A Musical Revival in Lankan cinema
The soundtrack of successfully running musical movie ‘Ho Gana Pokuna’ was released last week at the Aesthetic University, Colombo.
Music directed by young musician Dinesh Subasinghe, the Compact Disc (CD) is the first cinematic piece of musical work since Master Premasiri Khemadasa’s ‘Goluhadawatha’ and ‘Thunweni Yamaya’.
The film now being screened in theatres around the country is directed by Indika Ferdinando and was produced by Kusumsiri Liyanarachi,Yashodhara Sarath Chandra, Bimal Fernando and Sunil T. Fernando.
The CD comprises three songs and 16 pieces of enthralling music created by Dinesh for the movie. It is a mixture of many musical genres from the western and Sri Lankan folk, drama and pop music.
Dinesh who has an international exposure in music and even trained under Oscar awarded musician A. R. Rahuman has used a variety of musical instruments including western, eastern, traditional and new.
Dinesh Subasinghe
Some of them include tin whistle, violin, Indian flute and unique folk piano patterns. In addition he also has used lots of fairy voices of children and the CD is produced under M Entertainment label.
The majority of the music pieces are chamber and folk musical works while others are orchestral works rooted in Western classical music. However many musical pieces are Independent and are associated with a wide range of ethnic and Sri Lankan folk music.
Playback vocal renditions are done by Dewmini Fernando, Thrishala Wijethunga, Dinith Ridhmika, Banuka Senevirathna and Nizam Niazara while music recorded by Rajeewa Jayawickrama, mixed and mastered by Shashika Ruwan Marasinghe in Chennai.
“It was a rare moment in Sri Lankan cinema as we were able to revive the tradition of releasing musical tracks and songs of films, a tradition that was there before the 1990s,” said Dinesh speaking about the great moment.
‘I also have to mention the great cinematic sense and the versatility of director Ferdinando who has opened up my skills and given me an opportunity to reveal some of my hidden talents for this movie,’ Dinesh said with gratitude.
“One other reason why the music in ‘Ho Gana Pokuna; became hits was that there was no egoism in this music. It was not Dinesh Subasinghe’s or Indika Ferdinando’s.
I sometime humbly compromised with his requests and our main concern was to have a genuine and honest attempt to stir the innocent emotions of children.
Dinesh’s score has been admired by the Hanoi film jury in China and Chicago Journalists.
‘I am also thankful to musicians in Sri Lanka and in India KM Conservatory and producers in this movie who have given a great value to this movie by producing the sound track’ he said.
Dinesh won the Best film song award at the Derana Lux Film awards. The song composed to the lyrics of Nandasiri Gamage was sung by Uresha Ravihari. Dinesh was also nominated for the Best music award but won by Gayathri Khemadasa for her musical score for ‘Wariga Pojja’.
While congratulating Gayathri, Dinesh said that he was glad that the daughter of maestro Premasiri Khemadasa won it as it was her father who paved the way for her to rise up in music while she was playing in his orchestras.
