TONY CALL – SENIORMOST KUWAIT TIATRIST. Antonio Cabral popularly known as Tony Call is one of the well known Kuwait Goan tiatrists who before coming to Kuwait in November 1959 with Portuguese Passport as a citizen of India Portuguesa had acquired name and fame for him by acting in many Tiatros. Not only in Goa with topmost professionals but also in Bombay he acted with topmost tiatrists of that time. From the very early age in his Candolim Village at Orda St. Cruz Vaddo, Tony Call started showing small skits or dramas during the feasts of the Chapel of St. Cruz. During those days he was burning with fire to show his stage talent and organising such shows with no hired curtains but by using “sezareanchim chedram and kapddam”; with no hired chairs but “sezareanchim bankinam, stoolam ani kodelam; with no ticket but “funkott”. From the early age he had great capacity to organize such shows with the participation of his colleagues. Being one of his admirers the then great Tiatrist and “ghanv bhav” of Tony Call, the late Alexinho de Candolim first time inducted Tony Call into his Tiatr in 1951 when Tony Call was just a school boy, the tiatro was “To Bhavtto Dhormancho” which was the best tiatro of Alexinho de Candolim. During those days people just used to flock to see Alexinho de Candolim’s tiatros and best of the tiatrists of those days were part of Alexinho’s drama, some of them were Aristedes Dias, M. Dod De Verna, Lucian Dias, Bom Jesus, Jacinto Vaz and Miss Julie. In this tiatro Tony Call rendered one beautiful solo “Madr” which was composed by Alexinho de Candolim himself. When he sang this song with his the then angelic appearance and melodious voice Tony Call’s fame went far and wide and immediately the late C. Alvares inducted him in his yet another best Tiatr “Jurament”. During those days Candolim was the home of some of the topmost tiatrists, even the legendary Minguel Rod acquired “tiatristpon” when he mixed up with the then well known tiatrists from Candolim. Minguel Rod that time was doing his tailoring apprenticeship at Candolim near the Church. Before coming to Kuwait, Tony Call in 1958 came to Bombay when relationship between Goa and Bharat was not good. The officials of the Bharati Government in Bombay were keeping strict vigil on Tiatrists in Bombay because during those days when Bharat Serkar was trying to forcibly capture Goa some of the Goan patriotic tiatrists were strongly opposing this move of Bharat Serkar, these tiatrists from the Stage were showing their disgust of Bharat Serkar’s ambition of forcibly annexing Goa. For this reason Konkani stage that time was looked with suspicion by the Chamchas of Bharat Serkar who used only the Goans to do this chamchagiri. Some of the tiatrists who were opposing Goa’s swallowing by Bharat were banned entry into Bombay and other parts of Bharat and those who were showing their opposition to Bharati dadagiri over Goa in the name of fake liberation were kept under strict surveillance, one of them was the late Kid Boxer who finally was deported to Goa. Before coming to Bombay Tony Call rendered one song in Goa in praise of Portuguese and because of this Tony Call was also looked upon with suspicion in Bombay though Tony Call was a non-political artiste and he liked Goa and Goan ways of life very much. When he reached Bombay this news spread everywhere and immediately C. Alvares and others inducted Tony Call in their dramas though he did not last long in Bombay as he was preparing leaving for Kuwait. When Tony Call came to Kuwait he first time acted in Ahmadi in 1961 at Naklistan Club in a drama staged by the then mighty tiatrists Joe Luis and Romaldo de Siolim. Then again he acted in Romaldo’s drama staged at Ahmadi’s Hubara Club in 1963 where he rendered solos. Gradually the number of Goans working at Ahmadi Oil sector started thinning out and thereby Goan activities at Ahmadi started lessening. Hence in late sixties Tony Call shifted his tiatros to Kuwait City at Church Hall where the late Bishop of Kuwait gave all the facilities for such programmes as he liked Goans very much for their simplicity. In 1971 Tony Call staged at Church Hall his drama “Voklen Naddlo” followed by “Melelim Moronk Na”, both were instant success. Earlier in 1971 he produced his Disc with Alfred & Rita Rose where he rendered beautiful songs - solos, duos and duets. In 1975 he brought Alfred and Rita Rose to Kuwait who were the first visiting tiatrists to Kuwait and during their stay they staged their two tiatros – one: Angounnechi Vokol and the other: Bangaracho Hoti, both at Church Hall. Tony Call had unique distinction of being the first Goan to perform on Kuwait TV and also first tiatrist to display his stage talent on Kuwait TV in early seventies when he rendered one Konkani solo and performed a duet with the then beautiful actress Theresa. In mid seventies, Tony Call along with his wife Josephine participated in Arabic serial shown by Kuwait Television, this was another unique record Tony Call has created. Regarding the ongoing tiatrists politics in Kuwait, Tony Call showed his total disgust for tiatrist using the terminology such as “To Aslear Aum Nachona”. According to Tony Call genuine tiatrists who want promotion of Konkani Stage and Konkani language will never use such anti-tiatr policies. He said during his time there were no such politics, everyone was co-operative to promote tiatro and thru Tiatro Konkani. In Kuwait, this beautiful art of tiatro was promoted in many respects by Tony Call. Tony Call not only staged his dramas in Kuwait but also promoted new and young artistes. He is very much responsible for keeping tiatro alive in Kuwait. If some of the tiatrists in Kuwait became famous, it was only because of Tony Call who gave them opportunities to show their talent. Though Tony Call performed so much in Kuwait, he always appreciated the efforts of his colleagues in helping him to promote tiatro and showed great appreciation for Mendes Bros and F.X. Pereira for their performances on the stage and receiving total support from them. He also showed his admiration for Alfred and Rita Rose and rated Alexinho de Candolim as all time great tiatrist. While concluding, Tony Call lamented that the present day tiatrists have totally forgotten oldies like him who have done so much for the cause of Konkani Tiatro. As a metter of interest besides being a tiatirst, Tony Call was a very good soccer goalkeeper in Goa representing his school and village Team Candolim in 1st division. During those days there were only two divisions-primeiro and Segundo, Candolim Team had a great team then having in its rank 4 Portuguese Pakles from Aguada and all 4 were highly skillful. The team strength was so great that time that all the opponents were afraid of Candolim and greater strength of this team was based on Tony Call under the bar. Having no choice, once in Panjim, one Paklo out of desperation kicked Tony Call on his face and broke some of his teeth but Tony Call never let the ball slip from his hands. Then gradually Tony Call stopped playing first class soccer. His forte lies in diving for the ball from one end of the post to the other. A.Veronica Fernandes, Kuwait. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
