Michael Jude Gracias
He was born in a family that was already bitten by the bug of performing arts. He grew as a son of a well known tiatrist. At the age of 11 he donned the mantle of an actor. Getting promoted to the high school he looked at performing arts as a distraction to his studious personality, and decided to concentrate on studies keeping performing arts on the back burner. His academic excellence and interest got him into mechanical engineering at Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna.
But how long can the bite of the performing arts bug be subdued? Opportunity knocked his door as a student of engineering He worked on his art without compromising on his studies. He worked on projects side by side and graduated as a mechanical engineer. This young artiste soon ventured into film direction, and today he has matured as a filmmaker of repute having won awards at the Goa State film Festival and the Hyssna Global Konkani Cine Awards at Mangalore. That’s Christ Silva, the illustrious son of Konkani film and stage artiste, John D’Silva!
At the age of eleven, Christ got an opportunity to act alongside his father and other senior actors in ‘Suknnim’ ‘Ugddas and ‘Vann’. His acting was well received by the audience.
Another performing artist and friend Nishad Shevde wanted to produce an album of Konkani songs and asked Christ for his help. Christ advised him to come up with a film that had a youth connect. The task of writing the script fell on the shoulders of Christ, who applied his creative mind to the task. The group of youngsters with Christ as the driving force conceptualized and created a beautiful story with an equally beautiful message of enjoying life as youth. They released the film ‘Limits’ in 2012. The storyline was from their own classroom; the incidents were from real life. Christ recalls that after seeing the film one of his own classmates resolved to take studies seriously.
Seeing the impact that a film could have, he decided to continue making films. Christ planned the second film about the fun and frolic of filmmaking when a group of youngsters decide to make a film. The second film, titled ‘Action’, created ripples in the Goan film industry and Christ decided to make a career in filmmaking!
Impressed with his filmmaking skills, Sylvester Fernandes from Siolim met Christ with an offer to produce a film having spiritual content and a storyline that would connect to the stations of the Cross from the agony of Jesus. This time, Christ romped in his father John and another Konkani film celebrity Prince Jacob Fernandes, Cassiano Eddy Fernandes a reputed theatre personality, noted tiatrist Chitra Afonso along with the others to make the film ‘Connection’. It had an instant connect with the audience of all ages.
‘Connection’ was screened at Goa State Film Festival and bagged the Best Supporting Actor Award for Prince Jacob Fernandes, Best Story, Best Dialogues and Best Music Awards for Christ Silva, Best Playback Singer Award for Velroy Fernandes and Best Editing Award for Christ Silva and Patson Barbosa. At the ‘ Hyssna Global Konkani Cine-Awards held in Mangalore, Christ bagged the Best Music Award along with Joel Fernandes and Tyron Noronha.
This young lad displays a lot of positivity and passion for the art that he considers very close to his heart. Well Christ, the sky is the limit. Keep on soaring higher and higher giving the audience good and quality Konkani films.
(Michael Gracias is a cine-journalist, TV anchor and Host, a stage and screen actor with a rich repertoire of work for over two decades)
