Kerala State School Arts Festival: festival diary

A dramatic twist

A copyright controversy hit the State School Arts Festival on Monday when writer Susmesh Chandroth alleged in a Facebook post that one of the dramas performed at the competition was based on one of his stories and that was taken without his permission. According to him, the writers of the drama had staged a distorted version of the basic idea borrowed from his story Kattakkayam Premakatha. Quite a few of his stories had been turned into dramas in previous editions of the festival, but all of them had taken his permission, said the writer.

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Going too far?

After enjoying several largely satisfying performances, a large section of the audience at the mimicry competition were made to feel uneasy when a contestant mocked the Justice Hema Committee report, which had exposed exploitation and discrimination within the Malayalam film industry. The female student seemed to take a jab at those calling for urgent reforms, portraying them in an exaggerated, cartoonish light. To drive her point home, she capped her performance with a call to push back against such “naysayers” in order to safeguard the industry.

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A golden opportunity

For Bhagya S. Kumar, an NSS volunteer at the main venue of the festival, the Central Stadium, watching the classical dances programme made her want to dance. A Standard XI student at Cotton Hill HSS in the capital, she used to perform Bharatanatyam earlier. “When my school selected volunteers for the festival, I grabbed the opportunity,” she says.

(Contributed by S.R. Praveen, Sarath Babu George and P.K. Ajith Kumar)

Published - January 06, 2025 08:36 pm IST