During these days lot of stories are circulated around saying Mr. So and so staged a Tiatro written by somebody else whose name the director has intentionally kept hidden and undisclosed. Somebody else said another Mr. so and so robbed the script while yet one more Mr. so and so plagiarized somebody’s song.
Plagiarizing and robbing of script of Tiatros and songs is not something new. As per the elders the great Tiatrist, the late Alexinho de Candolim borrowed best of Tiatro scripts from one Mr. Emidio from Khobravaddo, Calangute and staged as his own in Goa during those days, about 80 years back, without mentioning Emidio’s name as script writer. Emidio during those good old days was known to compose very good songs and script very good Tiatros. At that time Alexinho de Candolim was just in his infancy on the Konkani Stage and seasoned Emidio’s scripts had helped Alexinho de Candolim enormously to get knowledge and a push to promote his natural Stage art. Once on move, Alexiho de Candolim became a genius in composing beautiful songs of which type, of high moral and of great wisdom nobody can compose now.
The late M. Dod de Verna and the late M.Boyer were close friends in Bombay, both were Tiatrists but Boyer was more popular. In mid fifties M. Dod de Verna left Bombay and settled down in Goa and while in Goa he started acting in Tiatros where because of some beautiful songs he rendered, he became an instant success on Konkani Stage. One fine evening at Mapusa when one Tiatro was in progress where M. Boyer was participating, Boyer started telling the audience that “M. Dod de Verna has robbed my songs and now singing the same in Goa”. Many in the audience refused to believe Boyer’s statement and one of the members of the audience even told Boyer openly that “I will rather believe you robbing M. Dod’s songs but never Dod robbing yours”.
Recently there was a controversy over the Tiatro “Akantvadi Goyant Naka” by Tausif de Navelim. When it reached to its zenith with regards to its popularity, news started pouring in that it was not Tausif who scripted this Tiatro. I personally called Tausif to get the proper information on this topic and Tausif clearly told me that he and he alone is the author of this Tiatro and he only scripted this Tiatro.
A short while ago there was a Tiatro “Goy Goenkaranchem”, its first Show was staged at Mapusa where I attended. After its second Show at Panjim, somebody said it was scripted by Michael Jude Gracias who otherwise is known to script best of Tiatros. For about 10 days there was total silence on this issue but suddenly after a lengthy suspicious silence, Gracias came with the clarification saying that he was not the author of the script of this Tiatro.
In this same Tiatro, at Mapusa, Marcus Vaz rendered one old solo of the late M. Dod de Verna who sang it on the Stage somewhere in 1959. Due credit to M. Dod was not given by Marcos Vaz by disclosing the name of M. Dod.
Prince Jacob and his artistes also rendered in Goa songs composed by the late Kuwait based Rosary Ferns which were earlier rendered in Kuwait but never mentioned the name of the composer.
Immediately after his death, as it was given to understand then, some rogue Tiatrists robbed the scripts of some new and old Tiatros of Minguel Rod and later on staged them as their own creations. This was openly disclosed in his song, by Jr. Rod, he rendered at Mapusa in his father’s Tiatro “Open To Close” which was staged by Jacinto Vaz and Anthony D’Sa following the death of Minguel Rod. Anthony D’Sa had especially come down to Goa only because of this Tiatro and rendered 2 powerful solos, one of them was “Atanche Bhurge Sigretti voddat ani Pai-Maechea Tondan Dhunvor ghaltat”.
When Prem Kumar was at his nadir, he inducted in his Tiatro one Young singer from Bardez and gave one song composed by him to that Young singer to sing in his Tiatro. This Young singer also started singing this same song in another Tiatro. Knowing this, Prem Kumar became wild, went to see that Tiatro and while the Young singer was singing, slowly entered the Stage and gave a powerful slap on the face of that Young singer. Everyone seeing this scene wasstunned. Then Prem Kumar turned towards the audience and told, “Hem anvem thapott marlam kiteak hem cantar mojem ani moji porvangi nastana tanem hem cantar dusreachea Tiatran mhontlem mhonn”.
In fact there is nothing wrong if you stage the Tiatro scripted by someone else and also sing a song composed by somebody else but to avoid controversy later on, it is always better to disclose the identity of the writers and thus remain neat and clean. After all, it is said, “give the devil its due”.
I have helped many Tiatrists to compose songs and script Tiatros but never demanded any reciprocal reward, either financial or otherwise, nor expected any gratitude. On the contrary I thanked them for allowing me an opportunity to impart my knowledge, ideology and philosophy to them to educate the Tiatro fans. That was my best reward, best gratitude, best remuneration and best victory. If any script writer or song composer wants anything in return for his job he must tell in the beginning itself instead of creating furore and uproar later on.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.