www.goa-world.com congratulates M.Boyer!
Titan of Tiatrists 'M Boyer' gets Padma Shri
The one and only M Boyer - the living legend Manuel
Santana Aguiar who has been at the forefront of tiatr
for over 50 years, has written, produced and directed
over 30 plays and has given a staggering 5000
performances in his lifetime - the only Goan tiatrist
to have been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Award earlier is to be bestowed upon with a PADMA SHRI
award on India's Republic Day today by the President
of India in New Delhi.
How long does it take you to script a play?
I am a perfectionist. I take about a month on an
average to write a tiatr. I deliberately write slowly
to avoid mistakes. It may surprise you, but I have
perhaps a strange way of writing my dramas. I write
the ending first.
Why did you change your name?
Our school authorities in those days would not allow
students to engage in such extra curricular activities
and fined them 10 rupees if they did. So I used
another name to avoid detection - M Boyer. M stands
for my name, Manuel, and Boyer after the famous
Hollywood actor Charles Boyer; I was a great fan of
his.
M.Boyer originally hailed from Ponda, but lives in
Raia Santemoll (Rachol) with his family. According to
the 'Tiatr Ani Tiatrist' publication, M. Boyer was
first seen on stage at Bhangwaddi, Bombay (now Mumbai)
for Kamat de Assolna's tiatr and it was Kamat who took
him specially for his drama from Goa.
Later when C. Alvares staged his tiatr "Jurament" in
Mumbai in 1954 and M.Boyer sang 7 songs, and overnight
he became famous and a favourite among the tiatr
lovers.
Banking on his popularity, M.Boyer penned his first
taitr titled "Bekar Empregad" which was held at
Bhangwadi on 13ver Julaiche 1954. The tiatr lovers
just loved it and he had three shows at the same
venue.
His specialized soon in decent as well as comedy
songs, which he himself composed, but his forte lied
in his enacting comedy roles and at that time, Souza
Ferrao-Anthony Mendes-M. Boyer were considered to the
'three greats in Saxtti".
Since childhood, he had a facination and liking for
the tiatr and when Konkani stage artistes landed in
Goa from Mumbai, M.Boyer would go to see them wherever
he could. It was on one such occasion that he had the
golden opportunity to sing a song for Souza Ferrao's
tiatr "Zotkaxi". He had a relative from Nuvem in
whose drama he also acted. While schooling at Bombay
Catholic Educational Institute, he was given a role in
Joao Agostinho Fernandes' tiatr "Kunnbi Jaki".
Souza Ferrao and Anthony Mendes helped him a lot. It
is said that the late Anthony Mendes had predicted
about M.Boyer's future on the Konkani stage and had
even written to him a letter saying: "Eka disa tum
amchea Konknni palka velem ek porzollit neketr
zatolem" (One day you will shine brightly on the
Konkani stage).
Some of his famous earlier tiatrs included: Bekar
Empregad, Posko Irmaum, Cazari Put Sezai, Bacro
Parabens, Private Wedding, Amchem Pordhesponn,
Bessanv, Burgim ani Bhangar, Cazarache Ratri, and
later: Sounsar Sudhorlo, Ekuch Rosto, Ghor Dukhi Gaum
Sukhi, and Mog-Kazar-Divors.
He sang thousands of songs and his songs were full of
morals as well as of humour. His immortal songs with
ryhmes such as "Bhurgim tim konanchim vo baullim tim
mennachim?" still sounds very pleasing to the ear even
after decades. His songs have been relayed on A.I.R.
as well as compiled in audio records and cassettes.
His sole Konkani songs album "25 Vorsanim" has his
best of his compositions and is a classic collection.
(Info summarised based on an article from Goa Today
and Fausto V. Da Costa's Taitr Ani Tiatrist
publication and pictures as archived by Gaspar Almeida
and Ulysses Menezes of www.goa-world.com )
=====
This week in Kuwait: 28th Jan. - One Act Konkani Play Competition organized by
United
Club of Utorda in association with Goan Welfare Society-Kuwait. Venue:
Gulf-English School Auditorium, Rumeithiya.
Gulf Goans e-Newsletter yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans/ Moderator Gaspar
Almeida /Presented by Uly Menezes www.goa-world.com/goa/ since 1994. Thanks
for the continued support of the www.goa-world.com/goa/ team.
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