A Tribute to Pandith Amaradeva

                       

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Our Country’s Gift to the world of Music

Lester James Peries

He would sit quietly in a corner watching you and listening to you with intense concentration. You as the Director would discuss the story of your film, expatiate on its theme and characters, give indications of where you felt music would help most. There he would sit with a gentle smile on his face, the flicker of irony lighting up the eyes, but the gaze would be focussed somewhere slightly off you - as though he was looking at something else, wrapped up in his own private dream, concentrating on an inner vision to which you had no access, hearing melodies and patterns of sound which he was, at least for the moment, unwilling to share. This is my favourite snap shot of AMARADEVA, the picture that always comes to mind, whenever I think of our collaboration.

I first tried to contact him after "REKAVA." Sunil Santha had written the Songs but indicated that ALBERT PERERA, as he was then known, would be the best choice for the Composer of the background music. A meeting was arranged, terms discussed and the maestro vanished to India. It was nearly 8 years later that we were to meet again. The film was GAMPERALIYA and I bad pretty well made up my mind, that the elusive maestro would not escape me the second time.

Now that he has worked on four films for me, I can in all sincerity say that our collaboration has been among the happier experiences in an industry where fractured relationships, smouldering animosities, imaginary conflicts are so common - You could work with other musicians and he would not construe this as a gross personal betrayal.

Different films needed different talents, and he was big enough to accept the premise. This is one of the most endearing traits of AMARADEVA - his great, unflappable, unruffled, equanimity, serene almost to a point where you begin to wonder whether he quite belongs to our other more mundane world of petty squabbles over fees, contracts, deadlines, recording schedules etc. True, an occasional detractor will say - but he is disorganised, impractical, unpunctual, a dreamer. But of course he is all these things. It is a part of his make-up, part of the serenity of his character. It would not be AMARADEVA, the maestro, if he worked like a computer. We have found him endearing, despite his little foibles, indeed because of them.

So much for the Man. What of the Musician ? I am no expert - but a friend of mine who is among the leading authorities on music in this country and whose opinion I respect is pretty certain the score for "KARADIYA" - the Chitrasena ballet is the greatest score ever written in this country. For me, with an amateur's abiding passion for Western and Eastern music, he is as a Singer and Writer of Songs, our country's gift to the world of international music; and for me his voice is the greatest musical instrument we have in this country. I would much rather have his voice on my films, than half a dozen "virtuoso players" from our orchestras

His Music, at its best, for its supreme artistry and sensitivity is unsurpassed and his Songs, in their gentle reverberations evoke the memories of our beautiful land, of our people, of our Musical folk heritage as few songs have been able to do.

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Last Update: May 25, 2000