Akke akkeara balannako is one of Ananda Samarakoon’s most popular songs of yesteryear. Sung as a duet, it is a dialogue between a brother and sister who notice dark clouds with the threat of an oncoming shower. They discuss how they must hurriedly get everything sorted before the rain.

Nanda Malini and Rohana Weerasinghe

Nanda Malini and Rohana Weerasinghe gave life to the duet the other day at the ‘Gee Yaatra’ – Nanda Malini’s solo performance at the BMICH. She was paying tribute to the great singer, whom Rohana described as one of the pioneers in moulding Sinhala music on the right path. Sunil Shantha was another name he mentioned. He valued the simple words used by Samarakoon (he himself wrote the lyrics) making the songs meaningful and easy to remember.

Dressed in white as usual, Nanda Malini looked quite fresh though she had flown back after a hectic tour in Australia only a day or two earlier after holding concerts in three cities.

The BMICH show was for a worthy cause – to help fellow artistes. It was the annual show organised by the Outstanding Songs Creators Association (OSCA) towards swelling the welfare fund for needy artistes, particularly to meet medical costs. Jayantha Dharmadasa, Chairman of OSCA from its inception a decade ago was all praise for Nanda Malini and members of the orchestra for voluntarily coming forward to perform that evening. The ‘rasikas’ in turn responded marvellously for her to perform before a packed refurbished BMICH.

As happened the previous week, Nanda Malini preferred to use her voice only as the main attraction. There were no accompanying dancers thereby letting the audience to concentrate on the singing and enjoy the show. “Rohana and I decided to make it as informal as possible. There is no fixed agenda as such – there is no pre-determined list of songs – there is no presenter,” she announced at the start. Rohana and the orchestra were ready for a two-hour performance and it was just high class. To hear Nanda Malini at the BMICH “hot hot”, as they say after the reopening, was a fine experience.

Nanda Malini took us down memory lane with a good selection of songs over several decades. Some of them she had sung in the early years. Though she did not sing the first, ‘Galana ganga kijeevithe’ , she paid a glowing tribute to Pandit Amaradeva for paving the way for her. (Amaradeva was naturally elated as could be seen by his response when he walked up at the curtain call and embraced her as she bent down and worshipped him).

She sang a mix of film and other songs written by a host of lyric writers. Melodies too were by several musicians though most of them were by Rohana W.

The audience showed they had their own favourites. The response for ‘Rattaranduve’ (words by Dr Carlo Fonseka) indicated it was one on top of the list. She rendered ‘Ammavarune’ (words by late Dharmasiri Gamage – music by Premasiri Khemadasa) from the film ‘Yasa Isuru’ with deep emotion and feeling. She took us back to the days of accomplished dramatist Dayananda Gunawardena singing ‘Malakin malaka gos peni bondada’ (Somadasa Elvitigala’s music) in’Bak mahadeege’. Both Gunawardena (he wrote the lyrics too) and Elvitigala are no more. 

Just as much as the show was of a high standard, so was the souvenir – a neat job conceptualised and designed by Wijayabandara , one of the few creative artistes among us who insists in achieving the best. The souvenir, in fact, is a pictorial essay of Nanda Malini with a whole set of brand new photographs adorning the pages. Sarath Perera – the professional, who is deeply committed to his work, had taken great pains to ‘catch’ her in the right mood at the right locations. It is a keepsake worth preserving.

Just as much as I said last week that the opening musical performance at the ‘new look’ BMICH was a nostalgic musical journey, so was this. The lady in white has once again proved that she is yet the BEST.