By Kay - Pee

Remember the song “Olu pipeelā wéla léla dénawā......”?

Remember the man who made that an evergreen song ? Perhaps, even in far away Toronto or down under in Sidney, Sinhala families, and may be Sri Lankan Burgher families too, still sing that song when they get their spirits high and sentimental.  It was early 1950’s when that song hit our air waves over Radio Ceylon and the man who romanticised those lyrics with a simple, soft melody is no more. All his songs, “Suwanda rosa mal nélā ….”, “Ho palu wānayé….”, “Sénéhie nélawénné”, “Mihikatha nalawālā” and the rest had this very special soft and simple cooing touch in their melodies. And the lyrics had a very simple affectionate style too that wasn’t coarse in structure. All in all, his songs created a genre that was some what pop, that was simple and was very ‘Ceylonese’. But this man, Sunil Sāntha, was no simple ordinary man who could be pushed around easily and for anything.

Sunil Sāntha was born on new year’s day, 14th April, 1915 as Baddéliyanagé Don Joseph John to a very ordinary Catholic family in Dehiyagatha, Ja-éla, a coastal village about 25 kms North of Colombo. He lost his parents when he was just a toddler and was brought up by his grand parents. John first got his ears to music from his youngest uncle M.J.M. Perera who played the harmonium. He later learnt to play the Guitar and Piano Accordion. Getting more into the world of music he learnt Sinhala folk music and wannams from Urapola Banda Gurunnanse. He was a very intelligent pupil in school, took part in athletics and came first in the island at the School Leaving Certificate exam winning the Weeraratne award.  His formal education was there after closed and John started his carer as a teacher in the Mt. Calvary School, which ended after a short but a very illuminating service that brought the school many awards for song and music at competitions.    

In 1939, he left to India to pursue a career in music and first entered  the Shanthi nikathan. There after he joined Bhathkanda and completed his Sangeeth Visharadha to be one of the best music composers, a virtuoso Sitarist and a wonderful singer the youthful Ceylon would have after independence. And as Sunil Sāntha since his return in 1944. He was different too, from all other Sri Lankan musicians who either preceded him or became contemporaries to him at Shanthi nikathan or at Bhathkanda. Sunil Sāntha was after a new form of song and music quite original to us, based on folk music. Staying with Sooriyashankar Molligoda in Bambalapitiya he was influenced to find a music of our own.  An avid reader of Kumaratunge Munidasa and Raipial Tennakoon, he was also after a new lyrical form with Héla basa, the pure Sinhala dialect Kumaratunge Munidasa stood firm on. Studying in Shanthi Nikethan, he was no doubt influenced by the Tagore genre of music that’s Bengali in language and style, very much different to the Hindusthani music we are familiar with. He wrote a few books to substantiate his music philosophy. Among them are books like Héla Ridie Walawé and Salaru Gee Sara. Sunil Sāntha thus became a rival of all others who were then trying to mould our Sinhala music on their own learnings at Bhathkanda and Shanthi nikethan with Uthtara Bharatheeya raga dhari tradition as their point of departure or rather, their point of origin. 

But here was a man who had mastered these traditions and still refuses to accept them as the basis for our music. And at the then Radio Ceylon, which was the only radio station in the country and the only station where singers and musicians could perform to the people, Sunil Sāntha was being harassed for his dissenting music. The tussle to structure and programme the only radio station which was also State owned on classical Indian music, left Sunil Sāntha with his principles and the Sinhala music world without a genius in creative music. With Professor Rathanajankar invited to audition singers and grade musicians for the Radio Ceylon and there after to recommend improvements to music programming, Sunil Sāntha opted to leave the mainstream. He refused to have himself auditioned on the grounds that he would only present himself for any auditioning in front of some one who is more qualified than him. The Radio Ceylon hierarchy led by that very efficient and very honourable administrator M.J. Perera, nevertheless took the wrong decision to prohibit all artistes who were not auditioned by the Rathanajankar panel from performing or from being broadcast over its air waves. Quite different to his soft and simple mood creating sentimental songs, this man Sunil Sāntha was a towering 5 feet 11 inches tall and handsome, with a steel will in him. And he got back to his music classes at Kanuwana, Ja – ela and when that wasn’t enough income for a family of five, he was a photographer, a radio and electric equipment repairer and even a bi-cycle repairer. All that had dignity for Sunil Sāntha than bowing down to injustice and straying away from principles. A very rare and a valuable species he was, from that found today.   

Yet his creative talent, his versatility and his unique Ceylonese identity was not without demand. Lester James Peiris, after his return from London as a journalist and taking very seriously to cinema, with which medium he wanted to seek his own Ceylonese identity, found in Sunil Sāntha an ideal partner. The musical score in Lester’s “Rekhawa”, the path breaking Sinhala cinema in 1956 was proof of Sunil Sāntha’s rich musical genre that for sure lingers along with the ordinary soul too. Who wouldn’t hum “Olu – nelum neriya rāngalā…..” in reminiscent solitude or sing that beautiful lullaby “Seegiri lāndakage māl wattiye lā…..”, all through sub conscious rhapsody ? Success with Rekhawa made Lester James Peiris to once again commission Sunil Sāntha for his film “Sandeshaya”. And we still dance merrily to the tune of “Pruthugeesi-kārayā….” or “Rajina mamai, rajina mamai ape rājje”. 

It took 15 years for Sunil Sāntha to return to the air waves of Ceylon. That was when Radio Ceylon was turned into a State corporation as the Broadcasting Corporation of Ceylon in 1967 and its Director General cum Chairman, another strong administrator, Neville Jayaweera invited Sunil Sāntha to the studios of Radio Ceylon, now with the new corporation. And he wasn’t any less with the vigour and creativity of the Sunil Sāntha he was in the early fifties. He spent time experimenting with folk traditions and subtle nuances in musical arrangements composing melodies like those in “Embā gangā”. 
      
His life was one of principled, uncompromising discipline. His life was one of sacrifice for the type of music he composed to songs that were written in a simple language without heavy Sanskrit words and had short notes that never required compressing. They therefore were phonetically easy to the tongue and kept lilting melodiously all through these decades across many generations, in all parties, whether sung by the old or the young. And in most parties, when the glitter of the vibrant young and the ‘still feeling young’ mood dies down, its Sunil Sāntha’s songs that take over even in these modern days. Here or in the diaspora if they are Sri Lankan. Few parties would wind off without a Sunil Sāntha song. And often “Olu pipeelā” is the crowning glory of most evenings and in most hearts. 

Sunil Sāntha was laid to rest in peace on 13th April 1981, at the Dehiyagatha cemetry after his demise on 11th April.

And sweet angels would have sung in serenade,
“Sénéhie nélawénné – magé sudu olu malé”
(Feel contented with a smile – my white water lily)

photograph of his son taken by Sunil Santha, titled “Making a Genius” which won 1st prize at a competition in 1960.