THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The second day of the Revenue District School Arts Festival saw a host of lively and colourful performances. If the opening day was about poetry recitation, story writing and drawing, Thursday was mostly dedicated to group dance, drama, bharatanatyam and oppana.
People in their hundreds thronged all the 14 venues of Government Cotton Hill Higher Secondary School to watch the students in action. While group dance events were held at the main venue located at the entrance of the school, Bharatanatyam for boys and girls were held at the Assembly Hall and Oppana near the entrance of the UP school.
Some serious act
Drama competition was held at the stage in Sisuvihar located away from the main venue. Amidst the limitation of the stage, 13 schools participated in the event in high school category.
The competition started almost one-and-a-half hour late. But, the wait was worthy as there were some refreshing performances.
The team from JP HSS, Ottasekharamanagalam, enacted the story of two boys narrating the importance of nature conservation. Both are from different economic background. While one enjoys the company of birds, the other from an affluent background watches it with jealousy. They become friends and take a vow to conserve nature. Performances of Adwaid and Yadu Krishnan were convincing and it took just two weeks for the boys to prepare under Aravind MS Nair.
SCV Boys High School, Chirayinkeezhu, came up with ‘Pashu Gayathri’ by the late playwright Kavalam Narayana Panicker and gave their best. Though a complex work with difficult dialogues, the students gave a captivating performance under the guidance of Sunil Nedumparambu. They also rendered the background music.
‘Pashu Gayathri’ has ritual and folk artforms like Theyyam and Kathakali as the major theme. The play ended with Theyyam forms, that represent nature, coming down from the stage and mingling with the crowd.
The girls from Neyyattinkara Government School had a funny story to tell. They took a dig at government teachers who are busy with other activities during school hours. A school teacher who wants to make money from diary farming and his wife were the main characters. In the satirical take, the cow refuses to stand up and an elderly man, who remains indoor, makes an appearance in the final scene to disprove the futile efforts of a school teacher.
Over 5,000 students from various schools in the Revenue District took part in the 213 competitions in various categories.