Why is a Goan Pedro always a drunkard, asks filmmaker

PANAJI - A Goan filmmaker will now tap the doors of the archbishop, asking him to examine the stereotypical portrayal of Catholics in Bollywood cinema.

Rajendra Talak, whose film “O Maria” was screened at the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Tuesday, said that a special screening would be conducted for Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao, a religious leader of the Roman Catholic community in Goa, complaining about the portrayal of Goans in Hindi films as vain alcoholics.

“Hindi films keep labelling a character (Pedro) in the movie as boozer and through that they are labelling all the Goans as drunkards. This is wrong. I want the archbishop to see this,” Talak said Wednesday.

“I will be conducting a special screening for the archbishop, press, politicians, bureaucrats, everyone. Perhaps this is the first time that a Goan Catholic has been projected properly than as a drunkard like in most Hindi films,” Talak said.

Talak’s film starring Shernaz Patel, Sulbha Arya and American actor Cory Goldberg deals with the subject of a sense of decadence seeping in Goa, afflicted by rampant, uncontrolled in-migration, drug abuse and rampant sale of land.

“Why Pedro has to be a drunkard always? And why that Pedro has to be Goan Pedro only? Aren’t there Pedros in other states too?” Talak asked.

Several Christian groups in the state have in the past dissented against the manner in which Hindi films had stereotyped the image of a Goan Catholic home, where women wear short skirts and men are beer, whisky or feni swilling alcoholics a la “Bobby”.