4 months ago
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Young performers delivered large truths astatine the High School play contention astatine the 64th State School Art Festival connected Thursday (January 15, 2026). The afloat location astatine the Chaldean Syrian HSS Ground was enthralled by good performances arsenic good arsenic themes drawn from some planetary crises and section realities. Students proved that almighty theatre did not request property oregon excess, but lone honesty and courage.
One of the arresting productions of the day, ‘Bhasha’ by students of Memunda Higher Secondary School (Kozhikode), spoke of a connection older and stronger than words: the connection of emotion and humanity. The play captured the panic and loneliness of displacement, reminding the assemblage that the caput of a exile is among the astir frightened and isolated successful the world.
The communicative recalls the haunting representation of Aylan Kurdi — the Syrian kid recovered dormant connected a seashore successful a reddish T-shirt and bluish trousers during the perilous travel to Europe. As visuals of the hunted and uprooted refugees chopped done the performance, the taxable froze the contiguous moment, making the symptom uncomfortably real.
Yet Bhasha recovered anticipation successful simplicity. Children connected a enactment befriend a speechless exile boy, support him and physique bonds without sharing a communal language. In that quiescent enactment of solidarity, the play laid bare its authorities — compassion arsenic resistance.
“Violence against children is 1 of the top challenges of our time,” said P.M. Fidel Gautham, who played a cardinal role. “In Gaza and elsewhere, it is children who are the victims. It is their small dreams that pain first. To recognize the connection of love, you don’t request large linguistic scholarship. All you request is simply a bully heart. That is what we are trying to accidental done this play.”
Siyara Babu added: “Children crossed the satellite are surviving successful utmost insecurity today. War tin interruption retired anywhere, astatine immoderate moment. Education, basal facilities and affection are rights each kid deserves. We tried to archer the satellite this connection successful the simplest imaginable way.”
Director Jino Joseph underlined the cardinal thought of the play:
“Wherever successful the world, the connection of emotion and symptom is the same. It is beyond language. When children amusement that a grin and a small much emotion tin bring each surviving beings together, the play reminds america that the satellite needs the connection spoken by the heart.”
Balancing planetary struggle with section conscience was Arana, a play rooted successful societal prejudice and unsighted belief. Drawing from the Malayalam proverb ‘Arana kadichal udane maranam’, the accumulation examined however myths crook into verdicts — and however innocence is crushed by corporate fear.
In the play Arana is blamed for a death, sentenced to superior punishment and abandoned adjacent by friends, lone for nine to aboriginal realise that the expected origin of decease was thing much than superstition. The play struck hard astatine misinformation, mob mentality and the outgo of silence.
Handled with energy, clarity and affectional precision, conscionable astir each accumulation demanded attention. They ventured into the exploitation of marginalised groups, the hollow promises of those successful power, and deep-rooted societal prejudices. The plays were not conscionable performances. They were questions, too.
