One of the main reasons for the popularity of the ongoing Konkani movie“Nachum-ia Kumpasar” is the songs rendered with her golden voice by the golden girl Lorna Cordeiro and all but one or two of these songs were composed by the golden mind of the golden composer Chris Perry with the golden musical score provided by his own genius only. I heard Lorna’s first time recorded Konkani Album and also I saw her live singing on the Stage when she first time appeared on Konkani Stage at Mapusa in the Tiatro “Nouro Mozo Devchar” written and directed by her guide and mentor Chris Perry. During that time it was like a wave of Lorna when her voice appeared in Konkani Album.
Would Chris Perry attain such a name and fame without Lorna? And would Lorna attain such a majestic popularity without Chris Perry? My both the answers are: I doubt.
Chris Perry was an excellent musician, an excellent Trumpeter and an excellent Solfist but by core he was an excellent Tiatrist. Only after finding of Lorna his Tiatro self came to the fore aggressively and came it to the fore not with crawling but with sprinting surprising everyone and silencing all other Tiatrists of that time. That he was such a magnificent composer of songs with appropriate tunes and with appropriate musical score was proved without any doubt by listening to all his songs rendered thru the angelic voice of one and only one Lorna. I don’t think these songs would create such a mighty effect if they were rendered by some other singer.
In this musical activity their chemistry worked very well and because of their perfect fusion there was revolution not only on Konkani Stage but also on Konkani movement as a whole. Lorna’s voice even captured the minds, hearts and tongues of MG lobby and Marathi supporters in Goa thereby giving precedence for Konkani over Marathi which was very imperative during that time when the language issue was playing into the minds of Goans.
By signing a long term contract with her and later on denying her freedom to move her on her own way by citing her contractual obligation, did Chris Perry do good for Konkani musical art and serve the Konkani cause? To promote Konkani cause especially at that critical juncture when we were fighting for Konkani recognition to get separate Statehood for Goa, Lorna’s presence on musical platform was very imperative to sway the tide in our favour. She thru her songs had the capacity to attract Marathivadis towards Konkani. But Chris Perry failed to recognize this important fact and remained adamant by sticking to the contract. Heaven would not fall if he had to bend down his rigid principle.
By being lenient he could have allowed Lorna to move on her own way separately at least for the sake of Konkani. But no, on the contrary he remained rigid to his contract only as if Konkani cause was secondary and Konkani cause was not his priority. It looked Konkani cause did not exist for him because even by working in Dubai his financial contribution for Konkani movement was nothing, at least to my knowledge while UAE Goans have contributed so fabulously. His participation in Konkani movement in Goa was as observed Zero, he did not receive any Lathi beatings from Rane’s Ghantti Police at Panjim Azad Maidan for demonstrating in support of Konkani, his participation in the Rallies in Panjim in support of Konkani was Nil. He never participated in Hunger Strike at Azad Maidan for Konkani cause either. If he was a part of Konkani movement he would surely tone down his rigidity towards Lorna’s contractual obligation and allow her own freedom in which case Lorna would enrich Konkani movement further by aligning with another Chris. In this way she would attain success but without her I doubt Chris would.
By being closer to each other for a short period Chris-Lorna duo attained so much and if it was not for their split, we would get so much more. But unfortunately we were not destined to get more contribution of Chris Perry and Lorna Cordeiro. That is our tragedy.
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