I must admit that I haven't seen the movie though I wanted very much to see it when I was in Goa. Somehow time and distance didn't make it happen. However, I have read a couple of reviews of it, in both English and Konkani, and also heard from some friends. When I read Jason's piece I felt that he has given a lot of spin to what the film may have been saying or portraying about Goan culture and the shortcomings or injustice meted out to Goan musicians who especially played for the Hindu film industry. If I remember correctly, Bobby raised lot of alarms about how the film showed Goans and their culture, especially the "bebdo" element in our laidback lifestyle. It was then defended, though it didn't make much of difference to its impact or effect, that the character Bobby was based on an East Indian home. The East Indian culture to that of consuming booze and their womenfolk, particularly office-going ones, are put on the same standard as that of Goans. Such has been the impression ofr our and East Indian culture on the minds of other communities that little can be done about it. Now Goa itself shows how what the social scene is all about. In this respect, the film industry can take some "license" to portray Goans as Goans have been and will continue to go about their own ways. Jason can be right in saying that Goans didn't get big credit in the music industry. I had long talks with the late Frank Fernand and he sort of said that one can't change the situation because the music directors held sway over the industry. But a tribute was paid to Anthony Gonsalves in a song, picturised on Amitabh Bachchan, then a superstar who commanded a legion of fans, and till today enjoys vast popularity. I doubt, however, the film directors deliberately underplayed or put Goans in a bad light. They perhaps wanted to cash in on the way non-Goans lapped the lifestyle of Goans shown on the big screen. Goa also came into the picture because of its beauty, so much so that Goa was termed "exotic" though now the term has attained a new meaning, that of "sexuality." The rape and drug incidences in Goa may have something to the spurt in film-making on Goa We have to live with the image and though people like Jason and the collective trying hard to, so to say, turn the tide it will be long before the outside world, more so in India, will accept it. As I was told, the movie was more on the romantic liaison between Chris Perry and Lorna Cordeira. Jason's saying that "of complicated relationship between the Goan, and in particular the Goan Catholic, and the Indian state" seems to me a bit stretched. I, for one, would love to hear about the so-called "complicated relationship" and when and how they happened. To keep this short, not going into certain personal details of each of the main characters and also not touching the tiatr part of the article, one thing Jason says right is that Lorna must be honoured, though she has been done in many ways, in a memorial way. If Lorna is said to be the "icon of Goan culture' than perhaps alcoholism and sexual mores of Goans are rightly shown on the Hindi screen. For me, Lorna doesn't epitomises Goan culure per se. She has rightly earned her musical fame under Chris and the pair has created history that is unlikely to be repeated in this generation. eugene
