gaspersWorld

By Gasper Crasto

Kuwait July 11, 2007: Gracy has been in the limelight right from the age of 4 years. A Kala Academy Award Winner for Best Child Artiste and Best Actress, she has gained fame over the years in a variety of roles including award winning at various stage competitions in Goa and Kuwait.

The versatile actress features in the first Konkani E-Cinema entitled 'BLACK' produced by T-BUSH International Films. The film written and directed by T-Bush, winner of 3 International Awards at the London Film Festival for his short film, 'The Letter' - is set for a grand premier in Kuwait on August 10, 2007 at Al Masrah, Hawally Auditorium.

In an interview to Gasper Crasto, the multitalented actress/singer revealed some interesting, candid facts.

Excerpts:

Q. The First Konkani E-Cinema 'BLACK' features Gracy Morais in the lead role. How do you feel about it?

Gracy: It has been a long journey, from a child artiste to the main stage and now in a full-length movie. I've composed Konkani songs too, initially under the guidance of my late father, gradually moving to self compositions. I have also written and directed a short play entitled 'Viswas' at the Kala Academy Tiatr Day in 1998. The transition, all along, has been smooth -- with a rich experience -- making many acquaintances, good and bad along the way. The growth has left me enriched as a better person.

Q. Many a time mega films adopt special background singers but in BLACK you are the main singer too.

Gracy: I have been a regular singer on stage, choir and other platforms. My dad, Luis Rodrigues - a member of the famous Azavedo band of 1970s, who wrote more than 10 plays and composed over 1000 Konkani songs plus liturgical hymns taught us basic solfegio although we never pursued it as a full-time career. The awards I won in singing categories at Kala Academy and other State level competitions in Goa speak about my fluency and singing expertise.

Q. Who are the persons who encouraged you on your way - in your acting?

Gracy: My parents, my dad and mom, are the two inspiring people in my life. During an era where female artistes were ostracized by the society, my mother stood by helping us to taste the stage appreciation right from a tender age.

My uncle Danny of Ribandar (Winner of Kala Academy Awards for the first, second and third best performance categories - 3 times each; who wrote and directed over 40 dramas including the 13 awards winning play 'DHAAGO' which was released as a home-video later), cast us in his dramas regularly -- first as singing artistes, steadily moving up to acting.

My husband, Augusto, is the sole factor for the rise of my acting graph until this stage of my life. His unwavering support has prompted me to go on.

Q: How did you first become interested in acting?

Gracy: Acting is a passion and singing is next to nature. I am not much into choir singing of late but I still continue singing in dramas. My uncle's dramas, in our early years, were a real platform and a great source of inspiration. The training, dialogue rehearsals and trials with the band excited us to no end. My uncle encouraged me and my elder sister as child artistes in each of his dramas. We looked forward to every such opportunity. My dad would compose songs for us and my mother would rehearse with us preparing us for the performances. As a musician, Dad made sure every single note conformed to the tune. In fact my whole family is involved in some aspect of drama. My two sisters Rosalia (3 consecutive times best performance-female 2003-2005) and Sandra (awarded merit certificates for acting and singing) and brother Austin also act in Konkani plays.

Q. BLACK will be your first appearance on a screen. Did you ever get nervous in front of the camera?

Gracy: Definitely, I can still feel the excitement of facing the camera the first time for T-Bush's earlier Konkani production 'All The Best' which however, did not materialize on screen. The lights, angles, positions and the movements were a bit unnerving at first. There is a vast difference between the stage and film. The movements are much restricted but the body language especially facial expressions are essential to add more depth to the character.

Initially, we would look straight into the camera and spoil the best shots. But hats off to T-Bush, he is a genius! He was so patient with us and tried to explain the positions and did everything to put us at ease. We would gang around him to see the close-up shots and to see how the camera worked. Gradually, we got into the groove and became quite comfortable.

'All The Best' had a very lively concept that would have been a 'maha' entertainer of this time. The concept had an international appeal and would have been a great attempt to attract international focus for Konkani films. It was a sit-com spanning three generations, upholding family and social values and moreover Goan traditions. Our roles in ATB were more challenging as actors with a wide array of emotions. We enjoyed ourselves so much with the roles that we even came to the stage of calling each other with the character names. The film progressed almost 60% and then was shelved for some 'unfortunate' reasons. Honestly, I wish T-Bush would finish the remaining portion of ATB and release it soon.

