In the history of Sinhala
songs, we come across a little girl called Surangi. She is sad and starts to shed
tears. A drop of a tear runs to the river and flows to the sea. This teardrop finds
its way inside a pearl oyster and, after few years, it turns into a pearl. The
pearls are harvested and return to Surangi’s home in the form of a pair of
earrings. Seeing the earrings, Surangi is happy. So she smiles. Yet, her father
realizes that there will be a day when Surangi’s ears will be pierced; her ears
will be stuck with a needle. Little Surangi will be hurt. These thoughts make
the father sad.
This father is the
late veteran broadcaster, lyricist and television personality Premakeerthi de
Alwis and the daughter is Surangi de Alwis who was yet to get her ears pierced,
back in the 70s. “My ears weren’t even pierced when this song was written,
according to my mother. My mother says that he wrote this about me, I was too young
to remember,” she said. She added that Premakeerthi must have imagined the
forthcoming event in her daughter’s life.
Twenty five years
after his death, critics still appreciate his talent for songwriting. Veterans
still talk about his capabilities as a broadcaster and modern poets admire his
poems. Fine attempts to spotlight this late veteran lyricist, with the
help of his daughter Surangi and his comrade Dr. Victor Ratnayake.
Samaraweerage Don
Premakeerthi de Alwis was born on June 3, 1947 in Colombo. His father Simon de Alwis was a
railway employee and they lived in Maligakanda lane, Maradana. He had his
preliminary education at Maligakanda Maha Vidyalaya before joining Ananda College,
Colombo 10. In
1965, he became the editor of the school newspaper Anandaya. As a
student he participated in a radio program in 1961 conducted by the late
Karunaratne Abeysekera.
In 1966 he joined
the Visithura cinema magazine published by the Davasa group of companies
on an invitation by its Managing Director DB Dhanapala as a feature writer.
Concurrently he joined Radio Ceylon
as a freelance announcer on December 17, 1967. In June 1, 1971 he became a
permanent announcer at Radio Ceylon
and promoted to the rank of program producer. Apart from that he made a name
for himself between 1974 and 1977 as a lyricist and a renowned speaker. At the
time of his untimely death at the age of 42 he was attached to the news desk of
the SLBC.
The father-daughter
relationship is a strong bond. Yet Premakeerthi’s daughter, Surangi, who is
still heartbroken about her father’s untimely death, said that their
relationship was not as close as she wanted it to be. “My father and mother
were separated ever since I could remember. The physical relationship we had
was not more different from a guest who visited our home once in a while. He
comes, talks with us for a while and goes back,” she said. “Even today when I
see a father and daughter, cuddling and happy, I envy that I couldn’t feel it
in the same way,” she added. Yet, she said that his influence made a huge
impact shaping her life and he was close to her psychologically.
“There were few
favorite places my father used to take me. One such place was Galle Face. When
he took me to a place, we didn’t just sit and wait. He always had a story to
tell me about the place we visited. He told me about their history and related
stories in detail. Then he would take me back to my place and he would return
to his,” she recalled.
She also spoke
about the relationship between her mother and father. Sri Lankan culture
doesn’t support divorce and it tends to make the society believe that the
divorced couple should detest the ex-partner that they would tear each other if
they accidentally meet face to face. She said that the situation with her
parents was completely the opposite. “My parents were still good friends even
after the divorce. Before he remarried, I secretly wished that they would get
together again. Although it never happened, he was always a good friend to my
mother,” she recalled her lost hopes.
She reminisced how
her father attempted to plant the seeds of reading in her. When he visited them
at their home in Maharagama, he had brought her books. “He used to write
something in these books; a line or two. I didn’t understand most of it during
that time when I could hardly read,” she spoke about two such autographs
written on gifted books. One read, ‘Oba yuwathiyak wana dina maa pas godak
pamani. E pas goda paganna duwe’ (When you become a young girl, I will be
just a pile of dirt. Daughter, trample this pile of dirt. ) “I didn’t
understand what this meant by then. When I did understand, I started to wonder
whether he could see what’s going to happen. He might have sensed that,” she
said. “There was anther book he gifted me, a story about a kitten. He knew I
loved kittens so much that he bought me the book. There was a picture of a
kitten playing with a broom. Under this picture he has written, ‘Hithawathun
athuganna epa duwe,’ (Don’t sweep out your dear ones). As a child I thought
he was asking me not to hurt my kittens,” she recalled.
Surangi had been
16-years-old when her father was murdered. Recalling the dreadful day
Premakeerthi was murdered to mind, she said that she felt there was something
wrong with his nature although he came to visit her. Schools were closed during
this period and she had been home waiting for father’s visit. “He seemed to be
preoccupied. I felt that he was not in his right senses. But I didn’t know what
was going in his head,” she said that they all feared for death during this era
and she was aware that her father too had received life threatening letters.
