Lahiru back with Ratakaju
by Thulasi Muttulingam
  Remember Lahiru Perera of
Rambari fame? He’s back with another toe tapping number now: Rathu
Ratakaju.
Lahiru’s latest DVD was released amidst much fanfare aboard the
Jetliner, the Sri Lankan Navy’s famous entertainment cruiser on June 17.
As with Rambari, the video was shot by Aryans Films and the music was by
Music Oven - the powerful music composing combination of Lahiru plus the
Daddy band.
Fans who liked Rambari are sure to like Rathu Ratakaju too. It has
the same characteristics of a catchy tune and upbeat, rhyming lyrics
(though they are rather meaningless - taken in a sequence).
The lyricist Manuranga Wijesekera has written the song with a lot of
tongue twisters and upbeat rhymes, according to Lahiru, ‘just for the
fun of it.’
“We are not trying to tell any specific story. It’s just a morale
boosting song to tell the Sri Lankan public that we are great, that we
can do anything we want to, we can even get Shah Rukh Khan to work for
us,” grins Lahiru.
The line in question, when translated goes something like this: Rent
the White House and put up a Saree shop there. Then ask Madhuri Dixit
and Shah Rukh Khan to come and work there.
The song begins with a rap number, and then comes Lahiru, in a
multitude of guises, suits, locations and dance steps to wow the
audience with the rest of his modern baila song.
The music and the way Lahiru sings the song is certainly catchy and
upbeat. It might not make too much sense overall but it will certainly
put a smile on your face and get your feet tapping.
Among other things, he tells the audience to sing baila to the
English Queen, tell Prince William to play the dolekki drums, give
anamalu bananas to David Beckham and fry kokkis in the middle of the
London streets.
 He also recommends that the umpire who no-balled Murali be brought
down to have his eyesight checked.
And ends with the promise that one day he will plant Sri Lanka’s flag
on the moon.
He is as able a performer / dancer as he is a singer / composer and
once the dance was over and Lahiru expressed his hope that the dance
steps would catch on with the song’s lyrics, he was challenged by the
compere to teach it to the audience, which he did quite successfully.
The highpoint of the evening came when his father, Nimal Perera was
called up on stage so that Lahiru could give him the first copy of the
DVD. He has certainly come far as an artiste for someone who didn’t have
it as an inborn talent. He apparently didn’t start singing until the
sixth grade. He is already a well known artiste both in Sri Lanka and
abroad. He’s performed in Australia, Dubai and Qatar.
The DVD was released for sale aboard the Jetliner itself and quite a
few of the guests walked off with it when the cruise from Colombo
harbour to Wellawatte was over and the magical evening came to an end. |
