Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Protest mars drama competition

Thiruvananthapuram: The Tagore theatre, venue of Malayalam drama for high school students at the ongoing 49th Kerala School Kalotsavam, witnessed dramatic moments on Thursday when a group of audience calling themselves as ‘theatre activists’ barged into the stage challenging the credentials of the judges.

The incident led to heated exchange between the activists and the organisers for several minutes until the situation was finally diffused by A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Director of Public Instruction (DPI).

The activists alleged that one of the three judges was not qualified to judge the event as he had no professional experience with the Children’s theatre.

The activists hailing from Erankulam and Kodungalloor too alleged that the DPI had earlier promised them to appoint qualified judges for the event from this year onwards. The activists demanded that the organisers should appoint candidates from intuitions such as the School of Drama for evaluating the event.

The higher secondary category Kathakali group competition maintained high standards with seven out of the eight teams bagging ‘A’ grade. However, the performance of the teams came under the meticulous scrutiny of the judges who pointed out the technical anomalies in the performance of each team. They said that although many of the teams had performed as good as professional artistes, at times it was quite evident that the students had not been trained in the traditional manner.

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