KOCHI: Thiruvananthapuram will soon adorn a festive mood with the 44th edition of Soorya Festival commencing on March 7. The 51-day-long festival, denoting 51 alphabets in Malayalam, will be held at Ganesham till April 26. According to Soorya Krishnamoorthy, founder-director of the Soorya Stage and Film Society, the festival features young artists, speakers, and ventures of budding talents, calling it the ‘National Festival of Youth’.
The festival will begin with renowned writer T Padmanabhan being honoured by 20 other writers. “This fest is a curtain-raiser to our 111-day-long festival which will be organised in September. The curtain-raiser will erase the fear and apprehension in people’s minds and will benefit the festival in September. T Padmanabhan is really excited to take part in the festival,” said Soorya Krishnamoorthy.
The main categories include Malayalam Film Festival, Talk Festival, Short Film Festival, Meet the Masters, Hindi Film Festival, and, Dance and Musical Festival. The Dance and Musical Festival which is one of the main highlights of the festival will kickstart with a ghazal performance by singer Sithara Krishnakumar. Other artists including Roopa Revathi, Uthara Unni, Kalamandalam Aswathy, Chinmaya Sisters, Sreenath Nair, Reddy Lakshmi, and Dev Anand will also perform at the event.
“The young artists are excited to perform on stage. However, the senior artists have apprehensions as the pandemic hasn’t been contained completely. So this time, we decided to go with young artists,” added Soorya Krishnamoorthy. ‘Biriyaani’, ‘Run Kalyani’, ‘Kalla Nottam’, ‘Vasanthi’, and ‘Kenjira’ will be some of the films that will be screened in the Malayalam Film Festival category.
Kanhaiya Kumar, K S Sabarinadhan, MLA, Mohammed Riyaz, Veena S Nair, Sandeep Warrier and activist Rahul Easwar will speak at The Talk Festival. “ This session will perhaps be an exciting one as the elections are nearing. Usually, the talk session begins with one by M N Karassery. I’m expecting good participation in the event,” he said.
All programmes will be held at Ganesham from 6.45pm. “It will be difficult for people from other districts, states, or countries to participate in the event due to the pandemic situation. We wish to conduct the festival in a full-fledged way in September.” The opening day will also witness the release of Soorya Krishnamoorthy’s new book,‘Nurunguvettam’. “The proceeds from the sale will be used to pay the insurance premium of theatre artists,” he said. ‘Haasyam’ by Jayaraj will be screened on the final day of the festival.
In full swing
The Dance and Musical Festival which is one of the main highlights of the festival will kickstart with a ghazal performance by singer Sithara Krishnakumar. Other artists who will perform include Roopa Revathi and Uthara Unni