“Most of the announcers at SLBC received death threats including my mother and
father. Once he came to our house with a letter and discussed it with mother,”
she exclaimed while adding that those letters didn’t seem to scare him and that
he continued to work. “He was certain that these threats were null, he believed
that if he was faced with such situation he would be able to talk it out and
clam them down.
On July 31, 1989
he was assassinated by an unknown group when he stepped out of his residence at
Katuwana road, Homagama. She reiterated that he was upset about something on
the day he was murdered. “Usually, he comes to our home in the vehicle. He has
to reverse out of the yard to get to the road and before he pulls the vehicle
on to the main road he would wave at me. But this day he didn’t. He just went.
I sensed something was wrong,” she stressed that he was absent minded. “My pet
dog was sick this day. He checked up on it also. He promised to bring medicine
the next day. But he never returned,” she said.
Dr. Victor
Ratnayake was the person who has brought them the message of Premakeerthi’s
death. Schools were closed because of riots and Surangi was still in bed when
Dr. Ratnayake came to their place with the news. “I heard my mother screaming.
And I knew. It was a damned period anyway. It didn’t even take a slip second to
realize why my mother screamed,” she said that the period after that until the
funeral is still not clear that she fails to recall what happened.
Looking back she
said that she is proud to be the daughter of such a personality, although she
lost him unfortunately. “People still respect his name and his contributions.
If someone gets to know that I am his daughter, people show gratitude. They
still love him,” she said. “He buildup his name through his work and I should
know how to protect this dignity,” she added.
Among
Premakeerthi’s creations, songs he wrote for Dr. Victor Ratnayake were highly
appreciated. Their companionship went beyond this professional relationship
that they were close friends in real life. Speaking about his long lost friend Dr.
Ratnayake said that Premakeerthi was a friend who was there through thick and
thin. “Friends like him are a rare gift and I was fortunate to have him as my
friend. He was a symbol of friendship,” Ratnayake said.
He explained that
Premakeerthi was a person with a sensitive heart and a mind, who knew the art
to speak to another person’s heart. “A person does not become a lyricist for
the sake of writing a few lines. Only a sensitive person will know how to
address another person’s heart. This is where Premakeerthi becomes important to
us, he was exceptionally good at this,” he pointed out.
Songs Premakeerthi had written during his
short life exceeds 1,400. His capabilities didn’t limit him in addressing a
particular age group. He wrote children’s songs as well as love songs and there
are unforgettable patriotic songs. Most importantly, he knew how to include
satire in songs. Songs like ‘Aluth kalawak soya gatta man, Handa mama udin
yathe, Nadayo, Kundumani, Pankiriththa, Theh kudaya pite bandan, Kollai- Balli
and Kakille Rajjuruwo are just a few examples. Although it is not widely
spoken, Premakeerthi was the person to introduce satire to the modern
Sinhala song.
Further to this,
his songs spoke about social issues. Songs like Miniseku pita nagi asaruweki,
Banen banda rajarata pedesinne, Sabanda api kandu nowemu, Uthuru kone nuba
hinahena, and Kundumani were among his attempts in identifying the
social issues. As his daughter mentioned, it is not clear whether he could see
the future because most of this songs address contemporary social issues. His
songs and poems based on human feelings will be valid until there are
relationships among people.
However, as
Ratnayake explained Premakeerthi based most of his songs on his personal
experiences. “He wrote about his experience. Yet, singing it I wonder whether
it was my experience he wrote about. Listeners felt as if it was their
experience,” he iterated adding that Premakeerthi was empathetic and knew how
to make other people walk in his shoes, thinking that those shoes are their
own. “The protagonist of his song, Sanda kan watila was himself. But when other
people listens to the song, they feel it as it was their own story,” he brought
out an example.
Furthermore,
Ratnayaka elucidated Premakeerthi’s capability of generalizing his personal
feelings. “Aadaraye ulpatha wu amma was written on a piece from a bus
ticket while he was upset about his mother who was admitted to the hospital for
an eye surgery,” he recalled. “This was the first song he wrote about mother’s
love. It still draws on the heartstrings of any child who loves his or her
mother,” he added.
He also pointed out
the reason why the new generation of lyricists lacks these qualities. “There is
no chance that we can compare his work with any of the new artistes. He was
well read, he knew his language and literature and he gathered experiences
whenever he could unlike today’s generations,” he continued. “He could write
about the beauty of a paddy field from his house in Maradana. I have visited
him at his house while he was a student at Ananda College.
I was surprised wondering how this person wrote about the beauty of the village
so perfectly living in an urban area,” he said. “I don’t know how he mastered
these talents. As a Buddhist, I can only think of the merits he gathered from
his past lives,” Ratnayake concluded.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete