Debashree Mukherjee <m.debash...@gmail.com> is a research student at the Department of Cinema Studies (School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University) and is working on a dissertation on film culture in Bombay in the 1930s and 40s.
Debasharee writes: "I have been trying to historicize the emergence of film journalism at this time and am looking at early 'film critics' like K.A.Abbas and Baburao Patel. There is a substantial amount of fact and legend that exists around these two figures. An individual like Clare Mendonca, however, film critic with the Times of India at the time, has vanished without a trace (except for the Filmfare Awards trivia). I am writing to you on a hunch, and with the hope that you might be able to help me dig up some information on Clare Mendonca and her work. I chanced across a mention of her in a satirical poem posted by you online." I didn't remember that post myself, and had to google to find some tracks. What I found online was this: Joel D'Souza's article on Assonora (probably from Goa Today?): When we recall the name of the late Fr Philip Neri Mendonca, need we mention that he was the most famous Principal of Goa's prime educational institution of yesteryears - the St Joseph's High School in Arpora? His brother Fr William Mendonca taught us English at Don Bosco High School, Panjim. We remember how meticulously he would explain to us Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, how seriously he corrected the essays we wrote and how thrifty he was while giving marks. Fred, Philip and William were brothers. The late Clare Mendonca of Filmfare fame was their sister, while their father Isidore Mendonca was associated with the Anglo Lusitano, a Goan weekly, edited by Ignatius Fonseca. http://www.goacom.com/village/assonora/ Also, Shanti Doot's post: Boribunder. Causing a certain amount of awe, legitimate concern and wonder. Goans like Clare Mendonca and Frank Moraes* Have contributed much to this paper in their days, And as Fred** says, the arrival of the Times of India should not mean plunder. (*Clare Mendonca was an outstanding Film critic and, at their inception, there was talk of naming the Film Awards Clare Awards instead of Filmfare Awards; Frank Moraes was the first Indian editor of the Times of India, an outstanding journalist in his own right.) **Fred Noronha in his open letter to the Times of India dated February 18, 2008) http://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg24497.html If any of you has any knowledge of Clare Mendonca, please pass it on to the list, or share it with Debashree. Thanks! FN PS: For more links to *documentary* film in India: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/docuwallahs2 FN * http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com M +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 http://twitter.com/fn On Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/people/Frederick-Noronha/502514643 "A dork is a dork is a dork." - Judy Markey
