THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Be it the selection of themes, characters or the quality of rendition, girls competing in high school monoact impressed the audience at the Nirmala Bhavan HSS here with their touching performances on the penultimate day of the State School Arts Festival.
The call to fight atrocities against women resonated in most of their performances that also had ample references to numerous contemporary issues.
The higher secondary boys’ monoact too touched upon recent incidents such as the death of sanitation worker Joy and the mission to locate lorry driver Arjun from Shirur in Karnataka.
However, if the response of the audience was anything to go by, the girls outperformed the senior boys, who mostly chose to play by the book.
Even while taking up exploitation of women as the central theme, the girls ensured that their treatment of the subject remained distinct.
Notable among them was the act of Sadaya S Krishnan of Durga HSS, Kasaragod, who depicted the sexual abuse of women in cinema over the years through an imaginary conversation between J C Daniel, the father of Malayalam cinema, and P K Rosy, its first actress. She wrapped up the act with a powerful message of resistance against exploitation.
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s life and her fight against sexual harassment of athletes was enacted by Souparkina Theertha of GHSS, Cheruthazham, Kannur. The ace wrestler’s agony after she was disqualified from her event in the 2024 Paris Olympics and her resolve to fight back were convincingly depicted.
Among the higher secondary boys, Annuai R Krishna of TIHSS, Naimarmoola, Kasaragod, had a different take on the man-animal conflict.