On 11th of
this month at Kala Academy Panjim, I attended the 2nd day of Mando
Festival at 5.20 PM. Though not house
full yet this audience was much higher than on the first day. It was compeered like on first day by the 4 Compeers;
two males and two females, among them
one male Dr.Bhikaji Ghanecar was the oldest.
All the four Compeers
Dr. Ganecar started from the
inception date 49 years back and since then he is continuously uninterrupted
compeering this festival with an extra ordinary class even though he is ageing
but not losing his control over his physique and mind. During the last so many
years he entertained the Mando Festival crowd with much enthusiasm and lovely
jokes. Some of the attendees earlier attended Mando Festivals only to listen to
his Jokes. That was the class and
quality of his Jokes. May God give him good health to entertain the Mando enthusiasts
for many more years.
Youngsters
I was in Kuwait since
mid seventies but I used to come to Goa on vacation to coincide my vacation with
the date of Mando Festivals and like this I maintained my link with Mando
Festivals after I left Goa for greener pastures. According to me from the time of its
inception in 1966 till the end of Nineties, the quality of Mandos with dulpods in every category was superb
having almost all the ingredients of the originality of this folk song.
Beautifully dressed singers
But gradually during
the last two decades persons having no Mando culture and tradition involved in
this Mando Festivals thus lowering the body and soul of the Mando/Dulpods in
traditional and original categories.
One of the Adults group
However, to my total
surprise, this year on both the days, I found the quality of the Mandos with
Dulpods in all the categories vastly improved leading us back to the periods of
Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. This is the good sign for better days ahead
for the improvement of Mandos.
VIP seen with Souvenirs
The seniors in Original
and Trditional categories excelled very well in all respects namely in
presentation, costumes, music and of course in singing. They not only sang but they sang in style.
Singing original Mando
The Teenagers also
performed very well by depicting their
extraordinary talent at this young age, their musicians also performed very
well especially the youngsters and girls.
During the interval, a
special Souvenir was released from the hands of VIP guests, namely Dilip Parulenkar
and Nilesh Cabral as seen in the photo above while other dignitaries are also
seen in the same photograph.
I applaud the
organisers and participants of this year’s Mando Festival for dishing out a very
good performance.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel:7507394349
