Also known as “The Godfather of Baila” in Sri Lanka, or Ceylon, at the time I was first privileged to meet him in the famous Suburb of Moratuwa, was Ollington Mervin Bastiansz, aka Wally Bastiansz (1913-1985). As I remember it, Wally was a Police Sargeant, a young-looking 33 (with an old guitar), and me, myself,a much younger”wannabe”entertainer, around 10 ...
I first saw him on television. I didn’t really know him at the time. That was a time when knowing a person meant appreciating everything and anything he stood for. Sanath Gunathilake, however, impressed me. He impressed me while depicting a character I thought no film could ever do justice to. Why? It was Gunathilake, more than any other ...
(A tribute to Titus Thotawatte) When Steve Jobs of Apple died a few weeks ago there was an over-pouring of grief. The newspapers were full of the man, his work, his vision and his humanity. A young friend of mine was perturbed by the fact that Sri Lanka had, going by the amount of coverage, lamented the passing of ...
එම් කේ රොක්සාමි තැනූ – වැයූ අම මී ගි බිඳු – 03 වන කොටස සිත් පහන් කර නිවා සනසාලන සත්සර රටාවෙන් අවස්ථානුකූලව මිදී යොවුන් සමනල් වියේ ජවය කුඵ ගැන්වෙන රංගන ලතාව පොබයූ සංගීත රිද්මයට අවතිර්ණ වන්නට ඔහු අපුරු සමත්කමක් දැක්විය. You’re my one and only one …………. I’m your ever loving one ………….. Your are my one and only ...
He was certainly one of the very best Singer/ Songwriters that Sri Lanka was proud to call their own. Clarence Wijewardena wrote many songs, most of them, at the request of friends who, in turn, had friends wishing to record a “Clarence-song”. This writer was already in Australia, when Clarence wrote a song entitled “Dilhani”, dedicated to the baby- ...
He was certainly one of the very best Singer/ Songwriters that Sri Lanka was proud to call their own. Clarence Wijewardena wrote many songs, most of them, at the request of friends who, in turn, had friends wishing to record a “Clarence-song”. This writer was already in Australia, when Clarence wrote a song entitled “Dilhani”, dedicated to the baby- ...
He wasn’t large in stature, but he would stand there in the centre of his musical group known as the “La Ceylonians”, over-large straw hat on his head, simple open-necked shirt, with the inevitable sarong, generally worn by most Sri Lankans and barefoot, clutching either an acoustic guitar or a banjo-mandolin and singing songs, many of which he wrote ...
Some days are special. They celebrate life. They record milestones. They ensure that we do not forget. Not all are special and not all record history, but they tend to be special nevertheless. Sure, we sometimes forget why, but just for once, if we can concentrate on the particularities of a date, we will find that there are more ...
Some days are special. They celebrate life. They record milestones. They ensure that we do not forget. Not all are special and not all record history, but they tend to be special nevertheless. Sure, we sometimes forget why, but just for once, if we can concentrate on the particularities of a date, we will find that there are more ...
Music is, at least after the cinema, the most collaborative of all art-forms. Songs in particular require collaboration, to the extent that authorship is impossible to ascribe. On the other hand, however, this does not and will not deny the individual artiste a personal signature. Talent can’t be collectivised, this much we should know. That is why there are ...
The seventies and eighties clearly were tumultuous decades for our cinema. Most commentators, in their rush to inject political relevance to our cultural history, tend to see in them the flowering of a political cinema. True. That does not, however, belittle the other precedents, landmarks, and revolutions which our directors, actors, and scriptwriters wrought. It was in the seventies, ...
Not too many years ago, before I found a job, I was involved with tracking down, calling, and interviewing veterans from various cultural fields who had contributed something substantive to Sri Lanka. I would summarise their lives and work and try to fit those into the (horrendously meagre) space of a 1,500 or 2,500 word article (which would sometimes ...
