Tiatr: An honest review
Tiatr Mogi
Accepting the gift of life and living it to the fullest, we march ahead gaining milestones name and fame, occupying high positions in society. What is our attitude towards our fellow brethren, community, society and God? Do we have the gratitude to accept that all glory and honour has come our way through the intervention and benevolence of God?
Thank You God, a tiatr release of the UK returned Pal Soares is a reality check for the human race, to introspect and give God the due share and credit for the good things happening in our lives.
Script
The script treads different directions in the different sessions. The first half see one point developing and the second half another with just one irrelevant point joining the two halves. While the lead story has one plot the comedy has a parallel plot that runs simultaneously and the only connecting point is the intermingling of one of the comedy characters with the main plot artistes that gives the presentation a form of tiatr which otherwise is a non stop drama sliced in pieces to allow the rendition of songs. The message that the tiatr story leads to is a great climax which needs to be promoted by one and all.
Comedy
The comedy is simple and derieved laughter. But the presence of vulgar comedy irritates the audience and takes away the seriousness of the storyline. The comedy dragged the tiatr. Senior comedian Jesus Antao was totally out of sync and unnecessarily dragged the scenes of the play. Pitush is picking up as a comedian of repute as his comic timings have vastly improved. A new entrant Lino has a slim body that can naturally evoke laughter. He used his body to bring out laughter but had less of prose to support his body movements.
Comedian Luis Bachan has a lesser role to play, yet he gives a fine display and tickles the funny bone. The female comedian Venancia displays promise and if guided by safe hands will surely be a talent to watch for.
Sets
The sets are simple and supports the background of the families portrayed in the plot. The families had houses with walls but no decent furniture to display, thereby left a lot that was desired from the presentation. Why couldn’t the director have furniture in the sets. A ticket is priced at a hundred and fifty rupees each. Are the spectators not entitled to a decent presentation of visuals on stage?
Acting
The biggest achievement of this tiatr is a fine display of natural acting by the artistes. Sharon as the mother was very convincing. Godwin Afonso is natural, his dialogue delivery is very powerful, his movements on stage were eye catching but flopped in the two scenes that he enters as a drunkard. He needs to watch the movements of drunkards to pick that action.
Shanaya the darling of tiatr competition stage stole the hearts of the audience with her cuteness dialogue delivery and natural acting. Sonia Diniz is well cast as the sister but she should tame her dressing style. No person of sane mind will exit the kitchen with high heels!
Cyril was good but at times got a little excited and in the bargain overacted. Baptist does a double role but has the same appearance in both as a lover and as a priest giving an impression that the priest proposes to a female. But his acting specially as a priest was mind blowing.
Music/songs
The songs are well composed and sung. Melisha opens the innings with a beautiful opening song in style and glamour. She returns for another beautiful duo with Shanaya. Shanaya is melodious in her solo. Olga gets an encore for her political solo though it was an old song in Prince Jacob’s tiatr months ago. The duet of Anil Olga was great and deserved encores.
The show stopping song was definitely the solo by Cajethan de Sanvordem. His style elegance and voice modulation definitely makes him the best singer on Konkani tiatr stage among the present singers. Pal Soares needs to practice his song better. Jack Rodson too was impressive in his solo.
Direction
The move of entrusting lead roles to lesser known artistes paid dividends as Sharon and Shanaya proved to be the show stoppers along with the veteran Godwin Afonso. The director needs to crop the comedy scenes or ask the comedians not to drag their scenes as a tiatr of three hours was stretched out to almost four hours. Overall, not an excellent presentation but a presentation that deserves promotion. A tiatr worth watching!
