Nilar celebrates silver jubilee as lyricist
Award winning lyricist and writer who used his pen to create a bridge between the Tamil and Sinahala community and promote racial harmony, Nilar N. Cassim celebrates 25 years in his creative journey as a song writer.
Celebrating silver jubilee in his career, Nilar will release a flash drive title ‘Sarasa Wasantha’ with 100 songs penned by him at 5.30 pm on September 7 at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo. This is the first time in the Sri Lankan music industry a flash drive containing songs is released to the public. The flash drive with a high quality format will be in read-only format and songs could not be erased or rewrite.
In addition to the flash drive, Nilar will release four CDs with songs penned by him.
Chief Guest at the ceremony will be President Maithripala Sirisena and Prof. J. B. Dissanayake, journalist Saman Athaudahetty and musician Nadeeka Guruge will talk about Nilar’s writing and his usage of language.
The evening at the open air ground at Sri Lanka Foundation will be coloured by an evening of music with songs written by Nilar. The vocal renditions will be by renowned artistes Amarasiri Peiris, Rukantha Gunatillake, Edward Jayakody, Nirosha Virajnini, Uresha Ravihari, Chandralekha Perera, Samantha Perera, Indika Upamali, Kasun Kalhara, Bathiya and Santhush, Umariya, Ruwan Hettiarachchi, Hemanthi Ranasinghe and Theekshana Anuradha and music direction is by Rohana Weerasinghe.
The evening is open for all the fans of Nilar and it is organised by Sri Jayawardenapura University Alumni Association and ‘Theerthaya team’, an organisation formed by art lovers.
Nilar started his career as a lyricist with the song ‘Samanalun Rodak Nil Goayamata’ sung by the late Malani Bulathsinghala in early 1990s and so far he has penned around 600 songs. They include playback songs for films and teledramas and a number of them nominated for awards. Over the years Nilar has won awards at Presidential, Sumathi and various other Award ceremonies and in 2007 he was awarded the prestigious Bunka Award offered by Japanese government for his service to Sri Lankan music.
Nilar has authored 15 books including song books and a translation of Tamil poetry books to Sinhala.
Nilar was bridge between the Tamil and the Sinahala literature and music. ‘I feel great about whatever I have done to unite people in this country and to promote reconciliation’ Nilar said speaking to the TV Times. A number of his songs have proved his mission.
He penned a Sinhala and Tamil bilingual song and it was sung by world renowned Indian singer K. Hariharan (Yaal Paname Pipichcha pichcha mal) and he has penned the only Sinhala song ‘Dedunna Sedi’ sung by a reputed Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle.
Studied at Matara Rahula College and entered Jayawardenapura University, Nilar obtained Sinhala special BA degree and Masters degree in Sinhala language from Kelaniya university, the only Muslim national to reach such a feat. At present Nilar works as a Deputy Director public and media at Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.
