Nanda Malini

Mirihana Arachchige Nanda Malini Perera — beloved daughter of Lewwanduwa, Aluthgama, and, in time, the voice of an entire nation — was born on August 23, 1943, the fourth of nine children in a close rural family. Her father, Vincent Perera, was a skilled tailor; her mother, Liyanage Emily Perera, kept the household. When the family moved to Kotahena in Colombo during her adolescence, a music teacher named T. N. Margaret Perera heard something extraordinary in the young girl's voice and began to shape it with care. That voice announced itself to Sri Lanka in 1956, when Nanda Malini — barely thirteen — won a gold medal at the Padya Gayana poetry-singing competition at Borella YMBA. The triumph brought an invitation from the legendary W. D. Amaradeva to sing on Radio Ceylon's children's programme Lama Mandapaya. Six years later, her duet "Galana Gangaki Jeevithe" in Ranmuthu Duwa — Sri Lanka's first colour film — announced the arrival of a new kind of female voice in Sinhala cinema: deep, unhurried, and rooted in something real. She pursued that voice with scholarly discipline. She studied at the Heywood Institute of Art, travelled to Lucknow's Bhatkhande Music Institute in 1963 to study Hindustani classical music, and returned to formal learning in 1984 to earn a Visharada degree with First Division Distinction from the University of Visual and Performing Arts — while simultaneously founding the Nanda Malini Sangeetha Ashramaya to pass her knowledge to the next generation. Her artistry expanded far beyond the stage. During the turbulent late 1980s, she created the landmark Pavana concert series — 205 performances over eighteen months — that gave voice to the suffering of ordinary people, challenged state oppression, and called for political awakening. The Sri Lankan government banned her songs from broadcast. She received death threats. She performed anyway, dressed in her signature white saree, her distinctive deep voice carrying words that a generation would never forget. Over nearly seven decades, she amassed eleven Sarasaviya Awards, eight Presidential Film Awards, and the rare honorary doctorate Darshana Shuri from the University of Visual and Performing Arts — the first female artist in Sri Lanka to be so honoured by a university. A hybrid orchid was named Nanda Malini Ascosanda in her honour. Studio 9 of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation was renamed in her name. She performed at the 2022 Aragalaya protests, still believing that music had the power to change the world. Nanda Malini passed away on August 20, 2026, at her home in Nawala, three days before what would have been her 83rd birthday. The Sri Lankan government declared three days of national mourning. Parliament observed a minute of silence. She is survived by her husband Suneth Gokula and their two daughters, Varuni Saroja and Ama Sarada. She leaves behind a legacy that is, as those who knew her work understood, not merely a chapter in Sri Lankan music but an integral part of the country's collective memory and soul.