One of the main reasons
for the popularity of the ongoing Konkani movie “Nachum-ia Kumpasar” is the songs
rendered with her golden voice by the golden girl Lorna Cordeiro and all but
one or two of these songs were composed by the golden mind of the golden composer
Chris Perry with the golden musical score provided by his own genius only. I heard Lorna’s first time recorded Konkani
Album and also I saw her live singing on the Stage when she first time appeared
on Konkani Stage at Mapusa in the Tiatro “Nouro Mozo Devchar” written and
directed by her guide and mentor Chris Perry. During that time it was like a wave
of Lorna when her voice appeared in Konkani Album.
Would Chris Perry
attain such a name and fame without Lorna? And would Lorna attain such a
majestic popularity without Chris Perry?
My both the answers are: I doubt.
Chris Perry was an
excellent musician, an excellent Trumpeter and an excellent Solfist but by core
he was an excellent Tiatrist. Only after
finding of Lorna his Tiatro self came to the fore aggressively and came it to
the fore not with crawling but with sprinting surprising everyone and silencing
all other Tiatrists of that time. That he was such a magnificent composer of
songs with appropriate tunes and with appropriate musical score was proved
without any doubt by listening to all his songs rendered thru the angelic voice
of one and only one Lorna. I don’t think these songs would create such a mighty
effect if they were rendered by some other singer.
In this musical
activity their chemistry worked very well and because of their perfect fusion
there was revolution not only on Konkani Stage but also on Konkani movement as
a whole. Lorna’s voice even captured the
minds, hearts and tongues of MG lobby and Marathi supporters in Goa thereby
giving precedence for Konkani over Marathi which was very imperative during
that time when the language issue was playing into the minds of Goans.
By signing a long term
contract with her and later on denying her freedom to move her on her own way
by citing her contractual obligation, did Chris Perry do good for Konkani
musical art and serve the Konkani cause?
To promote Konkani cause especially at that critical juncture when we
were fighting for Konkani recognition to get separate Statehood for Goa, Lorna’s
presence on musical platform was very imperative to sway the tide in our
favour. She thru her songs had the capacity to attract Marathivadis towards
Konkani. But Chris Perry failed to recognize this important fact and remained adamant
by sticking to the contract. Heaven
would not fall if he had to bend down his rigid principle.
By being lenient he
could have allowed Lorna to move on her own way separately at least for the
sake of Konkani. But no, on the contrary he remained rigid to his contract only
as if Konkani cause was secondary and Konkani cause was not his priority. It looked Konkani cause did not exist for him
because even by working in Dubai his financial contribution for Konkani
movement was nothing, at least to my knowledge while UAE Goans have contributed
so fabulously. His participation in
Konkani movement in Goa was as observed Zero, he did not receive any Lathi
beatings from Rane’s Ghantti Police at Panjim Azad Maidan for demonstrating in
support of Konkani, his participation in the Rallies in Panjim in support of
Konkani was Nil. He never participated
in Hunger Strike at Azad Maidan for Konkani cause either. If he was a part of Konkani movement he would
surely tone down his rigidity towards Lorna’s contractual obligation and allow
her own freedom in which case Lorna would enrich Konkani movement further by aligning
with another Chris. In this way she would attain success but without her I
doubt Chris would.
By being closer to each
other for a short period Chris-Lorna duo attained so much and if it was not for
their split, we would get so much more.
But unfortunately we were not destined to get more contribution of Chris
Perry and Lorna Cordeiro. That is our tragedy.
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