JESSIE JAISI KOI NAHIN

By Shamaz

SHE BULLIED me into spending a day with her at Anjuna where she lives. Anjuna! What a beautiful place and on a rainy day. I was quite taken up with the idea and so I agreed readily. She came to pick me up at Mapusa. Nice place she has got – small but cosy and comfortable.

Perching myself on a stool near her kitchen table while she deep fried the bread-fruit dipped in egg sauce ( my favourite) which I kept gorging on shamelessly, we talked.

Friends, meet Jessie Dias, that very talented Senior Lady of our Konkani stage. She began her stage career initially by singing duets with Lawrence de Tiracol. “My mom Ruby Cardozo was an ardent fan of Tiatrists. Needless to say she was thrilled to have her daughter become a tiatrist too. Talent I had, but it was my family’s support and encouragement that helped me make a success of my career,” she smiles fondly.

Her first professional tiatr as an actress was the late Alfred Rose’s “Director Saib” when she was called in to replace the main lead who ditched them at the last minute. “I learnt the role within a day and went on stage the very next day to become a hit with the audience,” she says with pride. And of course she became a hit with the directors too, who invariably queued up at her door to have her acting for them. The singers too were not far behind. Now she was singing with the more famous names like Alfred Rose, C.Alvares, Young Mendes, Vincent Semedo, Francis de Verna, Francis de Parra etc. She sang trios and quartets too with Bab Peter and the others.

Mmmm! The lunch smells delicious. She is a good cook indeed. I was amazed at the buffet she laid out just for me. “Where am I going to put all this after stuffing myself with the bread-fruit,” I wailed. “Not to worry, I am sure we can find place somehow,” she was all charm. We shifted ourselves to her mini-drawing room with the loaded plates and before we sat down to eat, she introduced me to her family in the photo frames – her eldest son Peter (who acted in the Konkani film “Faxi Mogachi”), her daughter Bernadine and her youngest son Henry and their respective families. And last but not the least her actor hubby Cyriaco Dias. And as we ate with the radio music playing the background, I asked her how the two met.

“Oh, we met in tiatros, we became friends during the tiatros and got married doing tiatros,” she finished off in one sentence. But the romantic in me wouldn’t let go. “Come on Jess,” I needled her. Tell, how did things happen?”

“You see Sharon, I was called into replace Shalini in Robin Vaz’s Tiatr “Shantichem Login” and I was worried about not getting the diction right for the character of Shanti. But Cyriaco allayed my fears, telling me not to worry. You see he was doing the prompting for the show and he took it upon himself to give me my lines along with the diction. I think he liked me then,” she smiled. “What about you? when did you respond to his ‘liking’ you,” I persisted wickedly. “Definitely not then, but later, much later as we continued doing tiatros together. He used to come to reach me to the bus stop after rehearsals.” Aha! She blushed prettily.

Jessie admires Cyriaco as an artist and feels happy that the audience still remembers this talented actor. Jessie herself is an actress par excellence. Of that there is no doubt. She can carry off any role given to her but she excels in tragedy roles, the sad mother roles. She loves ‘mothering’ both on stage and off stage. She makes it her business to attend to the needs of her co-artists, the musicians , the stage hands seeing to it that they had had something to eat or drink. Anybody needs a tablet or ointment, a pin or a needle and Jessie has it all. Truly, our “Jessie jaisi koi nahin!”

She remembers everyone’s birthdays and is always the first to greet them. She does not socialise much but attending funerals and the masses for the dead is a must for her, no matter how far the distance, come rain or sun. In fact, there is a joke going round among her family and friends, “If you want to locate our Jessie,” they say, try the hospitals or one of the cemeteries.” She laughs in confirmation, “Yes I like to visit the sick in hospitals and attend the funeral whether or not I know the person personally. It gives me a sense of peace as if I’ve done my good deed for that person.”

Getting back to her favourite subject – acting, Jessie says that it is very important to study a role, the character you are portraying and plan the costumes accordingly. “Nowadays, nobody bothers to do this. All they are interested in is showing off their outfits. Whether or not the costumes suit the role or the character is of little or no importance at all. Very sad!” she says.

Jess, when you play tragedy, you are so natural you make people cry too. How do you do it?” I ask.

“I get into the character and cry naturally. I do not use glycerine.” Yes, I can vouch for that. I have seen her from close quarters. Once I had invited her to do a guest appearance for my TACT Insititute’s Acting class where she enacted a very sad scene. Believe me! At the end of the scene my entire classfull of students including myself were crying along with her. Amazing, isn’t it?

Jessie the actress has a strong sense of presence on stage. She can ad-lib and save a situation in moments. There are quite a few instances like these. Once during a scene in C.Alvares’ Tiatr at St. Marys (Mazagaon) it seems she was playing ‘mother’ to Alfred Rose. It is common knowledge that Alfred Rose wore a wig. Now in this scene, he was playing blind and as she was emoting, she was caressing his head. Suddenly the wig slid off from his head to the floor. Everyone began to laugh, the audience and actors but not Jessie. She immediately controlled the situation by ad libbing “Son, since childhood you had not only lost your sight but also your hair and your Irmao had sent you this wig to wear. Here, put it on.” The audience stopped laughing thinking it was part of the scene. And of course, Alfred Rose and the director were all praises for Jessie.” Really, our Jessie jaisi koi nahim, na?

Among all her roles, her favourites are the ones she played in C.Alvares’ “Atancheo Sunno”, Roz-ario’s “Mhojem kitem korta?”, Pascoal’s “Rozar”, Sally’s “Sogle Roste Ugtte” and A.M. Pacheco’s “Fator”. She has been facilitated for her acting in Prem Kumar’s “Fullam ani Kantte”, Remmie Colaco’s “Garachem Sukh”, C. Alvares’ “Atancheo Sunno” and Rose Ferns’ “Sukh Khuim Assa?” in Kuwait. Jessie has directed a few tiatros too. For example, her husband Cyriaco’s tiatr “Salazar”, Bonaventure de Pietro’s “Chitrakaar and Lawrence de Tiracol’s “Konnank Mhunno Maim”.

Jessie is an ardent fan of Hindi film star Sanjay Dutt. She simply adores him. Nobody dare say anything against her ‘Sanju Baba’ as she calls him. A large photo of him adorns her main entrance wall.

By now we had finished the sumptuous lunch and were relaxing with mugs of tea. Jessie feels a lot can be done for our tiatrists, recognising the work of artists dead and living. In a small way like keeping an update of their birthdays and remembering them that day. Hope somebody is listening.

She enjoyed having me in her house just as much as I enjoyed her hospitality. She did her best to tempt me to stay overnight since it was raining heavily but I declined politely and thanked her instead for those lovely slices of bread-fruit dipped in egg sauce… mmmm Slurp!  (Goan Observer)