Sunil Shantha: A true son of the soil
PERSONALITY: The recent felicitation program on Sunil Shantha,
which was aired over a private television channel, should be
congratulated for all its colour and splendour.
It was a tremendous success both in audience response and stage
presentation showing quality and variety. It was indeed a great honour
to have been able to felicitate this wonderful personality who
revolutionised the music arena of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon.
The credit goes to his close associate Ivor Denis who could
miraculously represent his voice with his superior performance. It was
he, who with his unfailing energy and enthusiasm did his best to make it
an impressive one.
He displayed his concern and deep affection to his Guru by presenting
the songs to the best of his ability. I express my sincere thanks for
having sung tirelessly to produce a non-stop programme of that nature. I
would like to acknowledge his magnificent Shantha’s songs are deeply
etched in our memory.
Ivor Denis surfaced them to us one by one. It was undoubtedly
welcomed by those of us who belonged to the old stock of the Imperial
Days, when the great Maestro was living.
He took us back to the time we enjoyed songs of Sunil Shantha
recollecting the sweet fragrance of the days gone by. It was a wonderful
show for the present day music lovers too.
Now to Sunil Shantha - a true son of Lankan soil. It was in the early
fourties that Sri Lanka was blessed with this great maestro from
Shanthiniketan.
On his arrival he introduced a new theme of music which could be
called Sinhala music. With his Renaissance of Sinhala music he put an
end to the era of setting Sinhala lyrics to Hindi tunes, which was the
order of the day.
His was a praiseworthy attempt to fulfil a timely need. He created
something which we could call our own - no other person in the annals of
history earned the respect of the music lovers for his endeavours in
promoting Sinhala Kama committed to the cause of true Hela spirit he
directed all his energies in creating an indigenous theme. His music was
quite different from what we find today.
At a time that a decline in social and cultural values were reflected
in the society this intellectual awakening in song and music created by
him opened the door to a new era. Having understood the timely
requirements he made a tremendous impact on our cultural heritage. In
short he lived in an era of cultural revival.
His contemporaries - the cream of the musical intellect - when Ananda
Samarakone was blessing the motherland with the National Anthem “Namo
Namo Matha”, when both Ananda S. and Saranagupta Amarasinghe were doing
their best to produce the school song of Sujatha Vidyalaya (a meaningful
song of great significance) when Surya Shankar was deeply involved in
singing “Akke Akke ara balannako”, Sunil Shantha was drawing record
crowds from the music world with his most popular hit “Olu Pipila” with
the scent of the fresh blooming flowers.
Radio Ceylon which was the only prevalent media with TV not even to
be heard or seen then, just could not cope with the requests flowing
from all classes of people young and old.
In fact there were weddings at which the bands played the most
demanded ‘Olu Pipila’ instead of “Wedding March” way back in 1960s. Such
was the popularity of his first enchanting song that captivated all the
music lovers of the island.
Sunil Shantha was a man of exceptional calibre gifted with a
melodious voice. All his songs are a collection of meaningful ideas with
a careful choice of words, the flow of which carry a wealth of
knowledge.
The song of the blossoming olu flower was followed by even more
fascinating songs like “Suvanda Rosa Mal Nela” which left an image in
the minds of lovers that will not easily fade away. He marvellously
excelled in every field.
In another of his very popular songs he never failed to please the
beauty of the birds the bees flowering trees and bushes the ponds and
rivers of the rural country side.
His beautiful song “Kele mala mage” is an example for his style with
a unique blend of nature with scenic splendour. It is a glowing tribute
to his love of nature. “Mihikatha Nalavala” is another of the
captivating songs of this great Maestro.
Some of his songs had been composed by eminent personalities like
Hubeth Disanayaka, Arisen Ahubudu, Venerable Rambukkana Sri Siddhartha
Thera and Rev. Father Marcelline Jayakody.
He instilled life into those songs with his melodious voice rocking
the entire music world. Sunil Shantha got numerous invitations from film
directors to direct music for their films and his greatest contribution
in that sphere was in Lester James Peries’s Rekhawa where he presents an
immortal lullaby, so to say, so pleasing to the ear, the lyric provided
by Fr. Marcelline Jayakody and the music by Sunil Shantha.
He excelled in the music arena at national level. There were songs
beaming with patriotism catering to the urgent need of the Lankan
society at the time. “Lanka Lanka Pembara Lanka” is a shining example to
his excessive faith and love to the motherland.
The audience rose to their feet when the programme came to a close
with the above song.
- Rupa BANDUWARDENA |
