pop music

Pop music saw a sudden blooming season which brought out many a talent in fields of song composing and music.M.S.Fernando , Three Sisters from the Perera family ,Victor Ratnayake , Tony Hassen, A,E,Manoharan , Ramachandran, and numerous others had a field day singing new and old hits .The Colombo Art Circle produced and presented many Pop Shows at various venues like The Sugathadasa stadium , Navarangahala Hall and Kathiresan Hall etc. CAC,s Gen.Secretary Balachandran honoured M.S.Fernando with the title Music Chakkravarthy which meant King of Comedy. { wait for more stories on this subject in due course } Book Releasing Ceremonies ---------------------------- In the late 1960,s when I was a sub-editor attached to the then popular tamil news papers of the now defunged Independent Newspapers ltd, Dinapathy and Chinthamani , my Chief Editor S.T. Sivanayakam called me to his room and introduced me to a middle aged tamil lady called Mrs, Meena Sabaratnam , She happened to be the wife of a popula tamil writer who had passed away leaving many story manuscripts and very little finance for the family . I wrote an interview of her plight . Her story moved me to tears which subsequently iniated CAC bala to organise a meeting to promote late Thaalayadi Sabaratnam, story book ,which gave some relief to his wife. This just one of the many book launching ceremonies conducted by K.Balachandran to help journalists , Authors ,writors and other media personnel to access publicity. Anthony Jeeva , Annaluxmy Rajathurai , and M.M.Makeen [maana Makeen] are few writers who is living today to talk about CAC . Balachandran,s contribution in this field. K.Sivam a senior press reporter cum writer in kandy , too had associated with CAC in many of its programs.M.A. Rahman , who is currently in India ,S. Ponnudurai ,the internationally famous tamil writer who is now an Australian citizen , popularly known as SPO ,is another prominent figure who could describe balachandran,s literary promotional efforts. Dance Programs -------------------- Early 1970 - Sivaji Dorai was a leading business figure in Colombo. His only daughter Geethanjali ;s Bharatha Naatiyam dance debut was to held at the Lionel Wendt Theater and a prominent veena exponent Chitty Babu and his wife from India arrived in Sri Lanka to be the chief guest at this function . Geethanjali,s performance was par excellant and CAC was as proud as her own parents in associating with the event . Subsequently CAC did several dance recitals of both Sri Lankan and Indian dance exponents. I remember one wonderful dance program by the famous S0uth Indian , who was then the Tamil Nadu Government,s State Dancer. This is none other than the Karnam Artist Swarnamugi . After her performance at the Ramakrishna Hall,next day The Daily News paper carried a news item saying that a boneless dancer is now in Sri Lanka .