On 11th of this month at Kala Academy Panjim, I attended the 2nd day of Mando Festival at 5.20 PM. Though not house full yet this audience was much higher than on the first day. It was compeered like on first day by the 4 Compeers; two males and two females, among them one male Dr.Bhikaji Ghanecar was the oldest.
All the four Compeers
Dr. Ganecar started from the inception date 49 years back and since then he is continuously uninterrupted compeering this festival with an extra ordinary class even though he is ageing but not losing his control over his physique and mind. During the last so many years he entertained the Mando Festival crowd with much enthusiasm and lovely jokes. Some of the attendees earlier attended Mando Festivals only to listen to his Jokes. That was the class and quality of his Jokes. May God give him good health to entertain the Mando enthusiasts for many more years.
Youngsters
I was in Kuwait since mid seventies but I used to come to Goa on vacation to coincide my vacation with the date of Mando Festivals and like this I maintained my link with Mando Festivals after I left Goa for greener pastures. According to me from the time of its inception in 1966 till the end of Nineties, the quality of Mandos with dulpods in every category was superb having almost all the ingredients of the originality of this folk song.
Beautifully dressed singers
But gradually during the last two decades persons having no Mando culture and tradition involved in this Mando Festivals thus lowering the body and soul of the Mando/Dulpods in traditional and original categories.
One of the Adults group
However, to my total surprise, this year on both the days, I found the quality of the Mandos with Dulpods in all the categories vastly improved leading us back to the periods of Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. This is the good sign for better days ahead for the improvement of Mandos.
VIP seen with Souvenirs
The seniors in Original and Trditional categories excelled very well in all respects namely in presentation, costumes, music and of course in singing. They not only sang but they sang in style.
Singing original Mando
The Teenagers also performed very well by depicting their extraordinary talent at this young age, their musicians also performed very well especially the youngsters and girls.
During the interval, a special Souvenir was released from the hands of VIP guests, namely Dilip Parulenkar and Nilesh Cabral as seen in the photo above while other dignitaries are also seen in the same photograph.
I applaud the organisers and participants of this year’s Mando Festival for dishing out a very good performance.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel:7507394349