They continue to steal the show
View(s):Kala Korner by Dee Cee
Veterans Pandit Amaradeva and Nanda Malini continue their popularity as the country’s leading singers. Once again they won the People’s Award for the Best Male and Female Singer at the SLIM Nielsen People’s Award last month.
Many may wonder how and why these two are being chosen year after year for the Award. (If I remember right, since the SLIM Nielsen Awards started, only once was Amaradeva replaced by another – he was second that year). It is simply that these two are still acknowledged as the best in the country. Though they don’t appear in public performances or at their own shows as they used to do some years back, yet they are seen and their voices constantly heard over the electronic media. Their numbers are never stale. Their voices cannot be easily matched. Their songs are still meaningful.
According to the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the People’s Awards are presented based on a sample survey conducted by The Nielsen Company encompassing a sample of 5,050, equally split between males and females, and between the ages of 16-65 years living in both urban and rural areas. The survey is done over five consecutive months, with a random sample of 1,010 per month conducted through face to face interviews at an all island level.
Ever since the duo – Amaradeva and Nanda Malini – started winning awards 50 years ago, the flow has been steady. At the inaugural Sarasaviya Film Awards in 1964, Amaradeva won the award for the Best Music Director in ‘Gamperaliya’. Nanda Malini became the Best Playback Singer (Female) for the song ‘Galana gangaki jeevithe’ in ‘Ranmuthuduwa’. That was the first song she sang in a film and the music director was Amaradeva. Incidentally, Narada Disasekera who sang the song with Nanda Malini became the Best Male Playback Singer and Sri Chandraratne Manwasinghe bagged the award for the Best Lyric Writer. Possibly Amaradeva would have won the award for best music director if not for his classic score in ‘Gamperaliya’ where there wasn’t a single song.
Over the five decades, both have won innumerable awards too many to list here. Pandit Amaradeva’s list includes the Ramon Magsasay Award (2001), India’s ‘Padma Shri’ (2002), ‘Kala Keerthi’ (1986) and ‘Deshamanya’ (1998). In 2003 the French government awarded him the prestigious honour; ‘Chevalier’. It’s rarely that Nanda Malini did not win either a Presidential Award or a Sarasaviya Award whenever she did playback singing for films.
In 1971 Nanda Malini joined Amaradeva in the ‘Srawana Aradhana’ musical concert. In 1973 she started her first solo concert which she continued until 1979. ‘Sathyaye Geethaya’ and ‘Pavana’ were two other solo concerts she had between 1981–87. After a break of over twenty years, she starred in ‘Shwetha Rathriya’ in collaboration with Sirasa FM which concluded recently.
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