GOAN MUSIC (7) - by Valmiki Faleiro

GOAN MUSIC

By Valmiki Faleiro

"Tiatr" produced copious volumes of music-song. Named after the Portuguese
'Teatro,' the Konknni stage was Goa's largest of performing arts, mainly among
Catholics. It sure featured names like Kamat de Assolna but bulk was Goan Catholic, some with curious stage names like Titta Pretto and Jhepsis Hitler!

"Pai Tiatrist" Joao Agostinho (JA) Fernandes, actually "Irmao" of pioneer
Lucasino Ribeiro as JA himself always protested, wrote original plays and music
right from his first, and history's second, Tiatr. JA set Tiatr in the seven-Acts format, and between the Acts, songs that could be solos, duets, trios or quartets. With his own wife, he introduced women to the stage. His themes were clearly aimed at social reformation.

Thence, the world of Tiatr produced many giants. They would take a tome to
even be briefly discussed. I'll restrict to a few whose song-music so impacted my
young mind that I remember them to this day. I was not old enough to see some of them live, but heard their renditions from vinyl records or from 'Akashvani' (in those times, "Aqui Portugal, fala Emissora de Goa.")

Personally, my greatest Tiatrist was singer-actor Kid Boxer. Not just for his song, but for his courage of conviction. Allow me to leave the best for the last, in a
couple of Sundays, when I'll elaborate.

One colossus of the Tiatr world was Minguel Rod. He strode the Konknni
stage at a precocious age, entering when he himself was only 13. His songs attacked
social ills, which is natural as he hailed from a poor tribal background of Cortalim.
His verse-lyrics were absolutely original – even if his tunes at times were borrowed. His imagery and satirical bite was not. A song went like, "(The landlord's) house was massive/ built of rock-solid stone/ but a wall collapsed/ when a pig's tail accidentally brushed against it."
Credited with revival of the Tiatr during its gloomiest days, Minguel produced colourful titles like 'Lembddo Santan' and 'Pobre Fidalgo.'

Year 1955 was tumultuous for the Portuguese in Goa. August 15, India's Independence
Day, saw several "Jai Hinds" shot dead or injured at border points of Patradevi, Molem and Polem. On October 5, Portugal's Republic Day, hundreds of natives
converged at Cortalim. Everyone from Governor to gun-totting soldier quaked, until it
was discovered it was not an internal 'Satyagraha.' Minguel Rod had died. Like several Tiatr greats, at a young age: 32. "Aqui Portugal …" announced the demise in all its six language news bulletins. And annual radio tributes until liberation.

Anthony Mendes is my best Konknni comedian-singer, not because his ancestral house
was a whistling distance from mine. Such was his singing, dancing and acting talent that he was about to be inducted in Hindi films, when he too departed – also at
a relatively young age. Upon his death, Alfred Rose composed and sang a tribute to him.
Several times during its rendition, Alfred broke down, and with him, most in the
audience.

Anthony need not have uttered funny Konknni lines to have the crowd in splits. He
achieved that by merely twitching his bushy whiskers or squinting his saucer-sized eyes. Or a faked movement of his agile body – or even with an equally spurious
Padri-style short quote in Latin! He scripted Tiatrs but only one, "Joao Paddekar," was staged in Goa. Typical of his song lyrics:

"Ho tuzo guneaum, muzo guneaum, kestaum pettota / Beijeam svater, vontt
poleancher, thapttam suzota" (on domestic tiffs between spouses, where, instead of
kisses, slaps resound off cheeks.)

After him, Jacinto Vaz and M. Boyer held the flag of stage comedy high.

In this galaxy, the greatest in his day was Alexinho de Candolim. He sang
and also penned some pretty powerful Tiatrs, including his famous "Sonvsarant Konn
Konnacho,"and his trademark last, "To Bhavtto Dhormancho." Alexinho died at age 49,
in 1964.

Young Menezes was the first rapid-fire ("jet-speed") singer. He liberally
used Konknni adages in his songs, including one titled 'Hotel de Jakin!' Like his senior fellow villager Alexinho, Young's songs rhymed perfectly.

Trio singers (three actors interspersing in a song) were popular on the
Konknni stage. The most legendary was Kid-Young-Rod (Kid Boxer, Young Menezes and Minguel Rod.)
Among the famous Trios was Rom-Rem-Rod, who sang on the abominable murder of a
Taleigao housewife, her daughter and a yet unborn child. That crime, a few
years from liberation, shocked Goa, earned Malayalees local hatred and, in a long
time, the Aguada gallows a trophy.

The generally accepted "Trio Kings" were Conception-Nelson-Anthony. Their
political satire was so devastating that they invited post-1961 official wrath on the
Tiatr fraternity – special guys, let's leave them for the last piece. (To conclude.)

Herald / September 21, 2008