First of all, I thank Gracy Morais for answering all the questions posed by Cecil Pinto. As for the above, I would like to comment as follows:
Acting demands that an actor/actress enact the given role to the nearest perfection of the character. As such, when an actor/actress is assigned a role, he/she not only visualizes it but tries his/her best to live it in acting. Every one of yester year actors be it Anthony De Sa, Conception, Valente Mascarenhas, Tony Sax, to name a few, enacted the role of Bhattkar with great zeal but the best of them all was Cyriaco Dias who enacted the role with extra care and great precision which is why he was labeled as �the Bhattkar of Goan Stage�. All of these actors grew up during the Portuguese regime in Goa, and this factor must have helped them muster the role. Yes, every one who enacted the role did wear a house coat, did smoke a pipe, and did carry a walking stick (roth) in his hand because these were symbols of status of a real Bhattkar then. I shall give below some background which justifies the use of the above three symbols:
The stories of most Tiatros half a century ago revolved around landlords and tenants. It was either a dispute between landlord and tenant or a love story between a tenant�s daughter and landlord�s son. I am sure everyone is aware that Portuguese ruled Goa through landlords or �Bhattkars�. The administrators made sure the Bhattkars enjoyed every privilege while the poor remained suppressed. The administrators also did not promote education for fear of revolt. There was only one Primary school in every village, and the highest Portuguese education then was either Liceum or Escola Technica. However, there was a prerequisite to join a school � one�s parents had to own a piece of land and a house on it otherwise his children could not attend school. Since Bhattkar was delegated full powers, if a tenant sent his children to school without his knowledge, he would summon that tenant, scold him and sometimes beat him with �roth� and make him withdraw his children from school. Not only that, he would instruct the tenant to immediately send his children to work in his property.
Since the Bhattkar lived in luxury, he created a special status for himself both inside and outside the house. While indoors, he wore a house coat, sandals and smoked a pipe. When he went out of the house, he wore a pair of trousers, a shirt and a coat, a hat on his head, held a walking stick in his hand and smoked a pipe. Whenever he talked to tenants, he strolled up and down to convey his authority, took too many puffs at the pipe and swung the stick whenever he was angry and even beat tenants with it.
The Portuguese provided Goans plenty to eat and drink. Thus, the pre-liberation Goan enjoyed all the leisures of life, which ultimately made him �socegado�. He actually ate, drank and went to sleep without any worries; he was too tired to think of anything, and why think when everything was easily available! The Portuguese was happy at the situation and thought it had succeeded in suppressing the Goans but there were others who had devoted themselves to the cause of freedom and they ultimately succeeded in liberating Goa from the clutches of dictatorship.
The role of a Bhattkar in a Tiatr in yester years was a true reflection of the atrocities exercised by the landlords during the Portuguese regime. The rich class did not appreciate and attend tiatros because they were criticized from the stage. In those days, the Goan stage served as the venue to criticize the landlords or anyone who ill-treated the masses. Songs were sung in the form of �ZUPATTEOS� and even stories were filled with dialogues to taunt the wrong doers. However, Tiatr underwent drastic post liberation changes during the 4th quarter of the last century. New writers/directors emerged and they introduced new themes which were totally different from the old form. There was still criticism but it did not directly hint at landlords. So, gradually Bhattkars, priests, nuns, lawyers, officers, etc. began attending Tiatros and today almost anyone and everyone patronizes our Tiatros.
Moi-mogan, Domnic Fernandes Anjuna/Dhahran, KSA
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