Anthony Gonsalves

Back in the late Seventies, Anthony Gonsalves became a popular celluloid character, courtesy Amitabh Bacchan’s portrayal of a happy-go-lucky Goan with a fondness for the bottle in Manmohan Desai’s multi-starrer ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’. Few people knew then that this character was modelled on a real-life person. Music director duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal dedicated the song ‘My me is Anthony Gonsalves’, which became a rage across the country, to Goan violinist Anthony Gonsalves in gratitude for teaching them the finer points of the stringed instrument. After ailing for long years, Gonsalves died in 2012. Now a fund has been set up in his me by the Entertainment Society of Goa for old and ailing artistes by paying their medical bills and helping in other ways. Surely this is something cinema and theatre groups in Assam can emulate to offer aid and succour to old artistes who have fallen on hard times and have no source of income. That a theatre giant like Mahanda Sarma bemoaned the lack of government support before passing away this year in hospital, speaks volumes of the insecurity that befall our artistes in their twilight years.