Q. What was the mood like working with T-Bush?

Gracy: As I said, this guy is a real maverick. I cannot imagine how he can bounce with energy the whole day through. Camera, lights are just an extension of his capabilities.

Technically, he is absolutely a professional. He knows what he wants from each artiste, each corner, each angle and even from every inch of the set. He can sense the slightest of wrong moves or vacant expressions used. It is a plus point for a director when he does the screenplay himself. The best part is that T-bush is very liberal as a director; he lets his actors sway without losing the characterization.

Above all, T-Bush is a perfectionist. He will never do anything with a "chalta hai" attitude. I remember when I recorded the songs for the film, we could not get a correct 'pulse' for one of the songs. We spent two whole afternoons trying to complete the song. When I thought it was finally done, he knocks at my door almost two months later, to do the recording again! It is nice to work with such people since they will not compromise on quality.

"BLACK is a sweet, just, humane and interesting film that recapitulates the life of a musician in a Goan backdrop of traditions and culture. T-Bush has researched the subject in depth to come up with such a fantastic portrayal."
-Gracy

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your role in the movie?

Gracy: BLACK is a sweet, just, humane and interesting film that recapitulates the life of a musician in a Goan backdrop of traditions and culture. T-Bush has researched the subject in depth to come up with such a fantastic portrayal of a profession passionately embraced by many a few decades ago but lost out on its appeal with the current generation due to economic and technological factors.

Goa is synonymous as a land of music; Goan music stands apart from the music of other regions in India because of its peculiar blend of Western and Indian traditions. The enigmatic fusion of eastern and western forms of music is now replaced by earsplitting sounds and learnt by rote western songs sung over and over by our so-called musicians. The old rhythmic vitality of our traditional music is lost to synthetic trance and techno music.

My character in the film is of a typical Goan lady torn in strife between her husband, a musician by profession, and her children who are well settled abroad.

When T-Bush narrated the role to me, I had tears in my eyes – I could identify the main character with the life of my father who had passed away a month before that. I could recapture my past in most of the scenes and dialogues. As I returned home that day, I could feel my eyes swell and my mind flooded with past memories. I shared a very close bond with my father and felt that this would be a way to relate to him. Later, I remember calling up my mom to say that I was doing a film for daddy.

Q: What do you like about your character?

Gracy: Essence of the character. She covers all facets of a typical wife and mother. It is a role that every woman subconsciously plays in her own way. You will find an 'Elvira' (that's me in the movie) in every home.

Q. Is there any kind of homework that you used to do prior to coming on the sets of 'BLACK'?

Gracy: For BLACK, T-Bush would give us a narrative before hand to prepare for the costumes and ensembles for the act. Earlier, we used to have elaborate practice sessions for 'All The Best.' Due to this we could finalize the shots within no time. But BLACK required us to mug the dialogues at every shoot. Getting into the character and playing it to perfection would become a little difficult at times. It might sound paradoxical, but this strategy seemed much relaxing. When you rehearse your dialogue-line beforehand, you already make up your mind on how you want to emote. Then, even if there is a slight change in the script, you are bound to get disturbed. That did not happen with BLACK.

Q: Can you share some memorable experiences from the set?

Gracy: Honestly, it was more fun than work. The film has a humorous concept all the way that turns to a serious as the story unfolds. Most of my scenes are with Cajetan (Cajie) Pereira and Comedian Philip who are real fun to work with. Querobina Carvalho is also fabulous – she has a perfect sense of comic timing. I have some scenes with other artistes who are equally amazing.

One of my favorite scenes was the one I filmed with Philip when we invite him home and he complains that I never talk to him. I look at him and reply very nonchalantly "dusmanachea tonddak hanv poinam!”

On another occasion we were shooting the whole day and the light was very bad in the evening. T-Bush wanted to complete the shoot before we hit dark. The first two shots had gone bad, so I and Cajie were rehearsing the scene again for another 'take'. When Cajie gave a perfect performance, I said, "exactly!" -- Completely forgetting that the camera was rolling. And again we had to do that scene all over!

At another instance, there was this tragic scene shot, the very thought of which scared me to the bone and I kept hoping T-Bush would change his mind about shooting it. I kept praying it would not end up like a dreadful memory. My mother was passing through a low phase after the death of my father. Also, some years back, my grandmother was totally worked up seeing me in an act as a widow grieving for her murdered son. Surely I did not want this scene to have any kind of impact on their minds. I remember landing up for the shoot totally apprehensive of what awaited me. I saw all the crew ready for action and I braced myself for the worst. But in the end, I was very happy with the way T-Bush shot it. In fact we had more fun shooting this scene than any other.

