Inimitable Jothipala
by Walter Wijenayakewww.island.lk
Melodious voice of Hettiarachchige Reginald Jothipala took most of our youth into a dream world for he held a record of singing the most number of love songs and love duets. At the time of his untimely death on July 7, 1987 at the age of 51 years, he was the uncrowned playback maestro of the Sinhala screen.
He was born to the family of H.R. James and Ahaliyagoda H. K. Podinona Perera on Feb. 121936 at Katawalamulla. He was the oldest in a family of five and was a product of St. Lawrence’s College, Maradana and St. John’s College, Dematagoda.
He had neither pursued music as a subject in his school career nor since his completion of studies. He had the habit of spending his time at tea kiosks or community centres listening to the radio in enjoying the other vocalists as he did not possess a radio set at home. However, his passion for music swept him into the real track.
This idol of the common man spoke all three languages, Sinhala, English and Tamil and was born with a sharp tongue for music. He had an advantage over many other playback singers in that he had a stable voice and proper Sinhala diction and more importantly a voice suitable as a playback singer. However, he became an essential part of commercial formula films as the playback voice for matinee idols.
Artistes, film stars etc., may come and go but barely a handful of them remain immortalized in the hearts and minds of the people. Although 23 years have elapsed since his demise, his songs are still among the most demanded numbers in the hearts and minds of the people of this country. He is an artiste never to be forgotten.
To my knowledge, he was first aligned with Wasantha Sandanayake and G. S. B. Rani Perera at Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and began his career as a vocalist, singing duets. He presented a song ‘Siriyame Sara’ to the film ‘Surathalee’ of Cyril P. Abeyratne of which music was directed by T. R. Pana. He rendered his voice to all classes of actors ranging from Eddie Jayamanne, Ananda Jayaratne, Gamini Fonseka, Vijaya Kumaratunge, Ravindra Randeniya, Sanath Gunathilaka, to the younger generation of actors, such as, Damith Fonseka and Lal Weerasinghe.
In the film ‘Sandesaya’ of the doyen of Sri Lankan cinema, Lester James Peiris, he sang the popular number ‘Puruthugeesikaraya Ratawal Allanna Suraya’ with Sydney Atygalle and some others, to the tunes composed by the reputed musician Sunil Santha and lyrics written by veteran lyricist Arisen Ahubudu.
Since then he shot up to the highly competitive field of playback singing through sacrifice, dedication, humility and patience. He sang ‘Man ava, hira bath kala lakap oken ringala’ to the film ‘Sri 296’. He reigned in the Sinhala film industry as a playback singer for two decades from 1965 to 1987.
He successfully completed the 150th one man show, ‘Jothi Rathriya’, which coincided with his birth anniversary just before his demise. He also performed in Singapore, Malaysia, England - London, the USA, Canada, the Middle East, Italy - Rome. The great musician who sang last with Latha Walpola and enriched the cinema world, also won several awards in recognition of his singing talents.
He was interested in being a singer and not an actor. However, he acted in a number of films and contributed 330 songs to films. The last film in which he included a song was ‘Supiri Balawatha’ which was released in 2007.
Once, the celebrated Indian singer Mohamed Rafi said that Jothipala should have been born in India, as Sri Lanka was too small a country, to enable him to be rocketed into the international sphere.
He had performed in 242 concerts, the Jothipala Fan Club named ‘Jothi Mithuru Samajaya’. This series was launched in 1971. He married Winter - a nurse by profession. They had four children. In the last days of his life, he had uttered, ‘I will not live long. I won’t feel sorry for an early death’. Further he had said, ‘Sing my songs depicting the virtues of love and romance.’
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Here are some songs that Jothipala has sang ....
By : Priyantha De Silva
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