Day 2 sees a close race

Palakkad: On a day that saw sparkling contests in a wide array of popular arts including Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam at the 54th State school Youth festival, Thrissur, with 111 points, topped the day with a narrow lead.

Kozhikode, the reigning champion followed closely with 109 points while host Palakkad is placed third with 107 points. The fourth spot was shared between Kollam and Kottayam, malappuram and Kannur, all at 105 points, followed by Thiruvanathapuram and Ernakulam at 101 points.

Pathanamthitta and Idukki, who are placed at the bottom with 87 points each, are just 24 points away from the leaders, leaving the summit spot open for anybody’s grab.

Kottayam, Kollam, Malappuram and Kozhikode are together on top with 30 points in the Sanskrit festival while Ernakulam and Thrissur scored 28 points each. In the Arabic events,Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Kannur led the show with 60 points, followed by Kasargod with 58 points.

The biggest crowd of day two was at the Town Hall, which hosted the drama competition in the high school category while Panchavadyham at Fort Ground, was the second most favored event.

However, the glamour events like Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam witnessed a much lesser crowd than was expected.

Meanwhile, Palakkad town has been witnessing huge traffic snarls ever since the opening of the festival, making it difficult for the officials and the general public to move from one location to another.

Next: Theatre draws big

Theatre draws big

Hiran Unnikrishnan | DC

Palakkad: Theatre ruled the second day of the state school festival as young drama artists in the High School category performed in front of a packed house that enjoyed every bit of the competition.

The rush for the event was such that the thousand-odd seats at the Town Hall, the main venue, were just not enough for the audience to watch the show.

But they chose to stand for hours on the verandahs and courtyard to enjoy the visual feast . And the competition was tough for the teams that participated in the event in which subjects like greed, sexual assault and social insensitivity were the predominant themes.

“It was a fierce fight with some teams exploring the potential of the proscenium well enough’’, observed Gauthaman, a theatre enthusiast who came all the way from Thrissur to watch the show.
The competitive spirit among the participants was also quite evident in the performances while minimal make- up, improvised performances and better use of props were the factors that stood out, he added.

Sound system inadequate

Meanwhile, the sound system proved to be a dampener to the spirit of the event as complaints were raised over the point. Earlier in the morning, members of the MPS VHS School from Kasaragod staged a protest outside the venue against the laxity of the festival organizers towards the crowd-puller event.

The issue was resolved about an hour later following a mediation by the police.  Commenting on the issue, veteran theatre and film director MG Sasi, who was among the viewers, held the view that the event should have been staged at a bigger venue having a better sound system.

“The voice of actors were not at all loud and clear and the audience were finding it hard o understand the nuances of their dialogues’’, he said. The organizers, however, said that it was impossible for them to arrange a sound system suitable for each of the 20-odd plays.

Next: 5 minutes cost them a chance of lifetime

5 minutes cost them a chance of lifetime

Palakkad: It was all about a five minutes delay. But that was just enough to close before them the doors to the most coveted stage.The ten-member drama team from the Dr Ambedkar Memorial Model Residential School, Nalloornad that represented the Wayanad district at the state school Youth festival on Monday missed out the opportunity to perform in the event after they reported five minutes late at the venue here. The team, the only all- tribal member team in the event, was unable to reach the venue in time after being held up in a traffic gridlock.

“We were unable to reach the venue in time as it took us over 40 minutes to reach the venue from our place of stay in Malampuzha and we could report at the venue only at 8.05 am against the scheduled time of 8 am. But despite repeated requests, our attempts to make these children perform at the big stage, yielded no results,” said Naveen Raj, director of the play.

According to him, the students, all of whom  belonged to poor tribal families, were able to make it at the district level only due to sheer talent. “To prepare for the state-level competition, they had undergone a three-month training to speak Malayalam fluently and then rehearsed  the script for another couple of months. It is sad to see their hard work going in vain this manner’’, he said.

Meanwhile, festival officials held that the festival manual carried a clear direction not to entertain late entries. “We are unable to let them participate as any relaxation in the rules will spell trouble to the organisors as well as the participants’’, they said.