More than a tiatr
For long now, if anything was likened to a ‘tiatr’, it was taken to be an insult. Now, we’re waking up to the reality of how this vibrant form of the Konkani stage — despite attempts to look down on it — is something that strongly reflects Goan cultural traditions since the late 19th century and earlier.
Politics in recent years, shifting equations in Goa, and probably the Romi-Devanagari rift in Konkani too, all lead to the hitherto neglected tiatr finally getting an academy of its own. While it is yet to be seen whether fairly lavish State funding can take this stage form forward, having an official body finally supporting it suggests the tiatr has come a long way indeed. Old-timers remember with surprise how State-funded bodies once shunned tiatrs. All sorts of arguments were used then, including claims that tiatr audiences could not be trusted to maintain cleanliness in the plush auditoria!
Bygones will be bygones. Now, it’s left to be seen if the tiatr in Goa gets the impetus it badly needs. Saturday, April 17, marks yet another tiatr day, since the first modern Konkani tiatr was staged in Bombay in 1892. It makes sense to see where our tradition and culture forms are headed. More so, with all kinds of challenges and competition emerging on the cultural front.
Goa University’s Andre Rafael Fernandes’ PhD research on the subject reminds us that the tiatr is actually connected with older Goan cultural and drama forms, such as the zagors and khels. This means that the cultural roots of the tiatr go further back than 1892 itself, as is widely thought.
Tiatr is intricately linked with Konkani, and Goan, music and song. Many prominent tiatrists have also acted in the Konkani films, particular those emerging during the cinematic renaissance of Konkani in around the 1960s. All this means the elite tendency of looking down on the tiatr — primarily because it is not seen as a form of “elite” entertainment — is both misplaced and unfair.
Dr Fernandes’ work digs up a good deal of information about past tiatrs. In a small society like Goa, we never know whether such information exists, and how to access it. There is a crying need to do more intense research on local issues, which should have happened more consistently since Goa University was set up in the mid-1980s.
Tiatr proponents point out that written records of the tiatr are scattered around in diverse places, or difficult to access. This is true even of early Goan music, cut on LP records. Unless these are preserved carefully, this is a treasure likely to be lost. All India Radio needs to help preserve and make available early Konkani music too.
Obviously, like many others in Goa, tiatrists too are lost when it comes to dealing with the new digital media, and that whole ocean called cyberspace. Is it something that could hurt them, or help them, or both? Should they be sharing their content via cyberspace? Will audiences grow, or sales shrink, if their work is also visible on the Net?
A small culture like that of Goa has a lot to gain by sharing and tapping new audiences, in whichever part of the globe. But unless there are a few pioneers taking the lead in this field, fear will rule and the old pay-before-you-watch logic will continue. For some time now, tiatr supporters have been stressing on the need to preserve scripts of drama shows. There is also need to perhaps translate tiatrs, find wider audiences for them (beyond just the traditional Catholic audience) and build effective links between tiatrs and diaspora communities. How this will be done is to be seen, since it obviously costs a lot and resources are finite.
For Goa, the tiatr is not just a successful form of entertainment. It is a grassroots initiative that has survived, and thrived, over time. It is a reminder about so many aspects of Goa which have worked in the past, and continue to work today. To make these vibrant once more will need more than just funding, but innovative and bold ideas that latch on to the challenges and opportunities of our times. We owe it to past generations who innovated, persisted and build up the media that allowed them to voice their issues in a manner that made sense to the wider Goan community.
