‘Jayega Janewala’, but…

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Anthony Gonsalves is not the first one; in fact a third one who came back to live in his own Goa. But Goa did very little for them.

Any family get-together ends with a favourite programme – Bhendi (or Antakshari)! A competition of songs; obviously dominated by Hindi songs. Even today’s youngest generation unknowingly switches over to the old Hindi songs. They sing, just not lyrics or musical tunes, but ‘sing’ those special effects or ‘special places’, which they like the most.

That’s Anthony Gonsalves!!!

‘Aayega Aanewala’ of ‘Mahal’ is just one of them.  The mood of every song is different. May it be ‘Thandi Hawayein’, ‘Suhana Safar Aur Yeh Mausam Hansi’, ‘Bachapan ki Mohabbat ko’,  ‘Hum Pyar Mein Jalnewaalon ko’, ‘Chalo Dildar Chalo’, ‘Jyotic Kalash Jhalke’ or ‘Mausam hai Aashiquana’. He arranged the music in such a way that the music directors reached unimaginable heights, to be remembered forever. But are we going to remember that legend, who actually filled flavour in it? Our own Anthony Gonsalves?

‘He is no more’ is a standard style of saying it. In reality, he just can’t be no more. He will always remain in our hearts, unknowingly, that it was Anthony Gonsalves. He ‘rocks’ even in the hearts of  today’s younger generation, almost after 50 to 60 years. Yes; he was a Goan. Brought up in the culture of western music, but simply loved Indian music, even the classical music. He made it immortal; through Hindi cinema music.

Anthony Gonsalves is not the first one; in fact a third one who came back to live in his own Goa. But Goa did very little for them. The first one was K Vaikunth, who breathed his last in his hometown Margao, the cultural capital of Goa. The second was Dattaram Wadkar, who was honoured by the state only after media brought to light his pitiable condition little before he died. And now it’s Anthony Gonsalves, who was remembered not by the state but his great fans here and made a documentary on him.

There is something wrong with our system of art and culture. Great Goans are coming back to their homeland. But we simply don’t take note of these people. They feel proud to be Goans, but Goa doesn’t provide them the honour they actually deserve. Why?

We need to introspect. All of us – the state, the media, the cultural organisations and even we – the so called art-loving individuals. With old age, ‘Jayega Janewala’; but will we take note of ‘Aanewala’? Or just pay tributes when they are ‘no more’?