As part of the concluding ceremony of 125 years of tiatr celebrations, noted Goan cartoonist
Alexyz will be displaying his caricatures of 104 great tiatrists at an
exhibition to be held at Kala Academy on April 16.
Speaking about this unique venture and
project, Alexyz said that initially he read about the celebration by the
committee with regards 125 years of tiatr. He views tiatr as Goa’s identity and
integral part of his growing up as a Goan.
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“With 125 years of tiatr,” informs Alexyz,
“many have not seen the noted tiatrists of the past.” “So with visuals,” he
says, “it is an effort to take people to caricature stage and help them enjoy
tiatr in a different form.”
“May be watching the caricatures of
tiatrists on the wall at the exhibition and going through the pages of the book
leisurely, it will help every tiatr fan to visualize their favourite
tiatrists,” mentioned Alexyz. “As tiatr is a visual art and my caricatures are
equally a visual art, each caricature will take them back into the life of the
tiatrists and the popular tiatrs they performed,” he added.
With regards to the tedious task of
tracing the tiatrists of bygone era, Alexyz revealed that it took him almost a
year to complete all the 104 caricatures. Initially, he thought that he would
have to work on 125 artistes, but then it came down to 100 and had to conclude
with 104 tiatrists.
As Tomazinho Cardozo is the chairman of
the 125thtiatr celebration committee, Alexyz placed his innovative idea before
him and all the members liked and approved it. “Each caricature tells you a
story about the tiatrist,” informs the cartoonist, “whether he/she was an
actor, director or a singer.”
Alexyz’s main aim to work on the caricatures was to highlight
the past history of tiatrists and glory of tiatrs it all started in Mumbai.
Earlier, as he was basically based in Mumbai, he was fortunate to watch the
first tiatr there.
While working on the caricatures, Alexyz’s prime focus has been
on the tiatrists who have passed away and have contributed immensely towards
tiatr. He says the list of tiatrists, besides the photographs, was provided by
the committee and some of the photos were blurred, forcing him to use his wild
imagination for some of them.\
Alexyz says he was passionate about the venture as it had a
cause of documenting it visually. “It is basically a peep into the lives of the
departed tiatrists and how they performed on stage. They would enjoy my
caricatures as much as they would enjoy acting or singing on stage,” he added.
While going through the pages of the book titled ‘Caricatures of
100 Great Tiatrists’, Alexyz says it will be like watching 100 tiatrs sitting
on the chair. In moments of difficulty, he took a lot of help from friends in
the tiatr world like Jessie Dias and Roseferns and books penned by Wilson
Mazarello, Fausto da Costa and John Gomes (Kokoy).
Besides making references to various books, Alexyz says that he
had to do a lot research work on his own and get insight from people, which was
not available in those books. “For example Kid Boxer was behind bars twice for
his controversial songs. Once he was picked up from Mapusa and put behind bars
in Nagpur jail for 6 months,” he said, “so I have showed him behind bars which
people did not see him otherwise.”
“With regards to Rosario Rodrigues,” Alexyz said he went
personally to Longuinhos Bar and Restaurant in Margao, where he had a table
almost reserved for him and he would meet his friends and write his tiatr.
“Noticed the chair, table and mirror behind and now it can be seen on my
stage,” he grinned.
Elaborating more on the same noted tiatr director, Alexyz said
that Longinhos Bar was an integral part of Rosario Rodrigues. “These are my own
personal researches done to make my book interesting,” he noted.
Miss Julie being followed by three policemen into the tiatr in
Candolim also features on Alexyz’s tiatr page. “There’s also William de
Curtorim, popular tiatrist of yester years, who was noted for his controversial
songs about the scams of the day. “He once took the ‘Herald’ paper which carried
a cartoon of mine and sang a song about it,” he concludes.
The
book release function and exhibition of caricatures will be held on April 16,
2018 at Kala Academy’s Black Box and Art Gallery respectively. It will be
inaugurated by noted tiatrist Tita Preto and Dr Sidney Pinto do Rosario will
speak about the book.
