Prutha Goa

Mary Jo de Mello enthrals us with her rendition of the Portuguese single ‘A Vida’, which has been written and composed by her and Allan Fernandes of Al Productions, with the music being rearranged by Frazer Fernandes. Although the song is part of her 2009 album New Journey, it was rereleased as a music video in collaboration with Monteiro Mancio Films (OPC) Pvt Ltd. The music video will be launched in the international music arena when it is aired on the Portuguese channel RTPi (RTP Internacional) by September 2017.  Mary Jo has been passionate about music since she was only 6 years old. Undoubtedly due to growing up in a family where music was loved and being exposed to a range of  musical genres such as pop, rock, and old country ballads, she was inspired to begin writing and composing when she was 15. At 17, Mary Jo had her own production house, MJ Productions, through which she released her maiden album New Journey, partnering with Al Productions. New Journey, which did well in the

Famous for his movies and serials, Saeed Akhtar Mirza has been successful in his career move to authoring books too. The director of National Award winning films Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984) and Naseem (1995) has also highly acclaimed serials Nukkad and Intezaar to his credit. He embarked on his career in films after working in the advertising industry for a while. He later became part of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, India, and graduated from the institute in 1976. Having made a start with documentaries, his foray into parallel cinema was made with Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan (1978), which immediately thrust him into the echelons of the most talented filmmakers in India. By Satdeep Gill - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52943784 Following the filming of Naseem , Mirza chose to divert his ideas into books such as Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother and The Monk, the Moor & Moses Ben Jalloun . Presently, he i

British Indian director, Waris Hussein was in attendance at Literati Book Shop in January, 2015, to speak about his experiences in the field of direction. Born in Lucknow, Hussein left for England when he was very young and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, from Queen’s College, Cambridge. He is the progeny of Attia Hosain, author of Sunlight on a Broken Column . He will eternally be introduced as the director of the first Dr Who series, but there is more that marks his career to credit him as a director of note. He has directed television serial Edward and Mrs Simpson for which he won a Bafta Award and Barry Manilow’s musical, Copacabana , for which he won an Emmy Award. Apart from these he has had a number successful series such as the BBC television version of A Passage to India in 1965 and feature films: Melody (1971) and Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1972). He has had the opportunity of directing stalwarts of cinema such as Bette Davis, Shirley Mc

Street plays have their origin in the effort to find a voice for the people by the people. An age old art form that existed eons before the more structured and regimented form of theatre came into existence, street plays made an effortless comeback on the performing arts scene in India, prominently during the era of the freedom struggle. This form of theatre requires the bare minimum of props and targets mostly a non-paying audience. Since electronic amplification is not a choice, voice optimisation is something every actor has to practise. With themes pertaining to the daily lives of people, street plays function as an efficacious wake-up call to the slumbering public amidst the tumult of corruption and social degradation. Konkani street play producers have carved a niche for themselves in developing this medium first and foremost for the promulgation of the language in the state of Goa. This direly needed recognition of the significance of Goa’s mother tongue has been provided by col

Initial diffidence is overpowered by the desire for expression. As found in most shy persons, thought processes function at an accelerated pace and the urgency to communicate the same soon brings in confidence. Had he not become a filmmaker, Joywin Fernandes would have surely taken up journalism as a profession. Such is his need to put forth his ideas. His love of films grew with him since he saw his first film as a young boy. The movies were rented by his father as a reward for doing well in school. He remembers fondly, ‘I remember my dad used to take me to a video cassette library every Sunday to hire a movie only if I would get ‘very good’ remark on my maths book.’ The passion for watching films soon transformed into a passion for making films which was an ideal outlet for his creativity. His intention is not just the making of films, but the making of good films. This is something that requires time and he says it takes at least a year to create good cinema. Joywin Fernandes Joywin