Hema Sardessai Accuses Me of Being a Terrorist; Threatens to Lodge Police Case Against Me - Augusto Pinto
Yesterday (Thursday, 5 December 2013) night at around 9.15 pm I got a call from Hema Sardessai. She said she would like to meet me, to which I said that's fine with me. I asked her how she got my number and she replied that I am well known, and it was easy to do so. I said I'd be willing to talk to her. I asked her whether she wished to discuss the Q & A session after The Coffin Maker (not that I it would have bothered me to discuss the issue) but she said no, she just wanted to chat with me because she found me an interesting person or some such thing. Today morning around 11 am, her driver came to the college to inform me that 'Hema Madam' had come, and although I was busy helping students preparing for an important competition organized by Goa Assembly, I left them, to welcome her. I found them outside the college gate and invited them in. Hema came up to me and said that speaking in the college would not be conducive. Reluctantly I agreed partly because there is hardly any place to have a discussion in the college, but I said I would need to be back with my students soon. As small talk she told me her name was Hema Sardessai D'Souza and her husband was Xavier D'Souza from Parra and introduced one burly man to me. I said I didn't know that. She also introduced the other one who was a close relative apparantly. She said she was related to both Manohar Parrikar and Vijay Sardessai and although Vijay Sardessai was a closer blood relation he would ruin Goa; and Manohar Parrikar was her dharmaguru. I suppose she just wanted me to know how influential she was. I maintained a polite silence as such high and mighty persons are not of interest to me. The moment she sat down she began accosting me because of what I had spoken about the film. I told her that I had put my views quite succinctly in the email I wrote to Goanet. So they began asking me to specify what it was I was against the film. I mentioned the obscenities in Konkani that every second sentence had and the mangled English the characters spoke and the idiotic characters they depicted Catholic Goans as. I asked whether this was the culture of the people they knew. Hema stated there were people like this. I replied that reality could certainly be stranger than art and fiction; and was indeed very complex, but when art objectifies an event, or a community, then people tend to believe such representations more than reality. Hema said that she found the flm so beautiful and I said fair enough, that's your view, but quoting what one of the participants in the Q & A said - she had no right to speak for all Goans. She then said that the Q & A was organized to cheat them. I said that I did not call for this and the Q & A could not have been held without the producers wanting to have it. She got hysterical at this point and accused people with an agenda for having organized the session. I said who organized it was not my problem. Her male companion said that people came with an agenda. I asked them what he was speaking about. Hema said Alina Saldanha had seen the film before and had hugged her saying how much she loved the film; she wanted to know why she had changed her opinion and was so hypocritical. I told him that Alina was not any confidant of mine, and although I know Dr Savia Viegas and Dr Jason Keith Fernandes who also spoke on the occasion all were expressing our own opinions and had he known any of these people they would have realized that it was ludicrous to even imagine that they would speak anything besides what their hearts demanded. I also pointed out that no one in the audience came forward to say anything nice about the film. I said that given that I did not know the director or her before, I don't understand why I should have any 'agenda' against her. It was the film that disgusted me. Hema's relative said that Jason had come with a long list of questions. I said that's his right and I could see nothing wrong with that: when one goes to a Q & A then it makes sense to come prepared with questions. Hema asked me whether I knew Remo Fernandes and I was puzzled and said obviously I knew who he was but I was not a familiar of his. Hema asked me why I was upset when she addressed me as "My Dear" at the Q & A and I told her that I found it very patronizing for a person who was probably 15 years mu junior and who she did not know from Adam sarcastically calling me My Dear. She said she called her husband My Dear and her father My Dear and her cousin My Dear. I told her that she was welcome to call her friends and relatives what she liked, but I was not going to tolerate such impertineces. They then stated that the censor board had passed the film with an A certificate, wherein there were two Goan members. I said that does not change my opinion. They asked me, so what do you want us to do? I said the damage has already been done, what can you do now? Hema replied that they would apply for a U certificate and there all the obscenities would be removed. I said that's your privilege, although in my mind I thought that the artistic integrity of these people stood exposed by this. Then Hema said why are you so communal? I said where was I communal? She said I had asked whether she would have said the same things if the things which were attributed to the Goan Catholics were similarly attributed to the Goan Saraswat community. Yes I said, I did write that. And I stand by that. I asked them whether she would have been OK with this? I was dumbfounded and disgusted when she replied with a very straight face that it would have been quite all right for her. Obviously people can say anything they like about Goans and depict them in any light, but as long as these people are paid hard cash, that's quite OK by them. At this point I said - Hema obviously you have your own views and you aren't going to change them and I certainly am not going to change my views of how disgusting your film is. Xavier D'Souza said I had a closed mind. I said I would not accept the contention that his mind was open and mine was closed. I reminded Hema that when I asked her whether she wanted to meet me because of the Q & A she had said she did not and I thought that she was a liar. I also told them that they were wasting my time and I had to go back to my students and got up and walked out. Now Hema lost it