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by Jayantha Anandappa

In this age of excess production where standards and ethics having plummeted down to alarming ridiculous levels and with the proliferation of insipid mediocre songs under the tag of "prabudda gee", it is refreshing to pen down these lines on Sunil Santha whose 88th birthday and the 22nd death anniversary falls in the month of April.

Between 1946 and 1952 Sunil attempted to create a musical tradition of our own based on the phonetics of Sinhala language- its Hela tradition- a task no musician had ever attempted. During this short period Sunil composed and sang nearly 200 songs, all stamped with his own style and with the power to speak to the hearts of the people. He had only just begun his mission.

Not a slave of the ragadari system Sunil had the vision to seek assistance from Bengali, North Indian, Western music and our own folk song in his attempt to create a musical tradition of our own. Sunil had his rivals who were envious and infuriated with the resounding success Sunil's music achieved among the people. Sunil's rise was meteoric and he became the most popular singer within a very short period of time.

His lilting voice and the melodies captivated the whole island. Unfortunately a powerful faction of Sunil's rivals contrived to oust Sunil from the Radio Ceylon. Sunil was banned from Radio Ceylon in 1952 for not taking part in the Ratanjankar Test.

The Radio Ceylon invited Prof Ratanjankar (Sunil's guru at Bhathkande) to advise how to create a musical tradition of our own and to audition the singers. The hidden agenda was to undermine Sunil's efforts.

Born on 14 April 1915 at Kepungoda, Pamunugama to a staunch Catholic family, Sunil Santha (Don Joseph John) lost both his parents at a very young age.

He lost his father before he could turn 3 months and the mother before he turned 3 years. Sunil was raised by his maternal grandmother and maternal uncles. Loss of his parents at a tender age had a profound effect on Sunil. He later epitomised his sorrow in one of his songs titled: "Naethiwoo Mihira".

Having served as a trained teacher between 1935-1939, Sunil proceeded to Shanthinikethan where he studied music in 1940. In 1941 Sunil joined the Bathkande University and obtained his Visharad Degree in 1944. He returned to Sri Lanka in Dec 1944 and joined the National Radio in 1945 (which confined to a two-roomed house at Cotta Road).

Ananda Samarakone through his gramophone recordings had already laid the foundation for the artistic Sinhala music. But plagiarism and imitating foreign tunes with meaningless words were the norm at that time, a trend from which Samarakone himself could not breakaway totally. Sunil was the giant who led the campaign against plagiarism.

He wrote numerous articles, forewords to his books strongly advocating the need for a musical tradition of our own. Despite his ability to create idyllic scenes, Samarakone's lyrics were grammatically faulty with his language lacking poetic diction.

Samarakone also used poetic licence to cut, telescope or modify words to match the tune. Firmly convinced that the basis of our musical tradition should be the Singhalese language, Sunil was extremely sensitive on the language use in his lyrics.

His early popular songs such as "Olu Pipeela", "Handapane" "Ho Ga Rella Negay", "Bovitiya Dung" and "Kumburay Peraliya" captured the hearts of all fans for the purity of the language, poetic diction, simplicity and lucidity. These songs (all written by Sunil in 1945-1946 prior to emergence of Ahubudu, Fr. Jayakody and Manavasinghe) represent a remarkable landmark in the evolution of our geeta sahitya in addition to being masterpieces for their musical content.

Sunil is the first musician who really attempted to make lyrical poetry a part of our art song. Despite having skills as a lyricist, Sunil put in to music poetry of Munidasa Kumaranatunga, Jayadeva (Geeta Govinda), Rapiel Tennakoon et al.

When Sunil approached Ahubudu and asked him to write a song about Sri Lanka, Ahubudu responded: "I am a poet, I can not write any songs". "A song in a way is a poem, write any poem about Sri Lanka. I will put it into music" was Sunil's reply. The result is "Lanka Lanka Pembara Lanka" and the birth of Ahubudu, the lyricist. One can easily establish that it is this trend that Sunil started with Hela Havula poets that encouraged talented poets like Manavasinghe to take up to lyrics consequently to enrich our geeta sahitya.

When Sunil Santha was banned from the Radio Ceylon in 1952 for the "crime" of trying to create a musical idiom of our own, he responded in a manner unusual to any artiste or man in contemporary society. He was not prepared to cow down to the Indian hegemony or change his conviction. Neither was he prepared to fall at the feet of the callous officials who banned him asking to re-instate him. Sunil had done nothing wrong.

Such was the independence, self dignity and the courage of this man, he was prepared to sell dry fish, textiles and eke out an existence by repairing old radios and doing odd jobs at home. In reality this meant living a life of abject poverty. But that is how he lived the rest of his life. During 1953 and 1981 Sunil was engaged in music only sparingly but there is ample evidence that his gift of composition was never on the wane.

Judging from the size of his output between 1945-1952 alone, we can say that Sunil would have created a major musical tradition with at least thousand songs if he were not banished from Radio Ceylon due to the stupidity of the officialdom, we have lost as a nation.

In 1973 I saw a glimpse of this fascinating, great man. A second year student in the University, driven by my passion for music, I did visit his home (an improvised "kukulu kotuwa) in Dehiyagatha. The desire was to chat with him about music and more importantly to lure him to make a comeback. I was naive then for I had no understanding of the details of the injustice meted out to him. I was struck by his personality, mannerism and speech.

To my disappointment, he was initially so reluctant to speak about music. However, seeing my eagerness after a while he did speak about music. I recall in response to one of my queries, he explained what inspired him to write "nelavee sennay", his most beautiful melancholic ode to the "Olu Flower"- the song he titled "thani woo mala". Sunil was fascinated by the Olu flower.

It was the sight of an Olu flower laden with the early morning dew that inspired Sunil to write this most subtle song which has always remained my personal favourite from my childhood. Even now I find it so hard to break my addiction to this song. Even with repeated listening its "rasaya" never seems to be diminishing, perhaps like a Beethoven composition.

Sunil died on 11 April 1981, heartbroken, six weeks after he lost his youngest son, 23 year old Jagath who was drowned tragically in a swimming pool.

It is a tragedy that the media in Sri Lanka do not seem to play Sunil's songs nowadays. Some of his better melodies (Attanagalu Velapilla, Vanka Giri Vela Pilla, Heramitiye, Vavul Tohuwa) are never heard and probably vandalised or destroyed. In my private collection I have nearly 40 of his songs that I have recorded lovingly from different sources taking lot of trouble- a collection that never fails to console me.

Sunil's vocal artistry and melodies will linger with us as long as Sinhala music survives. So too will be the deeds of the man and his fragrance. We are indeed lucky to have witnessed his brief sojourn on this earth.

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