The one and only M Boyer - the living legend Manuel Santana Aguiar who has been at the forefront of tiatr for over 50 years, has written, produced and directed over 30 plays and has given a staggering 5000 performances in his lifetime - the only Goan tiatrist to have been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award earlier is to be bestowed upon with a PADMA SHRI award on India's Republic Day today by the President of India in New Delhi.
How long does it take you to script a play?
I am a perfectionist. I take about a month on an average to write a tiatr. I deliberately write slowly to avoid mistakes. It may surprise you, but I have perhaps a strange way of writing my dramas. I write the ending first.
Why did you change your name?
Our school authorities in those days would not allow students to engage in such extra curricular activities and fined them 10 rupees if they did. So I used another name to avoid detection - M Boyer. M stands for my name, Manuel, and Boyer after the famous Hollywood actor Charles Boyer; I was a great fan of his.
M.Boyer originally hailed from Ponda, but lives in Raia Santemoll (Rachol) with his family. According to the 'Tiatr Ani Tiatrist' publication, M. Boyer was first seen on stage at Bhangwaddi, Bombay (now Mumbai) for Kamat de Assolna's tiatr and it was Kamat who took him specially for his drama from Goa.
Later when C. Alvares staged his tiatr "Jurament" in Mumbai in 1954 and M.Boyer sang 7 songs, and overnight he became famous and a favourite among the tiatr lovers.
Banking on his popularity, M.Boyer penned his first taitr titled "Bekar Empregad" which was held at Bhangwadi on 13ver Julaiche 1954. The tiatr lovers just loved it and he had three shows at the same venue.
His specialized soon in decent as well as comedy songs, which he himself composed, but his forte lied in his enacting comedy roles and at that time, Souza Ferrao-Anthony Mendes-M. Boyer were considered to the 'three greats in Saxtti".
Since childhood, he had a facination and liking for the tiatr and when Konkani stage artistes landed in Goa from Mumbai, M.Boyer would go to see them wherever he could. It was on one such occasion that he had the golden opportunity to sing a song for Souza Ferrao's tiatr "Zotkaxi". He had a relative from Nuvem in whose drama he also acted. While schooling at Bombay Catholic Educational Institute, he was given a role in Joao Agostinho Fernandes' tiatr "Kunnbi Jaki".
Souza Ferrao and Anthony Mendes helped him a lot. It is said that the late Anthony Mendes had predicted about M.Boyer's future on the Konkani stage and had even written to him a letter saying: "Eka disa tum amchea Konknni palka velem ek porzollit neketr zatolem" (One day you will shine brightly on the Konkani stage).
Some of his famous earlier tiatrs included: Bekar Empregad, Posko Irmaum, Cazari Put Sezai, Bacro Parabens, Private Wedding, Amchem Pordhesponn, Bessanv, Burgim ani Bhangar, Cazarache Ratri, and later: Sounsar Sudhorlo, Ekuch Rosto, Ghor Dukhi Gaum Sukhi, and Mog-Kazar-Divors.
He sang thousands of songs and his songs were full of morals as well as of humour. His immortal songs with ryhmes such as "Bhurgim tim konanchim vo baullim tim mennachim?" still sounds very pleasing to the ear even after decades. His songs have been relayed on A.I.R. as well as compiled in audio records and cassettes. His sole Konkani songs album "25 Vorsanim" has his best of his compositions and is a classic collection.
(Info summarised based on an article from Goa Today and Fausto V. Da Costa's Taitr Ani Tiatrist publication and pictures as archived by Gaspar Almeida and Ulysses Menezes of www.goa-world.com )
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