A night to remember

There was glamour and glitz beginning with the twinkling of a myriad stars on midnight blue walls in the grand ballroom of the Colombo Hilton. In the audience and on stage was a galaxy of stars among them Malini Fonseka, Ravindra Randeniya, Yasodha Wimalaratne, Roshan Ranawana, Jeevan Kumaratunge, Anarkali Arkasha, Nirosha Viradani besides Sangeetha Weeraratne who was one of the three S’s. The other two being Shireen Kumaratunge and Sudharma Nethiemara.
In the audience were many of the glitterati of the Colombo scene among whom were Kushani Gankanda, Samadara Sumathipala, Chamari Jayaratne, Rosy Senanayake, Sitara Fernando, Dharshi Keerthisena and Ramani Fernando. Also adding to the sparkling evening were some not seen too often among them, Nadi Samaratunge, Samantha Hemachandra, Priyani Wickremesinghe with daughter Shamila.
The non-stop revue of fashion, music, dance and song was at the highest level of entertainment with contributions that were greatly appreciated, given by Bathiya and Santhush, an electric violinist with teenage drummer, Nalin Perera in a romantic opening with the song “Angelika” and a banger of a finale with “Om Shanthi Om” in a near attempt of this Bollywood favourite that has captured the hearts of the music world.
Also on the catwalk of glass illuminated in blue from within was a cavalcade of fashion portraying the “Glamour of Asia,” with work from Sheetal of Bombay to a sophisticated collection from new local designer Ameena and of course a showpiece collection of high quality professional couturier from Lou Ching Wong. Dancers from the Channa Wijewardene group made inroads into this fusion production.
There were styles in clothes that had as wide a range as those that went on stage. Saree as always made its own statement and among the winners were Ramani Fernando in black and turquoise she wore with a cabochon turquoise necklace. The white saree that Shamila Perera wore was dotted in silver with a subtle border in gold she wore with a blouse in gold lame dazzle of colour was set with sequins in Anarkali’s saree, while Malini Fonseka had thick embroidery in corded style on her black saree. Nirosha Virajani had a sparkling silver border on her turquoise saree, with Rosy Senanayake more conventional in an Indian saree in a shot green silk border with and pallu in a red and gold weave. The three S’s wore sarees of the same design with Sangeetha in pink, Sudharma in an unusual shade of green and Shireen in lovely shade of lavender with the orchid motif in purple.
Dresses of striking elegance was the choice of Chamari Jayaratne in black and subdued silver, with Samadara Sumathipala in a full grey skirt worked at the waist in sequins and a boat necklined in black which had below the elbow sleeves. With a black cold shouldered dress worked with stones Nadi Samaratunge brought a 60’s look with an upswept coiffure and diamond earrings and black gloves to complete the sophistication of her evening gown. Sophistication also came from the orange and black snake skin printed dress Sitara Fernando wore with long pendent earrings.
More ethnic in style were the outfits Kushani Gankande and Samantha Hemachandra wore, the former in a fusion of print and colour, and the latter in a peacock blue shot silk salwar kameez. The show was expertly compeered by Kumar de Silva with the only drawback coming from his co-compere whose accented words were hard to follow and were distracting.
Overall it was one of the best shows that we have seen in recent times and certainly deserved the full house of enthusiastic audience the performers and the 3S’s got.