The night that belonged to Ivor Dennis
While channel-surfing when commercials were being aired during a cricket match on TV, I spotted one of my favourite singers - Ivor Dennis. The recently opened Siyatha TV channel was featuring him in a musical programme. What a treat it turned out to be.
In musical programmes where a single person is featured, a chit chat with that person in between the singing is nothing new. The difference here was that the presenter got Ivor to talk about the two masters with whom he was closely associated - Sunil Shantha and Premasiri Khemadasa.
Ivor is Sunil Shantha's 'golaya'. Today, listening to Ivor is like listening to Sunil Shantha. Just like the master, he too prefers not to be in the limelight or seek publicity. He does what he knows best --perform as a musician.
Ever since the well-known musician Patrick Denipitiya took Ivor to meet Sunil Shantha (that was 57 years ago), Ivor stayed put with the master. "In an amateur programme over the radio, I had sung a Sunil Shantha number. It was 'Varen heen sere ridi valaave'. He had heard it and wanted to meet me. Patrick Denipitiya told the master he knew me. He was requested to bring me along. That was how I met him," Ivor reminisced.
The loyal pupil he was, Ivor never deserted him even when times were pretty hard for the 'guru'.
Ivor was in every single chorus that Sunil Shantha had. He remembered many others - Victor Ratnayake, Narada Disasekera, Rohitha Wijesuriya, Amitha Wedisinghe, Nalini Ranasinghe among them.
Sunil Shantha once sang a song with just a solitary instrumentalist - the 'udekki' player. In this context Ivor related an interesting story. "Sunil Shantha had come for a recording at the SLBC. The members in the orchestra had not arrived at the stipulated time. One or two trickled in and when they found the others missing, they went out for a cup of tea. Another one would turn up and when he found that others were not there, he too would go out for a cuppa. So it continued. Sunil waited for quite a while and realized there was only a single instrumentalist. He looked around and said, 'let's begin'. "
Ivor demonstrated how innovative he was by singing that song on the programme. The song was the popular one based on the popular poem 'Tikiri tikiri tikiri liya'.
Ivor also treasures his association with maestro Khemadasa. He enjoyed the challenging chorus singing he did for Khemadasa's films, dramas and operas. A colleague, T.M. Jayaratne (they were both music teachers) introduced Ivor to Khemadasa and instantly he found Ivor to be an asset.
From Ranjit Dharmakeerthi's drama 'Angaara ganga gala basi' to Dharmasena Pathiraja's film 'Ahas Gavuwa' (the much talked about song 'Udumbara') Ivor demonstrated the master's brilliance.
Now in his mid-70s, the quality of Ivor's voice has not changed. It is still the same as I remember it many decades ago. And Ivor remains the same simple, shy, quiet-spoken individual.
In the limelight again
Collecting awards seems to be her pastime! Once again Malani Fonseka has been acclaimed as best actress, this time at the Seventh Levante International Film Festival at Bari in Italy - for her inspired performance in Prasanna Vithanage's 'Akasa Kusum', which had a successful run for many weeks in local cinemas recently.
Earlier, she won the Special Jury Award and the Silver Peacock at the Goa International Film Festival for 'Akasa Kusum'. More seem to be in the pipeline with Malani being nominated for the best actress award at the Asia Pacific International Film Festival in Queensland.
It has been a long journey for Malani since her entry into the cinema world in the late 1960s. She was the first Sri Lankan actress to win an international award. That was for her role in 'Eya den loku lamayek' at the Moscow Festival. She also won recognition at a Delhi Festival for her acting in 'Siripala saha Ranmenika'. Of her immense talent, Dr. Lester James Pieris once wrote:
"To play the old hag, to look plain, unattractive, if the character demanded it was never a problem for her. In terms of sheer range from the 'singing-dancing' heroine of the formula film to Ranmenike, Podi Menike and the remarkable characters in Dharmasena Pathiraja's films, driven by narrative complexities and social and political imperatives of 'new cinema', she has never faltered."
That was in 2003. She has had many more milestones after that. |
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