Arts

Fusion of tradition and modernity

Pradeepanjalee XI :

by Ranga Chandrarathne

The eleventh concert of the Pradeepanjalee series, which closely follows the spectacular success of the 10th Anniversary concert, will be held at Bishop's College Auditorium on March 27 at 7 p.m. under the distinguished patronage of the United States - Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission.

The Chief Guest for the evening will be the Ambassador for the United States in Sri Lanka, His Excellency Robert Blake.

Pradeep Ratnayake's website, designed by the University Of Colombo School Of Computing and sponsored by Sri Lanka Telecom will also be launched on this day.

It is particularly opportune for Sri Lanka Telecom to be associated with a musician who is engaged in an effort to take Sri Lankan music to the world and creating communication links between cultures through his music.

Also, Ratnayake's latest CD, Visva, produced by Neloufer Pieris, containing the music he played in concerts in the USA in his successful tour in 2005, in venues like the Asia Society in New York and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Washington D.C., will also be released in Sri Lanka on the 27th.

The music lovers would get the chance to hear the Pradeep's enthralling music with his talented troupe ; Harsha Makalanda on the piano, Wijeratne Ranatunge and Chandralal Amarakoon on Tabla, Ravibandu Vidyapati and Karunaratne Bandara on percussion, Dushyanti Perera on cello, Lakshman Joseph de Saram on violin, Alston Joachim on bass guitar and Shiraz Noor Amith on Western Drums.

The concert includes "Kuveni", "A Wine-coloured Moon" on sitar, piano, bass guitar and western drums; "Ukusa Vannama" on sitar, bass guitar and percussion; and "Wind' on sitar, piano, and Indian percussion, which will showcase the innovative and extra ordinary fusion that Ratnayake is well known for in his compositions.

As a tribute to the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Pradeep will play "East Meets West" the composition Shankar played with the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, with Lakshman Joseph de Saram.

Pradeepanjalee XI will be groundbreaking in the sense that it will feature Pradeep Ratnayake's compositions without him being on stage with his sitar in three items, where the Fulbright scholars will take over.

"Romance" will be played by Katherine Hoffman on recorder, Philip Friedrich on guitar and Kamalini Samarakoon on piano; a dancer in the Kandyan tradition, Rukshana Nanayakkara, and Bharata Natyam dancer Ahalya Satkunaratnam will dance to music previously recorded for them.

A lesser known side of the musician, Pradeep as a film music director, will thus be showcased, for the music will be that adapted from various film scores he has done.

Pradeepanjalee XI will poise to be a memorable evening of music, full of wonder with uplifting and exhilaration that is synonymous with Pradeep.

As Tissa Abeysekera, at a recent press conference, mentioned Pradeep as the most exciting musician to have come out of Sri Lanka in the last three decades. The concert on the 27th should reaffirm it again.

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Digital Cinema introduced to Lankan film industry

by Ranga Chandrarathne

The Sri Lankan film industry would take a giant stride towards revolutionising its rather snail exhibition and distribution network with the possible change over to Digital Cinema (DC) enabling producers to multiple release of films and reach out to mass audiences with absolutely no extra-cost.

With the change over, the cost of production and the distribution through the conventional film distribution network which is heavily dependant on expensive print copies would drastically reduced preventing piracy.

Digital Cinema (DC) is a comprehensive movie exhibition and distribution system from digital capture, digital delivery and to the digital projection which would enable multiple - premiers to be launched not only within the country without absolutely no extra-cost but also overseas on the same day.

"A producer must be able to recover his production cost in two weeks with the widest possible multiple release. The possibility of first day, first show release to a maximum audience in one -go with no extra print is possible under the system.

The system is cost-effective, and the quality of the digital projector is outstanding." said Chandran Rutnam, Managing Director of the GFM Holdings (Pvt) Ltd at the launch of the Digital Cinema in Sri Lanka.

As the DC is a completely IT driven revenue distribution system, it will monitor and direct the revenue to the producer, distributor and exhibitor faster and accurately. Digital Cinema is a combination of digital capture, digital delivery and projection.

It uses digital media (Hard Disk or Satellite transmission) instead of conventional analogue media (Prints) to record, transmit and replay images. DC also uses digital video projectors offering flexibility and replaying images. UFO India Limited which is a subsidiary of Apollo International, offers Digital Cinema.

Ranga Tharanga at Bishop's College

An evening of traditional and contemporary dance and drumming Ranga Tharanga, a concert by Ravibandu Samanthi Ensemble with the award wining Mahamaya Dance Troupe will be held at 7.00 p.m. at Bishops' College Auditorium on March 23.

The proceeds of the concert organised by the O.G.A Colombo Branch of the Mahamaya Girls' College Kandy, will go to the Lt.Gen.Denzil Kobbekaduwa Trust and the Mahamaya College Dance Troupe. Ravibandu Vidyapathi hailing from a lineage of artistes, combines brilliant classical dancing and mastery of percussion instruments peerless in the Sri Lankan music scene.

The Mahamaya Dance Troupe has a unique tradition of excellence in preserving kandyan and Sri Lankan dance forms and is a much sought after troupe in the hill country.

(R.C.)

Launch of Nova Peraniya Lipi Saraniya

Nova Peraniya Lipi Saraniya (Writings that do not age) containing a series of articles written by A.D. Ranjith Kumara will be launched at 4.00 p.m. on March 20 at the Great Wall Restaurant, Sumathi Court in Bambalapitiya.

The book contains articles about unusual incidents in the field of literature, the arts and pen-sketches of literary luminaries of the earlier generation and their views and opinions.

The book contains interesting sketches on the search for real-life Dhammi in Golu Hadawatha, J.R. acting in a radio drama, the first three books banned in Sri Lanka, books read by VVIP, Mahagama Sekara who was seeking to write songs for singers like Jothipala, MS and Milton etc. The book is a compilation of 26 interesting articles.

The launch will be presided over by Senior Journalist Siri Ranasinghe, Chief Editor of Lankadeepa. Among the speakers will be Professor J.B. Dissanayake, Professor Carlo Fonseka and Sundara Nihatamani de Mel, Chief Editor of the Sunday edition of Lakbima and Ravindra Randeniya, the veteran film actor.

The launch will be compered by Bandara Eheliyagoda, the veteran lyricist. Nova Peraniya Lipi Saraniya (Writings that do not age) is a Nugegoda Sarasavi Publication.