and cave in or struggle against it. In Hitler's Germany and in Stalinist Russia it was posed to many. Some stood firm and ended up in concentration camps and death by Gestapo or KGB. Others fled the country. Still others took their own life. Poet Mayokovesky of Russia and Walter Benjamin of Germany are examples. Individualism of artists is not tolerated in totalitarian regimes.

In the case of Gunadasa Kapuge, it took the form of several sackings, and a transfer to Anuradhapura during the period of 1978-1990. He was dauntless in meeting that challenge. Even in those difficult periods he sang free for some organisations, donated money and helped fellow artists in distress. One of his most courageous acts in Anuradhapura was the support he gave to the family of Nandana Marasinghe who was killed by a JVP death squad. Marasinghe was an activist in the 1971 uprising but was critical during the JVP's Fascist orientation during 1988-89.

Marasinghe was killed by a squad of two motorcyclists in day light. Kapuge vehemently protested against this killing and supported Marasinghe's wife to organise a proper funeral. The reader may recollect that during this time the JVP's edicts forbade normal funerals of people killed by them.

The body of the killed person had to be carried knee downwards. No ceremonies or speeches were allowed. Death will come to whoever defied the edict. Only a courageous man with a stature like Kapuge could have defied the edicts.

Kapuge composed music for a number of dramas and films but he is well remembered for his rendering of a number of popular songs in his deep nasal voice which has a sorrowful tint. Singhalese music is dominated by the 'geetha' or song. Most of the 'geetha' are of religious orientation. A good number of Pandith Amaradeva's songs deal with the flutter of bo-leaves or rays emanating from the Buddha. Even a love song may have a religious theme. A lover has to wait for his next life (athma) to fulfil his lost love!

The broadcasts of the state owned radio of the Singhala Buddhist state starts with 'pirith' and throughout the day a good number of songs with Buddhist themes are broadcast.

In this scenario Kapuge struck a different chord which went deep into the hearts of the masses.

One of his popular song is 'Bimbarak Senaga' which is an anti-war song. A Singhalese vocalist.rendering a song against the war on the Tamil people is a daunting task in the light of Singhala Buddhist chauvinist propaganda. Kapuge's deep penetrating voice delivers the message that the war is lost.. Another popular song is 'Viduli Mini Pahan' in which he observes the feelings of a poor person who witnesses a fete of the rich in which satiated laughter and food are galore.

Kapuge was a minstrel in modern times.

He came to the city from the village and went on singing on stages throughout the country after his loss of regular employment but remained a village radical unto his death.

His untimely death brings a vacuum in the Singhalese musical scene. He was more than a mere vocalist but a personality admired for his forthright courage. His memory will linger long among the masses.

(The writer is the author of the controversial novel 'First Rising' on the first youth uprising).

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