Tomazinho Cardozo's Play and Konglish

Tomazinho Cardozo's Play and Konglish

Nov 18, 2005

At the very beginning let me state that I am not a theatre lover. In any
language. I much prefer movies as entertainment. But since I did go for
Tomazinho's play, The Verdict, just to see if he could successfully make
the transition from Konkani to English drama. I think it was brilliant
first attempt.

I had another appointment at 7.45 p.m. so I had to leave after watching
just about 40 minutes of the play, but what I saw was impressive. Later in
the night I phoned a friend who had watched the entire play and asked for
his opinion. He said that it was good except for the Goan accents and the
Goan English. I had noticed this too, but had seen it as a positive rather
than a negative. The play is set in Goa. The language the actors speak
naturally has to be Goan English and not some fake British or American
accent. Sure the English that we speak here is flawed. Our accents is Goan
and very often we literally translate from Konkani to English. So what of
it? That's the way we speak. And that's the way you can expect the
characters to speak in a play set in Goa.

In fact I would suggest to Tomazinho that in his future English plays to
introduce even more of these 'Goanisms' in the dialogue. And even throw in
Konkani words when appropriate. Even a non-Konkani speaking person will get
the gist of what was said. I don't see why we have to be apologetic about
the way we speak English and put on fake accents just because it is an
'English' play.

In Konkani tiatrs we see so much of English used and it does not seem at
all out of place. The main objective is entertainment and the ability to
convey a message - communication. As long as this is done I don't see why
there should not be plays with a heady mix of Konkani and Goan English that
everyone can understand and enjoy.

Looking forward to more entertainment from Tomazinho, Irene and the
enthusiastic Kala Mogi troupe. And hoping it will be in Konglish!

Cheers!

Cecil Pinto
cecilpinto@gmail.com



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