Konkani machi is a sacred place for all true Konkani tiatr lovers if not for all Konkani stage performers called ‘Tiatrists’ and any ugly act by the performer or by the audience on this sacred stage is not accepted at any cost.
The videos downloaded on Facebook and other social networks wherein a woman climbing over the stage when a performance was going on and slapping the singer followed by the bashing of the singer on the stage by supposedly hired goondas was shocking and very hurting. The woman and her companions were lucky to escape harmless from the hands of peaceful tiatr lovers though the woman was arrested and released on bail the same night. The release of the woman failed our law once again. The slap on the artist during his performance on stage confirmed the quality of that particular woman and her slap was not just on the artist but also on our sacred stage and on the entire tiatr fraternity.
I would highly recommend the present day tiatrists to watch the Marathi movie ‘Natyasamrat’ and you would understand the true meaning of the sacred stage. Every successful person has got critics and one who criticizes others should be open for criticism and same must be accepted sportingly. A comedian on stage cracks several jokes but he is not ready to accept an ordinary non-hurting joke cracked on him? Is this the spirit of our today’s comedians? A singer exposes others taking names but he/she takes a song personally wherein no names been taken. Is this the spirit of today’s singers?
Those days there were no kings, queens, princes, emperors, pearls, etc., on Konkani stage but there were genuine tiatrists. Tiatr was their passion and they entertained the tiatr lovers with their open heart and mind. Some of them never performed for money but on the contrary they sacrificed what they had for the love of tiatr. No one could dare to climb the stage and disturb the tiatr but today disturbing a tiatr and that too at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao has become a routine affair.
