THRISSUR: The 27th CBSE State Youth Festival and the third jointly organised by the All Kerala CBSE School Management Association and Confederation of Sahodaya School Complexes got off to a colourful start at the IES Public School, Chittilappilly on Thursday. The attraction of the inaugural function day was a welcome dance staged by over 60 students of the host school demonstrating the cultural confluence of the country and the state. The students rolled out Kathakali, Theyyam, Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and others to send out a message of communal harmony. The welcome dance staged after weeks of practice went down well with the packed audience.
The welcome dance held as part of the fest.
Agriculture minister V. S. Sunilkumar inaugurated the festival at a function graced among others by the national award winning actor Surabhi Lakshmi and former vice-chancellor of Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit Dr M. C. Dileep Kumar.
More than the words of the minister, Surabhi Lakshmi who recounted her days as a judge in dance events in youth festivals, took the audience comprising students, parents and teachers by surprise.
Group dance performance (Category 2) by Pleasant English Medium School, Omassery, Kozhikode
“The same guru would be training some ten teams, and it is difficult to discern the plus of one team from the other. They could be seen bouncing in the same fashion on the stage! The judge struggles to find out some pluses here and there. Maybe left liking this dress to that dress only! Maybe the lucky one on the day emerges the winner. In the end, the judge receives all the curses of the losing contestants and parents,” she said as the audience burst into rapture.
Her words were insightful for the parents, many of whom go in appeal over verdicts in the youth festival. Compared to State School Youth Festival, there are fewer appeals in CBSE youth festivals. However, this time almost 25 contestants came on the first day armed with court verdicts and verdicts of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights from the 26 Sahodaya youth festivals to take part in the State CBSE youth festival.
Thrissur hosting fest for second time
Thrissur is hosting the CBSE state youth festival jointly organized by Sahodaya Complex and Management Association for the second time. But the previous experience has not made the hosts wiser. In the previous edition in 2015, Devamatha CMI Public School was the host while this time it is the IES Public School which is also using the campus of its engineering and architecture college to conduct the events on 21 stages. A section feels that Devamatha had made better arrangements.
This time, dance events like Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattom and folk dance were conducted in classrooms which could accommodate fewer number of audience while smaller events like elocution were held in bigger halls. There were complaints about score board visibility and timely announcement of results by parents. The eco-friendly IES campus with greenery was a big relief for the participants and those who accompanied them, lessening the impact of the heat. The youth festival itself was based on the theme of nature and water conservation and each venue is named after a river in the country.
According to a teacher of the organizing committee, the students of IES Public School have made a documentary on water conservation which will be screened during the festival. Even in group dance competition, one team espoused the cause of nature conservation and warned that the globe will perish if we don’t care for nature. Though the organizers claim that 8000 students representing 1360 CBSE schools are vying for honours in the festival, fewer participants have arrived.
Actor Surabhi Lakshmi takes selfie with singer Franco at the festival venue.
Thrissur Sahodaya has edge
Thrissur Sahodaya was leading among 26 Sahodayas with 70 points on day one when results in six events were declared by 7 p.m. followed by Malabar Sahodaya with 55 points, Kannur Sahodaya with 53 points, Palakkad Sahodaya with 50 points and Kottayam Sahodaya with 48 points, in the first five positions.
Among schools, St Antony’s Public School, Anakkal, Kottayam, is leading with 26 points followed by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan School, Perumthuruthi, Kozhikode with 21 points at second place and Devagiri CMI Public School, Kozhikode, Carmel School, Shoranur and Devamatha CMI Public School, Thrissur at the third place with 15 points each. On the first day, the results came out slowly which the authorities attributed to the cumbersome process to make it foolproof.
The events that stood out were group dance, folk dance, Mohiniyattom, Bharat -anatyam, Kuchipudi and mono act. For mono act, the contestants tried even GST while the impact of blue whale game was another theme. The issue of Dileep’s involvement in the actor attack case also surfaced. Environment issues were also a favourite theme. The theme for cartoon competition was Maveli and Kerala politics. The CBSE state youth festival allows the first and second winners at the Sahodaya level to participate in the state youth festival. In certain events, there were up to 50 participants which dragged the schedule.
