KOCHI: At the municipal mini park venue of the Revenue District Youth Festival, 11-year-old Nandana Haridas was seated with her hands crossed and chanting. Though the crowd roared in appreciation at the mimicry performers, Nandana maintained her yogic posture, oblivious of the hustle and the bustle.
However, as soon as the judges announced the results of the mimicry competition in the HSS category at Venue VIII-- for which Nandana’s brother K H Nirmaldas got the green card-- the young girl heaved a sigh of relief and gave up her meditative pose.
“ I was sure that my brother would come out the winner but I was so tensed that I couldn’t wait for much longer to hear the good news,” said Nandana who is also competing in the mono-act on Thursday. The same level of excitement was on show during the mimicry competition in the high school section. But this time it was a parent, who seemed slightly nervous when his son took part in the competition. Ravi T K, though, was beside himself with joy when Athul Ravi, his son and student of Mar Elias, Kottappady, emerged the winner.
“While a student I used to perform mimicry, but due to some financial problems I could not pursue it. But today I realised the dream through my son,” said Ravi.
Standard again plunges
Despite being crowd pullers, the mimicry and Mono-act competition performed at the municipal mini park on Wednesday drew flak from several quarters owing to the poor quality of the performances. According to the audience, mimicry sometimes became a dissonance as many participants, including those in the High School and Higher Secondary ended up screaming through the mic.
“ It is an inborn talent which can’t be achieved in one or two months. The performance of the students at the venue was pathetic as most of them tried to imitate what they saw on the TV. Compared to the fare last year, it was really pathetic,” said a judging panel member when asked about the performance of the competitors.
And several of the competitors mimicked Oommen Chandy, V S Achuthanandan, actor Dileep’s singing in the movie ‘Sound Thoma’, PM Narendra Modi, trailers of English movies and SNDP leader Vellapally Natesan. Actor Vinay Fort’s lecture in Box Office hit ‘Premam’ was also popular with many of the participants.
“ The problem lies with the competitors’ choice of an item for which others or they themselves received much applause. This will result in making the most of their talent. Mimicry should not be limited to merely aping politicians and actors but it is something about inventing and exploring,” said Vinod Kedamangalam, who was at the venue.