Man may close a window but Goa will open a door for those who believe in him. Jesus was down, sick, mocked, and belittled, but he never gave up. His faith in God and his determination to prove his detractors wrong paid dividends are what lead him on.
Yes, Utt Ani Chol is a saga of perseverance and prayer, a saga of believing in oneself and living with the grace of the almighty. God’s mill grinds slow but it grinds for sure. Ben Evangelisto’s new release is all about God’s mercy!
Script
The script is well written with precise vocabulary giving an insight into the reading and observation of the writer. The sequences are interesting and keep the audience guessing as to what will come next. The cantos are soul-searching and well-composed. The comedy is linked in bits and pieces to the main storyline.
Comedy
The comedy is well timed but in some cases could be considered distasteful. One scene includes a boy dressed as a girl and in the end his dress is pulled revealing the lingerie of a lady. The entire comedy is not vulgar but due to few scenes, the entire comedy seems distasteful.
Sets
The sets are beautiful but there is no furniture to match the background. The use of blue curtain was minimised. There was a staircase in the sets but it was not put to use. Beautiful box sets but the furniture deficiency in it, lowered the visual treat that the otherwise beautiful sets had to offer. There are some lovely painted curtains of the church of Holy Trinity and a scene from UK commendably painted. It increased the taste of the performance.
Acting
The tiatr features great actors. Ulhas Tari plays the title role of Ben Evangelisto to perfection. He copied not only the walking and standing style but also the dialogue delivery. Rosy Alvares as the wife played a well supporting character. Her cool and sobre dressing added flavor to the role. Though in simple garments, her simplicity brought glamour. Anil Pednekar was brilliant in the negative role of Rex de Aldona. He left the people guessing with no success as to who the actual character was. Fr Oujiko was superb as a priest. His dialogue delivery and stage personality is simply superb. Ron makes a cameo a a Believer to great satisfaction and applause of the audience. The comedy section is with Ben Evangelisto, C D’Silva, Brian and Richard and they all put on a good show.
Music/songs
The band music was calm and serene. It perfectly landed good support to the singers. The opening song was sung by Joylitha Silveira. There were good solo perfomances by Olga, Joylitha, Rons, C D’Silva, Sendric but Fr Oujiko stole the show with his superb rendition of a song on Christianity. His voice was a treat to the ears. There are also some duets sung.
Direction
Ben Evangelisto has kept up to his reputation of being a classy director by getting out the best from his artists and technical crew. The only matter of concern is the seepage of vulgar comedy into a tiatr of spiritual nature. There is the presence of a real life priest in the tiatr. hence the question arises, Is vulgar comedy a part of life? Why is no one raising an objection to this attempt of bringing disrepute to tiatr with vulgar comedy? The audience comprised of a high number of females and it was sad to see females laughing out loud at the vulgar jokes. Is the audience really degraded? If this is the state of tiatr, educated youth and adults too will stay away from the halls. Something needs to be done quickly to stem the rot. We have done our part. Will the audience do theirs?
