During these days lot
of stories are circulated around saying Mr. So and so staged a Tiatro written
by somebody else whose name the director has intentionally kept hidden and
undisclosed. Somebody else said another
Mr. so and so robbed the script while yet one more Mr. so and so plagiarized
somebody’s song.
Plagiarizing and
robbing of script of Tiatros and songs is not something new. As per the elders the great Tiatrist, the
late Alexinho de Candolim borrowed best of Tiatro scripts from one Mr. Emidio
from Khobravaddo, Calangute and staged as his own in Goa during those days,
about 80 years back, without mentioning
Emidio’s name as script writer. Emidio
during those good old days was known to compose very good songs and script very
good Tiatros. At that time Alexinho de Candolim was just in his infancy on the
Konkani Stage and seasoned Emidio’s scripts had helped Alexinho de Candolim
enormously to get knowledge and a push to promote his natural Stage art. Once on move, Alexiho de Candolim became a
genius in composing beautiful songs of which type, of high moral and of great wisdom
nobody can compose now.
The late M. Dod de
Verna and the late M.Boyer were close friends in Bombay, both were Tiatrists
but Boyer was more popular. In mid
fifties M. Dod de Verna left Bombay and settled down in Goa and while in Goa he
started acting in Tiatros where because of some beautiful songs he rendered, he
became an instant success on Konkani Stage.
One fine evening at Mapusa when one Tiatro was in progress where M.
Boyer was participating, Boyer started telling the audience that “M. Dod de
Verna has robbed my songs and now singing the same in Goa”. Many in the audience refused to believe
Boyer’s statement and one of the members of the audience even told Boyer openly
that “I will rather believe you robbing M. Dod’s songs but never Dod robbing
yours”.
Recently there was a
controversy over the Tiatro “Akantvadi Goyant Naka” by Tausif de Navelim. When it reached to its zenith with regards to
its popularity, news started pouring in that it was not Tausif who scripted
this Tiatro. I personally called Tausif to
get the proper information on this topic and Tausif clearly told me that he and
he alone is the author of this Tiatro and he only scripted this Tiatro.
A short while ago there
was a Tiatro “Goy Goenkaranchem”, its first Show was staged at Mapusa where I
attended. After its second Show at
Panjim, somebody said it was scripted by Michael Jude Gracias who otherwise is
known to script best of Tiatros. For about 10 days there was total silence on
this issue but suddenly after a lengthy suspicious silence, Gracias came with
the clarification saying that he was not the author of the script of this
Tiatro.
In this same Tiatro, at Mapusa, Marcus Vaz rendered one old solo of
the late M. Dod de Verna who sang it on the Stage somewhere in 1959. Due credit to M. Dod was not given by Marcos
Vaz by disclosing the name of M. Dod.
Prince Jacob and his
artistes also rendered in Goa songs composed by the late Kuwait based Rosary
Ferns which were earlier rendered in Kuwait but never mentioned the name of the
composer.
Immediately after his
death, as it was given to understand then, some rogue Tiatrists robbed the
scripts of some new and old Tiatros of Minguel Rod and later on staged them as
their own creations. This was openly
disclosed in his song, by Jr. Rod, he rendered at Mapusa in his father’s Tiatro
“Open To Close” which was staged by Jacinto Vaz and Anthony D’Sa following the
death of Minguel Rod. Anthony D’Sa had especially
come down to Goa only because of this Tiatro and rendered 2 powerful solos, one
of them was “Atanche Bhurge Sigretti voddat ani Pai-Maechea Tondan Dhunvor ghaltat”.
When Prem Kumar was at
his nadir, he inducted in his Tiatro one Young singer from Bardez and gave one
song composed by him to that Young singer to sing in his Tiatro. This Young singer also started singing this
same song in another Tiatro. Knowing this, Prem Kumar became wild, went to see that
Tiatro and while the Young singer was singing, slowly entered the Stage and gave a powerful slap on
the face of that Young singer. Everyone seeing this scene was stunned. Then Prem Kumar turned
towards the audience and told, “Hem anvem thapott marlam kiteak hem cantar mojem
ani moji porvangi nastana tanem hem cantar dusreachea Tiatran mhontlem mhonn”.
In fact there is
nothing wrong if you stage the Tiatro scripted by someone else and also sing a
song composed by somebody else but to avoid controversy later on, it is always
better to disclose the identity of the writers and thus remain neat and clean.
After all, it is said, “give the devil its due”.
I have helped many
Tiatrists to compose songs and script Tiatros but never demanded any reciprocal
reward, either financial or otherwise, nor expected any gratitude. On the contrary I thanked them for allowing
me an opportunity to impart my knowledge, ideology and philosophy to them to educate the Tiatro
fans. That was my best reward, best gratitude, best remuneration
and best victory. If any script writer or song composer wants anything in return for
his job he must tell in the beginning itself instead of creating furore and
uproar later on.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.
