Fausto’s FUTT: Vintage Wine!Review of Fausto V. Da Costa’s award-winning Konknni play, Futt (the crack), in audio CD and book-form.
By: Walter Menezes
A week ago, I came across a collector’s item(s): the audio CD and the book in Romi script of Fausto V. Da Costa’s award-winning Konknni play, Futt (the crack).
The play immediately took me down memory lane. Some twenty-five summers ago, when one had to ‘book’ a Bajaj scooter and then wait for ages for your turn to come, the public transport was the best way to travel, especially the mini-buses, famous then as they are now, for the music that they played to make the journey comfortable. Futt, I still remember, was quite a hit those days and I must admit that I must have heard the play a number of times as I commuted to work from Kepem to Sanguem, a 15 km stretch with a long break at Curchorem, the mini-bus staying put till another one literally pushed it from behind!
The audio CD together with the book makes an excellent combination. A one-act play in the beginning, Futt was later developed into a full-fledged tiatr and staged for the first time at Patkar Hall in Mumbai in aid of Novem Goem, the Konknni daily in Romi script. Besides Mumbai, this tiatr was also staged in Goa and Pune and by the time Futt was nearing the ‘fifty-shows’ milestone, Faust-bab decided to release the audio cassette of the same. Incidentally, Futt received the ‘Man of the Year Award’ in 1983, instituted by Murli Deora, then President of BRCC(I).
Not many would know that Fausto V. Da Costa, the editor of Gulab, Goa’s popular Konknni monthly magazine in Romi script and The Goan Review, a bi-monthly Konknni-English family magazine, was once a professional tiatr ‘prompter’. Those were the days when the ‘prompter’ was much sought-after, coming as he did to the ‘rescue’ of many a singer and actor on stage. This experience, as also that of acting in a few dramas, held him in good stead. Faust-bab sure knows how to weave a story and keep the listener / reader glued to his seat.
Futt is the story of Hasten who leaves behind the wealth and riches of his father and marries Brenda, daughter of a carpenter and love of his heart. Ten years later when Hasten meets with an accident and is bed-ridden and Brenda goes to work to keep the fires burning, there is another fire which engulfs Hasten: he begins to doubt his wife!
The story takes another twist when Lovina, Hasten’s secretary, ensnares him. Marriage is on the rocks and there comes that moment when Hasten must now decide. Will he divorce his wife for Lovina or will love emerge victorious once again, through the rough and tumble of life? For answers, you will have to either listen to the CD or read the book in tiatr-form.
The dialogues have been carefully scripted. Sample this one when Hasten tells Brenda, “Mhojea papache polasint diamanti asat tachea von ek vorti diamant hea tumchea gorib ghorant asa ani dekhununch hanv sogllem soddun hanga ailam…” (There is this diamond in your humble home which is more precious than all the diamonds in my father’s palace and that is why I have left everything to come here…)
The cast of Wilson Mazarello (Hasten), Sharon Mazarello (Lovina) and others like Xavier Agapito, Bab Peter and Fausto Da Costa have put up a superb performance. But it is Deodita Da Costa as Brenda who really makes a difference. Her voice and the intensity with which she sings some of the cantos (story-related songs between acts), set to music by Babush, makes your heart skip a beat! Not to be missed is Zatam Fugar and Noxibak Roddtam.
We have not seen many tiatrists in recent times putting their scripts in book-form but with the establishment of Tiatr Akademi and a well-known tiatrist like the former speaker of Goa Assembly, Tomazinho Cardozo heading the institution, one hopes that others will soon follow Faust-bab’s footsteps.
And to Fausto V. Da Costa, all I can say is this: On(c)e more! On(c)e more!!
The book:
FUTT
Author and Publisher: Fausto V. Da Costa
Pages: 64
Price: Rs. 30/-
The Audio CD:
FUTT
Story, Dialogues, Lyrics: Fausto V. Da Costa
Music: Babush
Produced by: Dinfa Productions, Mumbai
Price: Rs. 150/-
Available at: (Book) / Goa Konknni Akademi, Panaji, Zito’s, Margao and other outlets. (CD) / Manfa Music, Margao, Goa.
Fausto V. Da Costa can be contact at fausto@vsnl.net
[This review has been published in the Gomantak Times and the writer,
Walter Menezes, can be contacted at walter_menezes@yahoo.com]
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