Q: What difference do you see between a Feature film and Video film?

Gracy: There is a sky and sea difference between 'Nirmonn', 'Amchem Noxib', 'Bhuierantlo Munis', 'Padri' and any of the current Konkani videos available in the market.

With technological development, digital cameras and camcorders have become handy at every occasion. Every person holding a camera just discovers that he can shoot and lo and behold, another 'film' is conceptualized and even produced within a few weeks!!!

What people need is to differentiate between a home video and a feature film. The concept of BLACK is totally different. During the shoot, the crew spent hours adjusting the lights and camera to mutate it to the right frames and angles. The locales have been chosen painstakingly for every sequence. This will be the first Konkani feature film to be produced abroad with an essence and feel of Goa. Anyway, the difference would be seen when the film actually hits the theaters.

A few weeks back, I was discussing with a friend regarding a probable video film to be shot in Kuwait. The producer had vague idea of the main concept. All he knew was that he wanted to make a film. He was not even interested in developing a concept or the characters. It is sad, how people envisage the Konkani cinema!! How can anyone work on such projects?

We need mature thinking from all those involved in film making and home video productions. The number of CDs flooding the video cafes with a label as 'Konkani film' leaves one more disgusted than satisfied with the quality of productions. Most of the videos do not even have a proper script. The half-baked scripts suffer from 'sudden-death syndrome' as they approach the 60 minutes duration. Illogical sequences and most often even the performances fail to impress. Most of the videos are done from a cameraman/camera operator's perspective lacking any concrete direction.

Q: As an actress, what is your strongest point?

Gracy: Commitment and sincerity - my two values in life.

Q: What kind of roles appeal to you?

Gracy: I love character roles. As an artiste, I love to get deep down the skin of the character I portray. Once I have donned the make-up, I transform into that character and Gracy is lost into oblivion.

There is a dearth of good Konkani scripts and scriptwriters nowadays. Female characterization is very limited to the roles of mother, wife or a sister or maximum girlfriend. Maybe as a male oriented society we still cannot get over this fact that there could be female protagonists in any situation/story. In many scripts, the female characters are placed around the male characters to suffice the norm of having some female characters around.

A full length role or even one scene or two can offer much scope for the artiste. A woman is definitely a mother, daughter, sister or wife but even in real life they are more than that. Look around. Every step a woman takes is a challenge and she keeps moving ahead. She has become the most career conscious persona now. I am not desperate to waste my time playing second fiddle to some characters in a play or film if my role does not have a substance.

As for male characters, isn't it time for us to move beyond the shade of 'Mr. Good' and 'Mr. Villain'? Come on, every human errs and villains do have some soft corners. If we overcome our restrictions and research the characters, the characterization would become more enjoyable for the performers and also the viewers.

Q. Who is your biggest critic?

Gracy: My honest critic is myself (the biggest) - I cannot take a word of praise without suspecting some underlying criticism.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about who Gracy is when not acting?

Gracy: Just very human. In recent years, I have discovered a passion for poetry. I got rave reviews for my poem "Cheddum" dedicated to the girl child. A personal note complimenting me on my verses and choosing the sensitive subject was received from Bailancho Saad, Goa.

I thank God for every moment of my life and what I am today, my family and all people placed around me. My world is cocooned around my husband and my two little daughters - Adela and Gaynelle. Without my husband, I would not be in this world of lights, sound, camera, action….

Q: How much does BLACK mean to you as an artiste?

Gracy: BLACK for me is a Blessing from the Almighty God, to showcase my Love and passion for the inborn talent of my heart, to express my Admiration through this medium for all dear ones in my life, for Compassionate search of forgotten values and an attempt to Kindle the flame of love for the rich heritage and cultural traditions of our country. Putting it simply, BLACK is a Blessing of Love for a new Advent of Cinema in Konkani.
Synopsis

The movie revolves around a musician who is involved in trivial assignments of traditional music. Culture and music means everything to the self-born maestro who just cannot give up on his passion for music. His effort to persuade the young genre to keep the art living in the face of fading tradition runs to an emotional zenith as the movie unfolds."

More details on the main characters in the film and their role will be presented in these pages to keep readers engaged and fully in tune running down to the release. For more on T-Bush International films log on to http://www.t-bush.com