‘SUNILA VILA’– a blend of many lotuses
When the ever-popular songster, Sunil Edirisinghe held his sing-song concert ‘Sunila Vila’ recently, a captured audience of nearly thousand fans, witnessed a unique blend of pulsating music. song and dance, besides rib tickling humour and fun within the precincts of an ecstatic, encapsulated environment, at the Mahinda Rajapaksa National Theatre of Performance – The Lotus Pond. It was a musical evening per se, that many other thousands, of not only Sunil Edirisinghe fans, but even the lovers of typical eastern music would have sadly missed. What a scintillating experience that was !
Coupled with ‘Sunila Vila’ concert was the launch of a 610 page volume, also titled “Sunila Vila”, published by Sarasavi Publishers, and compiled by that multifaceted multi-media creator of many firsts, Pushkara Wanniarachchi. It, indeed, is a valuable collector’s item containing nearly 500 songs of Sunil Edirisinghe, also providing a bibliography for each song. Introduced as the first of its kind by critics, the volume carries a life-sketch of Sunil Edirisinghe with visuals, and a synopsis by the author himself, as well as a couple of introductions by the veterans in the field of music - Professor Sunil Ariyaratne and Ratna Sri Wijesinghe. The publication is a fine example of the novel concept called ‘Collective Research’, through which every single aspect of a single artiste’s career, lasting several decades, is analytically covered, including even the minute details of how a particular song came into being. In that context, Pushkara’s investment of valuable time, energy and efforts to bring about such an epoch-making chronicle should be lauded, admired and complimented by all and sundry.
Even though Sunil Edirisinghe is today a household name, the volume of “Sunila Vila” educates the lovers of music, besides the fans of the musician Sunil Edirisinghe, covering almost every nook and corner of his musical career, some of which, perhaps, even his most ardent fans may not be aware of. The book takes its readers through the long process of how the older brother, the popular star in the galaxy of creative art circles of our time – Sathischandra Edirisinghe, offered the younger brother Sunil his very first musical assignment, to sing the ever glamorous “Sandakada Pahanaka” (In the Moonstone) for the cinematic creation “Matara Achchi”. That was in the year 1970, when Sunil started reading the alphabet of Indian Ragadhari Sangeeth episodes.
Pushkara Wanniarachchi, in a lucid analysis of the forty-year journey of Sunil Edirisinghe through music, narrates in his historic book, how after being ‘baptised’ to music in 1970, being a youth with wisdom and growing maturity, out of many options before him, Sunil Edirisinghe chose to follow the two great musicians, Ananda Samarakoon and Sunil Santha, and of course, later on Pandit Amaradeva, and treaded their path with unswerving dedication, to achieve what he is today, and what he lavishly exhibited at his ‘Sunila Vila’ concert, the other day.
The volume “Sunila Vila” pinpoints the unique and virtuous factors, Sunil has cautiously picked up from the character of those three great musicians of our country, which are – for instance, meaningfulness and the clarity of the messages embodied in the themes and the lyrical nature of the songs; simple, yet penetrating and absorbingly melodious music supporting his songs; and well controlled, absolutely composed and most pleasing tone of voice, with which to deliver his songs. In addition, how the author Pushkara has gone through the discovery of the initial sources, backgrounds and the vast deal of such other details in respect of each song, is amazing.
During a page-by-page in-depth study of Pushkara Wanniarachchi’s book, one would start deeply reflecting, what a fortunate singer Sunil Edirisinghe is! Why? He would, for sure, not have achieved all what he did, if Sunil did not have the right kind of geniuses to back him up.
To pen those lovingly perceptive and serenely descriptive words, as the beautiful lines of an everlasting song, a singer genuinely needs a lyricist of Kumaradasa Saputhanthri’s calibre, and Sapu was there for Sunil.
Then, to maximise the full potential of Sunil, and to harmonise his inner sensitivity with the heartbeat of his audiences, he needed none, but a heaven-sent composer to orchestrate the rhythm, in the form of a classic Rohana Weerasinghe, and one and only Rohana was there, as well, for Sunil. That sweet night, they all, indeed, were the blossomed lotuses in ‘Sunila Vila’ within Nelum Pokuna.
Back to the concert of the night, in the same cautious vein Sunil chose his path to trail blaze his music career, he had also carefully selected the line-up of songs for his fans enjoying ‘Sunila Vila’. He mesmerised his audience and took them to his own world of music, with nearly two dozens of songs, and those were the songs the audience had listened to, many times earlier. But the thunderous ovation they displayed at the end of each song, positively communicated to Sunil, that they were willing to listen to them over and over again. His choice of songs looked as if it was a typical family affair, for he sang for his beloved father and mother, dear wife and children, his teachers and friends, and even for his motherland, not forgetting the farmer in the field, and the workers who labour to live and love (the same girl). When he sang for the down-trodden men and women, in the city and the village, struggling for survival, and peeped into the innocent hearts of the children and the elderly, Sunil earned the respect of the audience with an absolute pin-drop silence, who a second later burst into an unending applause. That was Sunil Edirisinghe that night – the singer with a solemn human dignity.
Sunil delighted the audience by bringing in a parade of our most popular singers for his duets. First, it was much loved T.M. Jayaratne, followed by ever smiling Neela Wickremasinghe. Then there was the heavily adorned Deepika Priyadharshani. Apart from contributing with their amazingly talented singing, the most loving manner they projected their affection to Sunil, purely as a colleague in music, may still be hovering before the eyes of the appreciative audience.
Among many factors that added glory to the night, was the remarkable vocal interludes between songs, introduced by the super-dramatist Jayalath Manoratne, who also paid a glowing tribute to Pushkara Wanniarachchi for his efforts in compiling the “Sunila Vila” volume. Fondly known as Mano among his friends, and being a well read, well informed and well disciplined artiste that he is, his role, perfect with fun, frolic and abundance of humour, could be described only in superlatives. Much in semblance with his own stagecraft, he was enormously creative in the manner he mastered the language. In fact, it was a lively exposition, to prove what a rich language Sinhala can be, if used art- fully in making such presentations.
It was an evening with both song and dance. On the few occasions, the young and glamorous troupes of dancing maestro Chandana Wickremasinghe appeared on stage, they performed with pomp and pageantry, and innovation, probably energised by Sunil’s charming voice, Rohana’s multi-rhythmic orchestra and the inspiration from the admiring audience.
‘Sunila Vila’ proved in no uncertain terms, that there are large audiences still awaiting to patronise concerts with a truly national flavor and oriental identity. Such concerts will be the answer to poor quality so-called musical shows, that emerge here and there, every now and then. Our arena of music is adequately rich still, with resounding names that could not only entertain the matured music fans, but also could enliven the high values of our music with a cherished national identity, for many more decades. It is hoped that they will emulate ‘Sunila Vila’ with their own identity and creativity. Also, it must necessarily be emphasized, that it will be an enormous contribution to the world of oriental music, if our authors could produce more and more volumes of the calibre of the book “Sunila Vila” edited by Pushkara Wanniarachchi.