The action of supposed supporters of Nuvem MLA Mickky Pachecho, barging onto the stage to stop a ‘kantar’ performance of tiatrist Francis De Tuem, during the tiatr ‘Tuzi-i-dis yetolo’, is a grave attack on Goa’s most loved and popular performing art.
The reasons why such a pre-meditated attack was unleashed is not, REPEAT not important. What offsets everything, including all arguments about the song being defamatory and a personal attack on Mickky Pacheco, is the act of entering the stage, the green room and forcibly stopping a tiatr artist from performing. There is no difference between these and hoodlums owing allegiance to parties like the Shiv Sena who storm offices and cinema halls demanding closures and bans. While the Nuvem MLA might claim that it is wrong to label them as his supporters, it is difficult to label them as otherwise. They were certainly not independent crusaders fighting to protect the right to privacy and freedom from ridicule and attack for politicians. The MLA’s presence at the Margao police station where he was seen arguing with the Margao PI, over allowing the tiatr to be staged under police protection, virtually confirms that he was fully behind those who forcibly attempted to stall the theatre. The MLA and the men who resorted to violence, must realise singularly and collectively, that the stage is the sanctum sanctorum of an artist. This includes the main stage, the green rooms and the area backstage where actors, singers, writers, make up crew and technicians work on their craft. This is their temple and tiatr is their God. Barging on to the stage during the performance and trying to stop a singer is akin to an attack on their temple.
The actions of the Margao police however need to be commended for stepping in to offer full protection to ensure that Francis De Tuem sang his song and director Roseferns’ tiatr continued. Hats off PI Margao CL Patil.
Coming to Pacecho’s charge that neither he nor anyone else can be the subject of personal attacks under the protection of “freedom of expression”, the charge may valid. But the response cannot be an attack on the sanctity of the stage and defiling it by an attack by goons. And Mr Pacheco himself has seen the value of reacting to such attacks legally through the courts, rather than through “street justice” of the worst kind – an attack on stage during the staging of a tiatr.
In 2013, during the staging of the same director Roseferns’ tiatr ‘Que Sera Sera …Zaumchem Zatelem’, at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, Francis De Tuem was arrested by the Verna police on charges of extortion and defamation, based on a complaint filed by Francisco ‘Mickky’ Pacheco.
By attacking Tuem on stage, the hoodlums now face a case for forming an unlawful assembly and disrupting the tiatr and threatening Francis De Tuem with dire consequences and further trespassing into the greenroom (changing room) of female artistes, thereby outraging their modesty.
While many questions can be raised about personal attacks on politicians, the response always has to be – tiatr, has a special place in the artistic narrative and caricature or parody or sarcasm has enriched the popular culture of any society. When Goa was more inclusive and a lot more tolerant, politicians used to back and fund tiatrs, even when some of the songs were against their parties or even themselves.
That is the Goa we want back and that is the Goa we want our children to grow up in, and whenever a line is crossed, there is always the law. But the law of the jungle which was displayed “on stage’ by alleged supporters of an elected representative is reprehensible.
