A few paras have been edited out from the print
edition copy as they were of no significance to
goanetters.
----
Fatal error fails play that promised much
By Eugene Correia
A play that promised so much at the start proved to
have committed a fatal error when it finally ended.
The six-act drama, Chukh (mistake), is a story of a
young adopted girl who, while studying to be a doctor,
is pregnant and is driven out of the home. Her mother
is indignant at the shame she would bring to the
family though her father is considerate and
understanding.
It�s only in the final act that the central character
Brenda (Bella Fernandes), now a full-fledged doctor,
gives out the secret � that she was raped. She says
that her parents, particularly her mother, didn�t
allow her a chance to explain.
That, however, isn�t the truth. In the heated
exchanges between Brenda and the parents when she
discloses her pregnancy, the mother asks her whether
it was her boyfriend who got her pregnant. Brenda says
no and the mother flies in a rage. But there was
enough time for Brenda to blurt out that she was
raped. It�s around her silence that the central story
gets built up with other intertwined stories of other
cast members.
The drama was largely enjoyable because of the
�sideshow�, an integral part of Konkani dramas. It was
the professionalism of Rosita Pereira, playing the
part of Luiza, a family friend of the main couple,
Phillip and Monica (played by the real husband and
wife team of Mike and Mary Alfonso) that provided a
sharp yet lively edge to the proceedings.
A former actor in many plays by the late Christopher
Leitao, her fellow villager, Rosita kept the sideshow
moving at a steady pace with rip-roaring laughter. The
other sidekicks, Cassy Alfonso (Indy) and Xavier
Alfonso (Jones) add to the fun as lovers, with Cassy
masquerading as a woman. And when the three came
together a couple of times, they brought the house
down with laughter.
The play in itself was low-key and slow. It lacked
vitality and punch and the story got disjointed after
the intermission when three new characters were
introduced � Dolly (Mirose Alfonso), who plays the
young Brenda and her blind father Johnny (Johnny
Alfonso) and Ida, (Ida D�Souza), the maid.
It was a flashback to the time when Dolly/Brenda is
brought to be given for adoption by her father, who is
Phillip�s younger brother. By the time the story ends,
Brenda turns out to be the daughter of Ida who was an
unwed mother and had passed on her daughter to Johnny
when the latter�s wife and child dies at childbirth.
There seems no clue that the scene is a flashback and
the fact comes to light in the closing act when Ida
makes a confession. There also no clue what job
Phillip does and it comes as a shock when he is
arrested and jailed for possession of drugs, planted
by his cunning wife in collaboration with her lawyer
Tony Alfonso to take away her Phillip�s wealth. Tony
was the weakest link as an actor, lacking style and
made worse by forgetting his lines.
In the merry bunch that comes together to the end
minus Phillip and with Johnny successfully operated
upon by his �daughter�, Luiza justifies the title of
the play by blaming the principal actors for their
errors. The melodrama, which was rather mellow than
vigorous, ends with Brenda as a redeemed person in the
eyes of her arrogant and selfish mother and the world
at large.
On the note of songs, most of the tunes were adopted
from other songs, particularly from the late Alfred
Rose. A tribute song to this famous singer, who died
last year, by Tony Alfonso was indeed a shame as he
forgot some of his words and fumbled at some. Alfred
Rose may have turned in his grave.
By contrast, the other Alfonso brothers were
moderately good. Again, it was Rosita, also an
accomplished singer, who won the hearts with her
hilarious and fast-paced Canada Chock Chockkit, a racy
piece with humourous lines.
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