The first Inter-School Children’s Tiatr competition organized by the Tiatr Academy of Goa (TAG) kicked off at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on August 28. It was inaugurated by Rudolph Fernandes MLA of Santa Cruz constituency and Anthony Barbosa, social worker, was the guest of honour, while the chairman of Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, Rajendra Talak was the special invitee.
There are five schools, both from north and south Goa, participating in the competition and the best three will be declared the winners after the performances. The participating schools include The Rosary High School, Bambolim, Fatima Convent School, Margao, Our Lady of Carmel High School, Curtorim, St Rock High School, Velim and Our Lady of the Rosary High School, Dona Paula.
On the first day of the competition, the curtains unfolded to the tiatr ‘Ugttem Mollob’ presented by The Rosary High School, Cujira-Bambolim. The tiatr has been penned and directed by Santosh Shetkar.
The story revolves around a family consisting of father Joaquim (Tanish Wadkar), mother Maria (Ruth Gonsalves) and their two children, son John (Evison Felizardo), daughter Ria (Tejasvt Mhalsekar). Inas (Harsh Ghadi) and Filu (Geetiksha Shirodkar), assist the family.
Joaquim is into construction work, while Maria is involved in social work. Both the parents are busy with their own work and commitments and they hardly find time for their children.
John’s dream is to become an artist, but his father wishes that he should either be a doctor or an engineer.
As John is in class 10, he is sent for tuitions and his father is hopeful that he will excel in his examination. Much before the examination and results are declared, through his contacts, Joaquim seeks reservation of one seat in Science stream for his son.
But John’s teacher (Pratiksha Parsekar) helps John to make his dream come true. He wins at the national-level art competition. Back home, John’s mother is convinced about her son’s passion, but who will convince the father? Will he be convinced after his son’s victory in a painting competition?
‘Ugttem Mollob’ has a story to relate and apart from education and passion for life, it also touches on some sensitive issues about girl child and her growth at different stages of life.
Comedy is inter-woven in the main plot and Harsh Ghadi as Inas and Geetiksha Shirodkar as Filu try to entertain by their comic dialogues. But the comical dosage was very less in the entire play.
The rest of the artistes on stage gave a fine performance. As guardians, Tanish and Ruth played convincing roles. Evison and Ria support each other as siblings, while Yatee Maithi, who makes a cameo is confident in her dialogues. Pratiksha Parsekar as teacher is impressive by her dress code and dialogues.
In the category of songs, there were renditions in all the categories and most of the songs were interactive and carried messages for the audience. But a handful songs such as ‘Flat Dilam Pain’, ‘Kazar’, ‘Paddo Zotacho’ were not related to the children. Nolvert Cota and his team provided good live music to all the songs on stage.
The stage sets have been handled by Anthony de Ambaji and the light effects by Santosh Shetkar. Anivesh Sawant shouldered the responsibility of background music and Tulsidas Naik and Kadisha D’Costa looked after the make-up and costumes respectively.
