Attended by the capacity crowd from Goa, Mangalore, Karwar and Bombay all residing in Kuwait, Xavier & Manuel Productions has successfully organised the Tiatro “Aplea Bhurgeam Sangatak”, written and directed by Dy. S.P. Sammy Tavares, on Friday 28th September at the American International School Hall, Maidan Hawally, Kuwait. Instead of starting at scheduled time 5.00 P.M., the Tiatro started almost an hour and half late; hence it ended also late night thereby creating lot of inconveniences for lot of people among the audience to go home at the late hour. Unnecessary waste of time during the interval also increased the degree of inconvenience to the audience.
The organisers deserve major credit for putting in lot of efforts even at the eleventh hour to attract such a huge crowd rarely seen there before for Goan Tiatros. However, in the Hall everything was not in order due to lack of proper management.
Besides good story, one of the reasons for gaining so much of fame for this Tiatro was the personal influence of the director as a high ranking professional Police Officer which also aroused curiosity in the people to see this Tiatro. When Dr. Simon C. Fernandes staged his Tiatro first time in Bombay half a century back, everyone was surprised to see this professional doctor staging his Tiatro and because of this people’s curiosity aroused in Dr. Simon’s Tiatro making people to see his Tiatro in big number though his Tiatros were very good.
The other reason for the popularity of Dy. S.P. Sammy Tavares’ Tiatro was the very good marketing and publicity strategy followed by him. The third reason was the enormous goodwill he enjoyed from the community members thru his strong personal contacts – just like Dr. Simon - because as I know, of the clean record of his in the service having not involved in any scandal normally associated with the Policemen of any rank. Normally Goan Police force is considered as the most corrupt Police Force where bribery, chicanery, rape, extortion and other type of corruptions are rampantly associated with their service. By keeping his record clean in the eyes of public, Dy. S.P. Sammy Tavares remained above suspicion thus gaining good name for him and respect.
The story of the Tiatro is good yet it was not something new, it was a common story many times earlier shown by other writers and directors in a similar manner or with little differently. This does not mean to belittle the good efforts of the director in dishing out a very good lesson to the present generation who are prone to desert their elderly parents.
All the artistes acted in this Tiatro gave their best to make this Tiatro a big success and if it became a hit everywhere it was mainly because of the sterling roles played by every artiste of course gigantically and majestically with minor flaws here and there by the few.
In this context I must make especial mention for the role played by the seasoned artiste Felcy as a mother, Justin as a father and Godwyn & Mathew Araujo as sons. As a piece of advice to Mathew Araujo, for his every entry on the stage he is sprinting like Ussein Bolt, it is not necessary. Roma and Rosalia both as young daughters-in-law made good impact of them.
In comedy role, seasoned comedian John D’Silva played a heroic role of which type earlier he was not easily seen. He gave his best as if it was his own Tiatro. Never in Kuwait before he became such a darling of the audience as it was in “Aplea Bhurgeam Sangatak”. He was strongly supported in his performance by the other two comedians Sally and Saby.
Among the side show songs, Felcy and Roma both sang beautifully their song, Anthony San with Roma rendered a nice duet, Lawry Travasso rendered both his solos meaningful and Ancieto also sang well his solo where he displayed his powerful voice. Marcus Vaz’s solo as illegitimate son was well received by the audience so also his quartet along with Lawry Travaaso, Xavier Gomes and Cajetan de Sanvordem on vulgarity on Goan Beaches. As expected pretty looking Sonia Sirsat rendered both her solos well.
In the absence of any political song, side show looked a bit nude while director’s solos though meaningful yet lacked the required punch in his delivery. It looked like a poor inning of the captain in cricket match. The urge of Kuwait audience in political songs remained unfulfilled turning them sour and thus making the Tiatro less palatable for them. The need of Francis de Tuem was felt very badly.
Compared to what I saw this Tiatro in Goa, in Kuwait it failed to rise up to the expected level. The opening “bhogti” song failed to reach to its crescendo thereby diminishing the beauty of this song.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
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