Nimal Mendis - 1970s

1970s

In the seventies he recorded a number of songs in London. Many of these songs were of a spiritual nature. He made a twenty-minute audio documentary on the Way of the Cross called The Passion Report. Another audio documentary called Ferryman was about the tea estate worker and the farmer in Sri Lanka. It traces their history from the British colonial period. He also wrote Bread of Life for the Eucharistic Congress in Sri Lanka.

Mendis has written several memorable songs for Sri Lankan films. Nimal wrote the song "Master Sir" in Sri Lanka for a film, Kalu Diya Dhahara (A column of black water). "Master Sir" is about colonial Sri Lanka; the words tell a story about the dignity of labour, a story not about wages but about social justice. The song was recorded both in English (by Mendis and Sandra Edema) and Sinhala (by Neville Fernando,with lyrics by Karunaratne Abeysekera) and has remained a hit in Sri Lanka for over thirty years.

His composition "Ganga Addara" ("By the Banks of the River"), written by Augustus Vinayagaratnam, and sung by Vijaya Kumaranatunga) for the film (Directed by Sumitra Peiris) of the same name, is also a very popular song in Sri Lanka. "Ran Tikiri Sina" was written for the same film, and was also a hit. "Upul Nuwan" was another classic composed for the 1978 Lester James Peiris film White Flowers for the Dead. Indeed, all the songs he wrote for Sinhala films have been popular with the public in Sri Lanka.