නෙවිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු සහ දුලීකා

The song “Seetha Rae Yame” (also known as Duleeka), sung by Sanath Nandasiri for the film Duleekaa is a well known song. According to the conventional way of giving credits for the creators of this song, lyrics of the song is by Sunil Ariyaratna, and music is by Premasiri Kemadasa. However, that would be a gross injustice to musician Neville Fernando who played a significant role in the creation of the song.

In the film, the song is set in a club where the main actor sings with the backing of a musical group. The director had decided that the style of the song should be group song (Kandayam Gee). Kemadasa hence created just the tune, and entrusted Neville Fernando with the task of completing the rest not only because it was in the area of expertise of Neville, but also because Neville had clearly demonstrated his capabilities in a similar capacity, in making the musical arrangements for the song Sulan Kurullo (sung by Harron Lanthra and Anjaleen Gunathilaka for the film Sanasuma Kothanada).

Neville Fernando not only made the complete musical arrangements including the interludes, bits and rhythms for the song, but also sang parts of the song in the style of harmonization common in group songs. According to Shelton Weeraratna, the author of Neville Fernando’s biography “Neville Saha Noel”, this song clearly shows Neville Fernando’s talents and carries the signature of Neville Fernando.

Here is a more accurate description of who was involved:
Lyrics: Sunil Ariyaratna
Melody: Premsiri Kemadasa
Musical Arrangements, Acoustic Guitar and harmonizing vocals: Neville Fernando
Sung by: Sanath Nandasiri
(It is not clear whether it was Neville Fernando or Kemadasa who conducted the music.)

ගී පද: සුනිල් ආරියරත්න
ගී තනුව: ප්‍රේමසිරි කේමදාස
සංගීත සංයෝජනය, ගිටාර් වාදනය සහ ගායන සහාය: නෙවිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු
ගායනය: සනත් නන්දසිරි
(වාදක මණ්ඩලය මෙහෙයවීම කළේ නෙවිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු ද, ප්‍රේමසිරි කේමදාස ද යන්න පැහැදිලිව සඳහන්ව නැත).

May this original recording of the song be a tribute to Neville Fernando who passed away 45 years ago on April 23, 1975. The song was recorded again in the 1980’s for Sanath Nandasiri’s Seetha Rae Yame cassette on the SInglanka label, but that recording lacks the guitar playing and the harmonizing vocals of Neville Fernando.