Chaguanas mas revisits the silver screen

Mas camps nationwide have kicked into overdrive as masmakers try to finish costumes on time for Carnival 2013.

At Chase Village Carnival mascamp, Chase Village, Chaguanas sleep appeared to be a luxury for masmakers as they tried to catch up on some much needed shut-eye in their work studio when the T&T Guardian visited last week.

Bandleader Danzo Balroop said workers have been working 24 hours get the costumes done in time for their 2013 presentation @ De Movies.

Balroop summed out activity at his mas camp as a “mad rush” as he said “we are working ‘round the clock.’”

He said this year he is presenting a band that focuses on a favourite pastime of going to the movies which is slowly being overtaken by the proliferation of online movies.

“Long time we used to go to the cinema, you know we used to break away from school and go to the cinema. Now people do not really care about going cinema, they go on the Internet. So @ De Movies is a way to reflect our days at the cinema when we used to do this thing as a pastime,” Balroop said.

The Chaguanas masmaker added, “Since people not going to the movies let us see if they will come to De Movies here.”

Balroop’s 2013 presentation features seven sections, Hollywood Stars (The Silver Screen,) Western (Cowboys & Indians,) Sci-Fi (Horrible Aliens,) Romance, Blues (Seven Shades of Blue,) Kick-up (Chinese) and Bollywood Stars (Fancy Indian.)

He said this year’s presentation features a lot more vibrant colours such as bright green, pink, gold and blue.

“This year we are very colourful, next year we will be playing warriors which will feature more earth tones,” Balroop said.

While he said he has faced some challenges in completing some of the costumes in his sections because some of the feathers he imported into the country have been impounded for bird flu testing, Balroop said, costume sales have been encouraging.

He said two of his sections almost completely pre-sold and the others are selling out quickly.

As for his expectations for 2013, Balroop pointed to his packed trophy wall and said, “I want to do better than that. We are hoping to go for the big prizes this year and sweep all the categories.”

Balroop said he is also hoping that the Chaguanas Carnival committee heeds his recommendation to increase the size of the stage for Carnival in the Central borough this year.

He said last year his King and Queen of the band costumes were challenged while crossing the main stage. He said the stage was too small to accommodate the size of their costumes.

“My costumes are 24 ft wide most of them if they could fit I would be happy. My junior King could not fit on the stage last year and they told me they were going to increase the size of the stage when I got there it was the same thing,” Balroop said.

He said the size of the VIP section was three times the size of the stage and he is expecting that this Carnival the stage will be different.