Twenty-five contestants and a packed house. Folk dance (girls) at C. Kesavan Memorial Town Hall turned out to be a crowd-puller on the second day of the State School Arts Festival as the event promised exuberant movements, engaging storylines, and quirky costumes.
There were a lot of routine numbers, oft-repeated themes choreographed to fit the criteria, while a few went for innovation. Subaltern struggles have been a favourite theme of folk dance competition for a long while and the 62nd edition of the festival was no exception. N. Anjana from VHSS, Brahmamangalam, Kottayam, was on stage with Ooruvilakku that depicted the tragic tale of an Adivasi girl ostracised and killed by society.
Several contestants played ‘adiyathis’, characters with different names, but similar destiny. Anjali Ramesh, LSN GHSS, Ottappalam, Palakkad, portrayed a devastated mother who commits suicide after her child is raped and murdered. Malavika Midhun from CMS HSS, Mallappally, Pathanamthitta, was at the festival with Ottumani, the tale of a young girl who sacrificed her life so that her father can mould a bronze bell.
Soorpanaka on stage
G.R. Janaki from SNHSS, Uzhamalakkal, Thiruvananthapuram, who appeared on stage as Soorpanaka presented a less-explored story from the Kamba Ramayanam. It showed how she orchestrated the famous episode from the Ramayana where she gets brutally mutilated. She ignites the war as revenge, not against Rama or Lakshmana but her own brother for killing her husband.
V.S. Nakshatra from Sree Narayana HSS Vadakara, Kozhikode, recreated Kaalapani, Priyadarshan’s noted period drama released in the year 1996. She enacted the tragic love story of a woman waiting for her beloved, unaware of his death. While B.S. Siyonaa, a student of Government HSS, Kadayirippu representing Ernakulam district, performed O.V. Vijayan’s celebrated short story Kadaltheerathu, Sian Maria Shaji from Nirmala HSS, Chemperi, Kannur, enacted an equally famous Amma by O.N.V. Kurup.
