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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Konkani films wizard Frank Fernand passes away

MUMBAI, Apr 3: Frank Fernand, producer of epoch-making Konkani films "Amchem Noxib" and "Nirmonn", breathed his last at the age of 87 years here on April 1, and was buried on April 2.
Born on May 3, 1919, at Curchorem, the pioneering musician had the privilege of being baptized by Anjuna's saintly priest Fr Agnelo de Souza.
In 1942, Frank was exposed to jazz standards while performing in 1942 at Savoy Hotel in Mussorie with the Rudy Cotton band. He played for a while the same year in New Delhi too. By 1946 Frank was performing for Mickey Correia's celebrated band.
He joined the film industry in 1948, playing the violin and trumpet for music duo Shankar-Jaikishan. Frank is also associated with the success of Raj Kapoor's super hit "Barsat" and another film with music director SD Burman. He did remarkable musical arrangements for Kishore Kumar, C. Ramchandra, Roshan and Anil Biswas. The Hindi Film music community still cherishes Frank's final assignment with music director Kalyanji-Anandji as his first assistant. He produced Konkani film "Amchem Noxib" based on Ratus' story, under the banner of Frank Films (Goa). With a successful comedy, memorable music and Rita Lobo's fresh face "Amchem Noxib" was a runaway hit. Frank launched "Nirmonn" in Konkani, with a touching story, and received the Certificate of Merit, at the hands of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; the film was also made in Hindi as "Taqdeer" and was directed by A. Salaam. Frank Fernando joined G Arabia to produce "Priya", in Hindi in 1965, with music by Kaplan Anand. Frank, who excelled at jazz, has also provided the musical score for the film "Mhoji Ghorkarn", directed by A. Salam. He has also staged a tiatr "Bekar Patrao" in the eighties with a ten-piece orchestra. The veteran musician had a setback when he contracted Parkinson's disease in 1985. He leaves behind his wife Maggie, daughters Elfin, Doris, Larissa and son Max. [Isidore Dantas, GoaNewsClips]

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