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A collection of Sinhala film songs
Professor Sunanda Mahendra
SONGS:Professor Sunil Ariyaratne known to be a
compiler-cum-researcher into such areas as music with special reference
to the lyrical part in theatre, the pop culture of mass media, as well
as in films and other allied areas has recently brought out a collection
of Sinhala film songs covering the period from 1947, the starting point
being the screening of the first Sinhala film Kadavunu Poronduva [broken
promise] to 1956, a Hindi film dubbed into Sinhala named Manushshatvaya.
The compilation is titled Sinhala Chitrapata Gitavaliya [Godage,
2006]. Perhaps this may be the pioneering effort on the part of a
collector to have compiled this calibre of anthology, spanning this
particular period, which may be utilised for the help of students and
other interested parties, who wish to know and find further matters
pertaining to various background details enabling us to know about the
musical aspects of a film such as the music director [ a local one or a
foreign master etc], the place where the songs were recorded [whether in
Colombo, Kandana or in Madras as it used to be those days], the name or
names of the lyric writers and details such as the calibre of song as to
whether the melody is an original or a carbon copy without much value or
lyrical grace etc.
Who uses this compilation and for what purpose is significant for
mass media users such as announcers and other communicators may utilise
this collection for the purpose of helping the receiver, the listener or
the viewer to know more about film songs of this country.
This is one aspect exhibited in this compilation. Then there is a
secondary purpose where the compiler Ariyaratne gives us a long
introduction underlining the background of the birth of the musical
component of the transfer of the musical factor from the theatre and
social festivities to the silver screen.
He too shows how the Sinhala film songs came to be gradually popular
and demanding from the point of view of public reception and mass appeal
via radio and gramophone records later becoming a commercial factor,
which inevitably led to the birth of a popular cultural pattern of
entertainment known as popular Sinhala film songs [Janapriya Sinhala
Chitrapata Sindu].
Over the years, it used to be that when a film-goer enjoys a
particular film, [I feel that the tradition had been handed down from
Hindi films] a booklet in the form of a few pages is sold at the counter
or nearby containing the songs of that film.
This was an extra paid gift factor that went hand in hand with the
film going habit which gradually waned off as the newspapers took over
the function and the film exhibitors were no more interested in the
investment.
It is interesting to note how the compiler Ariyaratne had troubled
himself over the matter of collecting almost all of these flimsy
booklets, bearing an illustration selected from the film concerned, over
the years as they are not even found in pigeon holes of such places as
the main archives, for printers of those years have not been informed of
such an issue of depositing them scientifically for posterity.
Coming once again to the more important part of this book the
introduction, the compiler states that in order to fulfil the task of
the musical component in a Sinhala film, a majority of film directors
had to depend on South Indian music directors and singers.
As time passed however, with a changing nature of the social issues,
the habit of selecting their music directors from foreign strands
gradually changed due to several compulsory pressures and requirements.
One of the main issues being the availability of the local talents who
were qualified to take up the same task in a better manner as against
the foreigners.
The rise of the radio media and the output of music teachers both
from local seats of learning as well as from those of abroad too were
instrumental in this direction. The musicians available in the country,
who were talented and closer to the medium had to take over the task of
being music directors and singers.
Thus these factors as well as several monetary matter too resulted in
the pattern of changing the musical aspects of Sinhala films from time
to time and culminated in the exhibition of talents of such versatile
musicians like Ananda Samarakone, Sunil Santha Edwin Samaradivakara B.S
Perera, Amaradeva and Premasiri Khemadasa to name a few.
The skills of the late musician and actor Hugo Fernando is shown in
most of these pages and he is visualised as a person who had been
instrumental in the changing aspect laying himself as a catalyst between
two traditions, the influential Indian tradition and the local
indigenous tradition.
Then comes the director-cum-lyricist Sirisena Wimalavira, who had
shown extra sensitivity to the lyrical aspects of indigenous poetic
qualities disregarding some of the stereo typed formula borrowed from
South Indian tradition of the day.
One main string that runs throughout the compilation is the
visualisation of the gradual transfer of a banal musical tradition to a
better form of musical entertainment utilising the most resourceful
elements from the local soil.
This compilation should be regarded as a mirror that shows not only
the musical aspects of the Sinhala film industry but also some of the
other related factors such as the literary evaluation and the taste
building process that has gone over the years from a formative stage in
the history of the Sinhala film industry to the more so called more
modern Sinhala film that has come to stay amidst us today.
Professor Ariyaratne's compilation should be regarded as an important
and useful fact file neatly knitted covering the subject in discussion.
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