Group Photo of awardees with guessts
At Pai Tiatrist Hall,
Margao, on 14th of this month, I attended the “Life-time Contribution to Tiatr Award – 2014” function, appropriately
organized by Tiatr Academy Goa. This year this award was conferred on 14 senior
Tiatrists, 2 females and 12 males. The
females are Rita Rose and Sucurrine. The award for each artiste consists of a
Shawl, a Memento, a Citation and Rs 20,000/-
The
Chief Guest for this function was Dayanand Mandrencar, Minister for Art and
Culture, Goa who in his speech highly praised the awardees for their enormous contribution in the promotion of Tiatro with minimum of facilities. In a booklet distributed in the hall by the organizers, the
details of the Stage work of every awardee was given.
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Xavier Mendes
However, I would like
to add something more of Xavier Mendes one of the sons of the legendary
comedian the late Anthony Mendes; Xavier who along with his other 2 brothers
Felix and Derek was part of the very popular Trio of Mendes Bros which shot
into limelight in mid sixties after the unexpected death of their beloved
father. After making a solid impact of
their performances in Bombay and Goa
where they became the darlings of Tiatro lovers, they all one after the
other migrated to Kuwait starting from Derek first in early seventies. Xavier came to Kuwait somewhere in 1976. It
was their presence on Kuwait Konkani Stage that totally changed the outlook of
our Tiatros in Kuwait. They were very much responsible to develop the standard of our
Tiatros in Kuwait and Xavier played an excellent role in this development.
Minister Mandrecar
When we organized our
movement in Kuwait for the cause of Novem Goem Daily, they were the first to
assure me of their total co-operation for the collection of funds for this
cause by acting Free of Charge in two Tiatros we organized there in Kuwait.
Because of their participation both our Tiatros were Housefull. Though they
were three distinct individuals yet they always acted as one entity. Among all the three brothers, Xavier was more
artistic, more productive and more intelligent.
With his acrobatic and flexible physique he could perform any difficult
comedy role and win the hearts of the audience. His other speciality was that he
was expert in mimicry and with ease he could play the sound of a Trumpet with
his mouth. Once at Keefan Hall in
Kuwait, he with his mouth played beautifully the sound of Trumpet accompanied
by musician Teo on his original Trumpet. It looked so original. His body swerves while doing comedy roles had
lot of resemblance of his father’s comedy roles. For their contribution on
Konkani Stage, all the three Mendes Bros. were felicitated by Konkani Heritage
Kuwait.
Rita Rose receiving a Memento
As a human being Xavier
is a very soft and kind hearted thorough gentleman, very generous and a great
lover of Goa, Konkani and Goan causes. He
is settled down now in Goa at Mapusa by leaving Kuwait a year ago due to
failing health. It was a very sad scene
to see him entering the Stage to receive his award on Wheel Chair. But what was surprising was that people in
the audience did not forget him and the evidence of it was the strong applause
he received when his Wheel Chair was noticed by the audience.
Premananda Sangoddcar
The other two artistes
known to me in Kuwait were Teo and Rita Rose, the former worked for many years
in Kuwait and side by side played music for Tiatros there while the latter
after her husband’s death maintaining her promise came to Kuwait to act in our
Musical Show. During this period we
under Konkani Heritage Kuwait felicitated her for her long term contribution in
Tiatro.
Speaking on behalf of all the awardees, like a Professor and Philospheer, Premananda Sangodcar showered abundant superlatives on all his Stage colleagues for playing their roles so nicely. I salute him for delivering such a powerful and meaningful speech.
If till now Tiatro is
surviving it is because of the strong efforts put in by our yesteryears
Tiatrists including all the 14 honoured on 14.12.14. I salute them for their good work and pray to
God to give them good health.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
