It has been only three years since Vanchippattu was introduced as an event in the State School Arts Festival. The high school category Vanchippattu competition was the last event to finish in the 55th edition of the festival that drew to a close here on Wednesday.

There were 28 teams from across the State in the competition that was finally won by a team from Kozhikode. The team from Alappuzha, the homeland of Vanchippattu, could only finish third.

“Vanchippattu being an art form practised only in Alappuzha district, I have been wonderstruck by the way the rest of the State has absorbed it and managed to excel in it,” Vanchippattu scholar Kainakari Surendran, a judge at the competition, said.

Most teams were very good, Mr. Surendran said after the competition, and expressed hope that the art form would be kept alive through the arts festival.

AKKR Girls Higher Secondary School, Chelannur, Kozhikode, that bagged the first prize in the competition performed ‘Kuchelavritham’ by Ramapurathu Warrier in the Kuttanad tradition. Clad in the costume of the working-class women of Kuttanad, they delivered an energy-packed performance and had the audience singing with them by the end.

The second prize was bagged by the team from SCG Higher Secondary School, Mala, Thrissur, which performed a work in praise of Sree Padmanabhaswamy of Thiruvananthapuram in the Vechupattu tradition.

Mahatma Girls High School, Chennithala, Alappuzha, that bagged the third prize went for ‘Balaleela’ in the Aranmula tradition. Dressed in traditional set dhothies, theirs was one of the most colourful performances in the competition.

Apart from ‘Kuchelavritham,’ ‘Kiratham’ and ‘Santhanagopalam’ by Kunchan Nambiar, ‘Kirathavetta’ by C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, ‘Bali Vadham’ by Kottarakkara Raman Nair, verses from the Ramayana, and parts of ‘Karuna’ by Kumaranasan were also used by the Vanchippattu teams.

‘Ulakka,’ the traditional grinding pole, is an integral part of the Kuttanad and Vechupattu traditions, while the Krishna idol and a paddy-filled measuring barrel are seen during performances in the Aranmula tradition. The teams that followed the Kuttanad tradition were colourfully dressed in printed dhothies and bright-coloured blouses.

The team from Alappuzha, the homeland of Vanchippattu, could finish only behind Kozhikode and Thrissur in the contest.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Aabha Anoop / Kozhikode – January 22nd, 2015