Keeping monetary rewards at bay, Paul Joaquim’s love for the tiatr stage prompted him to produce tiatrs, audio cassettes and CDs of several tiatrists. Hailing from the serene village of Mandur in Tiswadi taluka, Paul Joaquim Antonio Fernandes, popularly known as Ronny Socorro on the Konkani stage, was born on November 17, 1966. His grandmother, late Rosita Aguiar’s brother, legendary M Boyer and mother, Helen Rodrigues’ brother, Steve Rodrigues were part of his family and enthusiastic tiatrists.
“Whenever M Boyer would stage his tiatrs in Panjim at Campal grounds, our entire family, including people from our ward, Church vaddo, would hire a pick-up and go for the show,” revealed Paul Joaquim.
“Later tiatrs by C Alvares, Rosario Rodrigues, Jacinto Vaz were staged at El Pegado in Goa Velha and the trend of flocking for the shows continued here too. During that period of time, tiatrs would be staged at 10pm. So we would all leave the village by 9pm in two or three buses,” Paul Joaquim revealed. His elder brother, late Ronny Socorro, who studied in St Anthony’s High School, Duler and was a colleague of tiatrist Ben Evangelisto, was very fond of tiatrs and would pen plays and compose songs.
During his primary education at Azmane High School, Mandur, Paul Joaquim was exposed to plays and songs at the annual gatherings held annually in the school. After higher secondary studies at the college in Pilar, he set up a shop (library) of video cassettes in Mandur and later at El Pegado building in Goa Velha.
“Hiring video cassettes and watching them leisurely at home was the craze at that point of time,” Paul Joaquim confessed. While into this business, in 1995, he released his first audio cassette ‘Goycho Put’ under the banner of ‘Ronny Socorro Productions’.
While working on the audio cassette ‘Goycho Put’, Paul Joaquim penned his first song ‘Mati’ and the title song of the album was rendered by M Boyer. “The cassette featured Jr Rod, Josephine, Bab Andrew, Steve Rod and Lourdes as the singers,” he said.
After the release of his first audio cassette, Paul Joaquim decided to get into the production task and produced around 37 audio cassettes of various tiatrists. They included Ben Evangelisto’s ‘April Fool’ (1996), comedian Dominic’s ‘Peleachi Seva’ (1997), C D’Silva’s ‘Viktem Mellona’, Philip de Orlim’s ‘Kumsar’, Jr Rod’s ‘Ghoddpeak Poilo Man’, comedian Joana’s ‘Devan Ditoch’, Jose Rod’s ‘Koxtt’, Lawry Travasso’s ‘Goenchim Cheddvam’ and several others.
After production of audio cassettes, Paul Joaquim shifted his focus on VCDs with the production of comedian Dominic’s first VCD ‘Oh My God’, followed by John D’Silva’s ‘Duddvankar’, Tony Dias’ musical show in the form of VCD, Danny de Ribandar’s tiatr ‘Dhago’, VCD ‘GoodBye’ of late comedian Marcus, one VCD and three audio CDs of Xavier Gomes, two audio CDs of Francis de Tuem and 3 audio CDs of Jr Rod and the list goes on.
During Fr Conceicao D’Silva’s tenure as a parish priest in Amparo Church, Mandur, Paul Joaquim produced three audio CDs, namely ‘Fr Conceicao ani Mandurcho Ganv’, ‘Fr Conceicao ani Mandurchem Devosanv’ (Part I) and ‘Fr Conceicao ani Mandurchem Devosanv’ (Part II).
Paul Joaquim found an entry on the tiatr stage in Joaquim Jack’s tiatr ‘Roth’ in 2007. “It was the role of a landlord,” he said , “and late Rosario Dias, who was part of the troupe, taught me to speak Portuguese on stage.”
Taking advantage of the lockdown due to the pandemic, Paul Joaquim also released a song on the YouTube channel titled ‘Minminteachea Vogtar’ on the corona virus. Paul Joaquim enjoys penning tiatrs on family issues, besides composing songs in the form of solos, duets, duos and trios. He has plans of releasing a religious play in the future.
When making a comparison of tiatrs of yester years and that of todays, Paul Joaquim mentions that there’s a vast difference and productions of legendary tiatrists can never be compared to those of today. “Tiatrs and songs of those tiatrists of earlier era had a message to carry home and were very meaningful. Comedy was always clean and decent, with no vulgarity whatsoever,” he noted.
“If there is a decline in tiatr viewership today,” Paul Joaquim confesses, “it’s precisely because vulgarity has creeped in, both in songs and comedy.” “Love for stage art is a distant dream among tiatrists today,” he says, “and majority of the tiatrists have turned money-minded, leaving passion and love for stage art in the dark.”
“Tiatrs presented at KA’s annual tiatr competition are worth the watch,” Paul Joaquim states, “as each of the participants work with commitment and hard work and there’s always something for every viewer to carry home, be it with regards to tiatr, songs or comedy.”
