The name oflate Gabriel Gomes Saxttikar alias Gabru, a resident of Dhobitalao in Mumbai,is not new to the tiatrist fraternity. Many a tiatr lover knows him as theghost lyrics composer for well-known singers of the Konkani stage. But withexception of Kenny Zuzarte, the Mumbai based singer, no other tiatrist who sanglate Gabru’s compositions and won fame and fortune had the courtesy of givinghim any credit for the same.
Not all singers of the Konkani stage are composers and this is no secret. Theyinevitably depend on other ghost composers to provide them the song lyrics.Neither are all the playwrights’ actual script writers for the same tiatrs theystage under their names as ‘Writer-
Director’. They too have hidden ghost writers who are of course paid for theservices rendered. All these are trade secrets that never come out openly inpublic domain. These truths remain obscured and hidden in the realm ofcommercialism and cut throat competition.
The real creative people who take pains to use their grey cells hardly comeinto the limelight for all the creative work that they do. They have to besatisfied with the remuneration they are paid, which is in most cases is apittance. This trend has been going on for far too long and will continue tosurvive as long as there are financially sound tiatrists in a position to purchasethe works at a price and call them their own.
A song recently sung by Lawry Travasso in the tiatr ‘Ek Ghor Chear Vantte’literally blows the lid off such behind the screen practices. He was boldenough to say that there is no harm in ghost-writers undertaking thepainstaking creative work of composing the lyrics of a song or writing thescript for a tiatr, but that the person who purchases them or borrows them at aprice and presents these on-stage or produces an album should have the courageand courtesy of giving due credit to the original composer. He further lamentsthat this usually does not happen. Furthermore, he makes it a point to mentionthat the only desire that the late Gabru Gomes had was that some of thebeneficiaries of his compositions would one day give him credit openly inpublic. Sadly this was not to be. He died with a wish unfulfilled.
