Seen above is beautiful Jolita singing her tital song
On 7th of this month in Panjim at Kala Academy Hall, at 7.45 PM, I saw the Tiatro “UTT ani CHOL” written and directed by Ben Evangelisto. This Tiatro of Ben is coming after 14 years since he was afflicted with sickness that made him immobile to act on the Stage for such a long time. During his so many years of sickness, he faced lot of trauma and difficulties in life even though many of his friends and well wishers were praying very hard for his recovery. When he was ok before falling sick he was very jovial, disciplined and friendly that created a big friendly circle of his.
The beautiful solo comparing the work of elder Tiatrist with current ones
What made him sick suddenly when he was otherwise so well? From my childhood I was told that the most dangerous and jealous people among Goans are the Tiatrists because they don’t like to see their own colleagues coming up, prosperous and gaining name and fame. This does not mean that all the Tiatrists are like that, no, but some are among their circle and these some are creating a very bad image of their entire segment. But when Ben indicates in his Tiatro how his own fellow Tiatrist whose role Anil Pednekar performs so well, tries to poison Ben to kill him and finish him from the Stage purely out of jealousy because he could not bear to see Ben gaining celebrity status. And hence, he goes ahead with this nasty plan but it failed to create the required effect.
What does this indicate? Doesn’t it show that there are Bastardised Tiatrists among us who want to destroy some among them? When Rosary Ferns died a few years back after acting in one Tiatro that night, there were so many stories circulated that he was the victim of jealousy among his colleagues not only in Kuwait but also in Goa and they must have poisoned Rosary.
It was about 45 years back, H. Briton was shining on the Stage, hence he acquired some jealousy from his colleagues. One night, in a Tiatro of C. Alvares after finishing his song with 3 encores, one unknown person congratulated Briton through a small opening of the fence behind the Stage and gave Briton a Chocolate which he displayed as a great honour, to his colleagues, then broke it into two pieces and while about to put one piece into his mouth, suddenly from nowhere C. Alvares came there and snatched the Chocolate from Briton’s hand. Briton got angry, then Alvares took Briton and a few more artistes outside the Mattou, called some dogs that were frequenting around there, threw one piece to the dog and when that dog ate it, within a few moments the dog collapsed. This is to prove how the Basterdised Tiatrists are finishing the life of some of the shining Stage artistes purely out of jealousy. Have you any time noticed one Tiatrist speaking good of other TIatrist? Either never or very rarely.
Coming back to the Tiatro “Utt ani Chol” which has Biblical connotation that indicates how a sick man with the power of God getting up from the bed where he is lying down due to sickness and starts walking. In another word, Ben was bed ridden and when everyone deserted him, no doubt some were very close to him namely his wife and a few others but the almighty God remained closest to him and only thru His love for him, God cured Ben of his sickness.
The Tiatro started at 7.45 PM while the attendance was more or less half the capacity. Most of these attendees were very sympathetic with Ben because they know the greatness of this Stage stalwart. The role of Ben Evangelisto performed by Tari was so good that even if I am given whole day and the whole night to write Hosanas of Tari, I will never get tired. That is the strong point of Tari who is the great gift of God for Konkani Stage. Opposite to Tari the role of Ben’s wife played by Rosy Alvares was superb, this is the greatness of Alvares Families. Stage acting and singing comes outomatically for them, “Tiatristpon” is in their blood and Rosy Alvares being a member of Alvares clan she should be smart as she indicated her smartness. One Canto that she rendered was so beautiful that I can easily call it the Minguel Rodan type of Canto, so sorrowful words, so sorrowful tune and moreover her singing it with her soft and serene voice brought an extra beauty to this Canto. Such Cantos are not heard nowadays, normally. Jolita too played her role well along with Cajy de Kakoda, some attendees were expecting a solo from his mouth as he is a very good singer. The role of a priest was nicely played by the real priest Fr. Isibio.
Seen above is Ben offering his thanks for the audience.
While on the subject of priests involving in Tiatros, it was some years back in Kuwait, Fr. Freddy de Costa came to Kuwait to stage his Tiatro in the Church Hall in Kuwait. When he went with the recommendation letter of the Bishop of Goa – Rahul Gonsalves – to the Bishop of Kuwait Monsg. Frances Mechallef, the Kuwait Bishop got so annoyed on Fr. Freddy that the same Bishop of Kuwait not only denied the facility of the Church Hall to Fr. Freddy but on top of it he went a step ahead and fired a letter immediately to the Goa Bishop asking the Goa Bishop Gonsalves this, “WHAT PASTORAL SIGNIFICANCE THIS VISIT TO KUWAIT WITH HIS TIATRO HAS?” Later on when I spoke to the Kuwait Bishop, he felt Goa priests are not taking up the issues concerning more urgent needs of the people in Goa. Tiatro is not the right choice of the priest, instead the Goa Church which according to Bishop Mechallef is so rich that with the help of this wealth the Bishop of Goa must utilize the talent of every priest for the development of Goans in general and Catholics in particular.
Seen above are in one scene both Ben & Fr. Isibio
The Side Show songs were good but still there was more space to improve, however, inspite of this the songs a political solo by Olga Vaz was so piercing against Michael Lobo that he is depicted as a shameless man who loves to lick the Lamanis. If this tirade mounted by the Goan political singers go on unstopped then it will be “Perig” for Lobo in the next election in Calangute constituency where approximately out of about 9 thousand voters aqbout 3,500 are Lamanis. To defeat Michael Lobo the opposition should have to field only one candidate, as one against the other. Her duet with her husband Anil was also powerful where Anil beutified it by rendering a nice “Segundo”. The title song rendered by Jolita was very nice so too the comedy solo on Garbage by the unvulgar comedian Cedrik. The duo rendered by Starcy and Jolita was beautifully sung so too the trio on Airhostess and Pilot. The solo that Ben rendered on handicapped children was very good and he sang it too very well.
The comedy part was not up to the mark though all the commedians performed their roles, however, inspite of a few vulgar patches which should not be there when the God is eulogized so well in this tiatro, how on the otherside there can be vulgarity which is the Satanic work? Ben should apply his mind on this because his image and character is at stake and since a greater number of attendees came to see him, his role and his story penned down by him, the same audience must be satisfied first. The current status of Ben on the Konkani Stage is like that of ‘FIDALGO” and this ststus he must maintained if necessary even by dropping the vulgarists who not likely to change for the better.
Whille concluding, let me congratulate Ben for this Tiatro and wish him good health.
A.Veronica Fernandes.