January 20, 2012
This week, I have had the immense pleasure of watching snatches of live telecasts and mostly highlights of the events of the 52nd Kerala School Kalolsavam (Arts Festival). As I type this, the 'group mime' event in progress on Stage 7, is live on Asianet. The festival concludes on Sunday and from the points tally at this point with the top five districts being separated only by a handful of points, a photofinish is expected!
Almost all the Malayalam news channels have camped at the Thrissur venue to bring their frequent reports. Newspapers have recruited celebrities to be their festival guest reporters. Besides being a competition, this festival is an extraordinary, priceless tradition. 10,000 students from all over the state compete in 218 events.There the glamorous events which include the traditional dance forms Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniyattam and Kathakali; traditional art forms like chakyarkoothu, ottan thullal; acting-based events namely monoacting, mimicry, miming and dramatics;popular performing arts like folk dance, light music, maapilapaattu, kathaprasangam! Then there are the literary events: essay writing, poetry composition and story writing. There are also group events, both musical (band, duff muttu, panchavadyam, patriotic songs etc) and dance (thiruvathira, oppana, margamkali etc).
Though the school fest has been much maligned over the years about overzealous parents, shady judges and tunnel vision of a chunk of the participants towards a cinematic career, I think it is unfair to look at the festival only in the light of these. This remains the greatest sustainer of vibrant continuation of all the traditional art forms of the state. Granted plenty of students have in mind the 'grace marks' they receive in their school courses because of their participation here, but at least they train to take part. These are such wonderful memories of teamwork that they can cherish later in life.
While, it is true that 'posh' factor one-upmanship between parents is leading to the use of costumes costing up to Rs 20,000 in Bharatnatyam and jewelry running up to Rs 1 lakh, but there are also stories like the that of the Arabanamuttu team from Wayanad Pinangodu Orphanage Higher Secondary school. These boys worked hard on daily wage jobs during the weekends to make the Rs. 30,000 they needed for renting the costumes and Arabana for rehearsals.
Without the glamorization and popularity of the school fest, I cannot imagine Ottan Thullal or Kathakali receiving infusion of young. How else can Duffmuttu, Arabanamuttu, Parichamuttu kali and Yakshganam expect to flourish? Will more youngsters take up learning the Veena, Chenda or Nadaswaram without such encouragement? What better way to nurture the budding pencil sketchers, painters, collage and poster making than statewide annual platform and recognition?
From the little I have seen, the quality of the performances is remarkable. There has been criticism that the drama competition exposed the lack of children's theater in Kerala that forced most of the teams to adapt serious 'grown-up' dramas. Valid criticism but it goes on to show the capacity of these budding actors as well as the issues such a fest brings forward. The K.T. Muhammad theater that hosted the dramatics contest was standing room only every day. Even the TV camera crews had to step back owing to protest from audience whose viewing was obstructed! Heck! Such protests don't happen even during marriages here!
Just in case all this appears to be a deeply regionalist, linguistic entrenchment, here are a few more events. There are essay writing, story writing, poetry composition, extempore and recitation in Hindi, Arabic, Sanskrit as well as Urdu. Mirza Ghalib would have been proud of the young men and women who recited his verses so beautifully. There are also recitation contests for both Kannada and Tamil poetry. And all these events have considerable participation.
Arabic Youth Festival and Sanskrit Youth Festival can be considered as separate fests operating within the umbrella of the Kalolsavam. This works far better for the promotion of both these languages than anything that the government can envision to siphon money of corruptly in the name of heritage funds. There is an event called "Arabic dictionary making" which I would like to find out more about!
Touching and inspiring stories come out of fest everyday. The media coverage increases the chances of these talent kids receiving financial and other support. Famous playback singer and television personality Srinivas (himself a winner at the fest 28 years ago for carnatic music) reported about Reshma, the winner of light music contest. Her dad passed away few years ago. They live in a rented home thanks to the support from some relatives and they cannot afford to give her music lessons. Thanks to fest, Kerala now knows about Suryamol, a +2 student, who supports her family by dancing at the tourist resorts in Munnar and Kumili for Rs 250 per hour.
Actress Padmapriya wrote that she has never seen anything like this before in her life. Besides the tremendous quality of the traditional art forms performances, she was also deeply impressed with the public kitchen that serves traditional Kerala 'sadya' for the participants. "It would have been so much easier for the organizers to shove some bread to the kids, but they stuck to the harder 'traditional' menu!" she wrote. True!
The number of events and the nature of events keep growing and evolving. 'Kerala-nadanam', a dance form created by Guru Gopinath half a century ago has rapidly become a popular competition. To express rather simplistically , it is Kathakali lite! This year, there were separate competition for boys and girls in Keralanadanam much to the relief of the boys who had been complaining about the "default grace" being advantageous to the girls in the common format of the previous years! Like in the Olympics, three art forms are being tested as 'exhibition' this year: Hindustani music, Vanchipaattu and Chavuttunadakam. I think all three will become regular competition events from next year.
The reunion of a song with its lyricist reported in Manorama today left a lump in my throat. A teacher, P.R. Kamala, had penned the song "Mridumandahasam, malarmaalayakkiyen.." 9 years ago for her only daughter who was born with cerebral palsy. Kamala teacher sang the song at a teachers' conference and next year, it was broadcast by the Akashvani radio. Then the song began its journey. All except the first four lines were rewritten multiple times. Bharat Sajikumar, then only in primary school, heard the song in 2008 while on his way to a music program in Tiruchirapalli. A girl named Prathiba, in the bus sang and recorded it for him. Because of the low quality of the recording, Bharat had to fill in some words. From then on, whereever he sang that song, he won the first prize. The song always left him teary eyed and he tried to find creator of this touching composition. His dream came true yesterday in Thrissur. Emotional reunion of the song with its creator as Bharat after winning the light music event yesterday, met Kamala teacher and her daughter. Kamala teacher gave him a 100 rupee note, folded into a small square, that she had saved for long. Kissing the young singer on his foreheard, she cried, "Thank you for bring me back the song...son!"
As this largest arts festival in Asia is unfolding here, Kerala team is doing the state proud by leading in the National School Sports Meet going on in Haryana. I am sure there are a few all rounders who have missed out on the arts fest so that they could be on the tracks and fields at the national championship.
The onslaught of degrading and repetitive TV reality shows that promote nothing but imitation of film personalities, cinematic dance and music was justifiably making one pessimistic. Add to that the series of sordid tales of molestation, minor rape, violent 'moral' policing and underworld involvement and rise of religious fanaticism among youngsters in the state. But seeing all these talented kids in action in the last few days on such a variety of artistic fields, I am certainly more optimistic towards the cultural future of this land.
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