by

Capt Elmo Jayawardena

Jagath Chamila

The show was a class act, organized by the 19-year old Moratuwa Arts Forum. I sat and watched the passed years come alive when they all strutted on stage – the old, the young and the new and took the audience back on ‘Memory Lane.’ Who sang? Man! They were all there, one song each as the performers’ list was so long. Don’t forget this is Moratuwa, out here they jump out of the cradle strumming guitars and dancing the Baila. I have never heard of a town anywhere in the world having an Arts Forum of this sort and a website too. Whoever the ‘live wires’ are behind the Arts Forum, they’ve moulded musicians together from 18 hamlets and done something fantastic in ‘show-casing’ them, promoting art and music in an entire town.

Jagath Chamila was the Chief Guest. We all know he sky-rocketed from Moratumulla to the Big Apple as Sammy in the silver screen. Biscuits and tea at Temple Trees and gifted houses and Jagath became an instant celebrity lauded by all. But out here he was among the ‘people next door.’ The best actor in New York got on the ‘Pun Sanda Paya’ stage and sang. He was a national hero and a common ‘home town man’ rolled into one and that song and performance he gave certainly was not acting, but came from the depth of his very Moratuwa heart.

I will fill the page if I were to mention all who came on stage. Forgive me, let me just light the lines with a few, just to add colour and ask forgiveness from those not named. Pink and Purple, Golden Chimes and a host of other bands were mentioned; they were the doors that opened for the young talent to blossom. Of course the musicians often high-jumped and long-jumped to play in different bands. A bit of a ‘gas maaru, pethi choru’ act. Wonder where they learnt that? Let me go no further on this jumping sides business. Instead, let me roll in the stars, Lankika and Chanaka, Lincoln, Hemaka, Rukshan, Saman, Nihal Nelson, Merril of Amigo Romanticas they were all there. Don Guy gave a superlative performance imitating a King Dutugemunu descendant in dark glasses and danced a Baila with Lakma. It was fantastic, the real Moratuwa gyrations that you seldom see anywhere else, ultra super rendition of Baila at its comical best. Tennyson Cooray made everyone laugh with his very special kind of humour; it is his patent originating from the back streets of Villorawatte. What a performance!

Among the young, Sureshni and Viranjan, Devshan and Michelle were excellent and the dancing that accompanied the singing was lithe, perfect and flamboyant, ‘tripping the light fantastic toe’ in an array of colourful attire. There was a harmonica specialist, I do not know his name, a local Bob Dylan sans the guitar and song, and what the Moratuwa mouth-organ man blew between his lips was simply haunting. The final was Punsanda Paya Moratuwa Dillenna, the immortal song of Moratuwa and the founding song of a Baila bajaw, the entire audience sang led by the latest Kadalana Baila man Anton Silva.

‘The Spirit’ with Lucky did the backing to all the artistes. There was a very unusual and entertaining duo doing the announcing depicting a film shoot. Sankalpa and Chinthana did great with the mikes, adding subtle humour that had the audience rolling with laughter.

What was so beautiful was the line of stellar performers of yesteryear still giving a go at it and entertaining us with songs we’ve heard them sing before. Yes, the hair was dyed, and the hats covered balding scalps, but they were the same great entertainers who knew what the music business was all about. And the ladies, sure they had lost the Venus-waists but the hip-swinging and the light-stepping was all there, to the beat and in perfection, and the gathering, yes we clapped and whistled, laughed and cheered and were totally mesmerized by the show of it all.

Moratuwa always had music, common as the furniture they made and the talent has always been there in abundance. There is a particular shuffle to the Baila they dance in Moratuwa. It is not something they learn, more like what they are born with, you have to be there to know what I am talking about. Given a tot or two, they come alive, and the Baila is simply magical. That’s what everyone who came on stage did, the Moratuwa swing and shuffle common to all from the one who sawed timber in a span cloth to the first citizen mayor. Can include Airline Captains too, yes I’ve been there from the time I saw light in this planet and reveled at Moratuwa Baila.

“Morottan suttang gnanan athi samudaran

Moratuwe kollo raththran, kollange kello istharan”

If you know what it means – great, if not, ask somebody, the statement in most ways is very true. It is a great Baila they sing in my home town, still remembered and is being passed on to the coming generations of Moratuwites.

When the show was over, it was a matter of meeting people from the past and sharing camaraderie that had lasted life times. More than anything else it was a sense of belonging to a place one calls home. Almost all present were people who had been born south of the ‘Golu Madama’ and lived in the peninsula between the sea and the Bolgoda Lake extending to the river mouth of Modara, 18 little hamlets that housed denizens who loved cricket, sang old songs and got pissed out of their senses on celebrations. And they have the Arts Forum who once a year collect all the performers to walk on stage and bring back the past glory years and make international vagabonds like me to realize how blessed we are to call someplace home and revive the ‘old home town’ feeling, no matter where we have roamed.

Moratuwa Arts Forum, my congratulations to you on a fantastic show. You made me proud that I am a speck of a cog in what you do and make me grateful to know where I belong. Thank you.