and started screaming at me YOU PEOPLE ARE TERRORISTS. YOU ARE A TERRORIST. I AM GOING TO FILE A POLICE COMPLAINT AGAINST YOU AND I HAVE PROOF NOW!! I told her to be my guest. Since I came in their car I thought they would reach me back but when I looked behind, I saw they were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they thought I would beg them to reach me back to the college, but I was having none of this and started walking back to the college. After I was well on my way, after a long while their car came behind me and someone said they would reach me back. I waved my hand conteptuously telling them to leave me alone. Augusto P. S. Thinking about the encounter later I realized that Hema must be pretty frustrated. After one hit song (Awaara Bhanvre) her career has been going nowhere. I asked some experts in music from my college and they told me that her voice was not good enough otherwise she would have had loads of offers by now. After a long while she has got a breakthrough in this film. So she is desperate for it to be successful. The songs of hers which I had praised were actually the most common mandos and dulpods of Goa and even if a tone-deaf donkey sang them, they would sound good. The one original song in the film was a flop. So for all one knows she is trying to start a controversy to get some cheap publicity for that lousy film. Actually I feel sorry for this loser. And yet I hope she manages to make it despite all the abuse she showered on me. And I forgive her for her uncouthness. Later it also struck me why the reference to Remo came up. Remo and Hema are known to be great pals. And I had written the following some years ago when it came to be known that Remo had begun to call himself Padma Shree Remo Fernandes ;-p and he would take huge sums of money to perform at Govt sponsored events. http://www.oheraldo.in/news/Opinions/The-Remo-in-Moira-Concert/8581.html Regards Augusto Pinto On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 12:02 AM, augusto pinto <[email protected]> wrote: > Veena Bakshi's film The Coffin Maker was given a special screening today, > apparantly by 'public demand', where among those present were the Governor > of Goa, and Environment Minister Alina Saldanha. > > The story of the film is an unlikely one: apparantly Anton Gomes through > force of circumstance has to become a coffin maker, apparantly a despised > profession in Goa. (Or so the film maker thinks). > > He is terribly depressed about this and tries to dissuade his son from > joining this profession. He says morosely that he is already dead even if > he is alive. And so a character called Death comes into his life ... > > Now the point of this story is not whether it is believable or not. It is > reasonably credible if one is a total ignoramus about Goa. But the way the > characters in the film are portrayed makes one sick. > > The Goan characters are made to swear and utter obscenities every sentence > or rather fragment of a sentence they speak, and there is not a single line > of correctly spoken English ascribed to them even from a character who was > once a teacher. > > There is some Konkani in the film but most of it in the dialogues also > happens to be obscenities such as Maimzovnech (sic), Bainzonvnech (sic), > Materchudh (sic)... spoken both by Catholic men and women. The only > decent Konkani were the songs sung by Hema Sardessai. > > Goan Catholic boys and girls were portrayed as constantly making "goo-goo > eyes" at each other - in other words being promiscuous. The men keep > drinking all the time. Their women are shown to behave like harridens and > shrews. > > This is not untypical of the films which Bollywood makes. But the point is > that this is not a typical Bollywood film but one of the alternate types of > movies which tour the film festival circuit. It has even won a prize at an > Italian festival. This is worse in a way because whereas people might take > Bollywood with a pinch of salt such films are thought to be authentic as > one Punjabi Canadian female averred later in the Q & A session. > > After the film there was a Q & A session where the director and producer > were present. But instead of the laudatory comments which the film people > expected, the intellegentsia in the audience launched into them with a fury > that left them stunned. > > To begin with writer, teacher and researcher Dr Savia Viegas using the > sandwich meathod of criticism doled out her two slices of bread about how > the cinematography was good and the direction was competent but then > inserted a piece of bacon in to say how the film stereotyped Goans. > > Minister Alina Saldanha who claimed to have seen the film twice pointed > out how more liquor flowed in the film than the waters in the rivers of > the Mandovi; and how the word 'men' as 'Wot men' was used more times than > ... > > I also laid into Veena Bakshi who by this time was reinforced by Hema > Sardesai who sang some songs in the film and who tried to defend the film > tooth and nail. She said she would not apologize for the film but > apologized (apparantly to the filmmaker that some Goans were hurt by the > film). I wonder if Hema would have said the same things if the things which > were attributed to the Goan Catholics were similarly attributed to the Goan > Saraswat community. > > I wasn't ready to accept the point that Bakshi made that all films > stereotype and that was inevitable pointing out that the Japanese film > Departures shown at IFFI, which was about a similar theme of discrimination > against embalmers in Japan, because they deal with an 'unclean' profession. > The respect with which that film depicted its characters was such that the > audience also ended up respecting them and their motivations; unlike The > Coffin Maker where a community was held up to ridicule - in a lovable way > perhaps - but ridiculous none the less. > > By this time the film people had had enough and wanted to rush out as soon > as was possible as they realized that ther excuses of 'creative licence' > and 'truth to characters' and so on were running thin. So I left at this > point. > > Best > Augusto > > -- > > > Augusto Pinto > 40, Novo Portugal > Moira, Bardez > Goa, India > E [email protected] > P 0832-2470336 > M 9881126350 > -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal Moira, Bardez Goa, India E [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
