Echoes of loss and laughter: Young voices redefine mimicry at Kerala School Arts Festival

Thrissur: The tragic experience of losing her relatives in the Wayanad landslides found expression in the mimicry performance of Thejalakshmi S, a Class VIII student of Perambra High School in Kozhikode. The performance stood out as it carried the weight of loss, survival and memory. It also signalled a clear shift from the discipline's age-old clichés."I lost my brother Saran Kumar and his family in the tragedy. Last year, it was he who inspired me the most. He was supposed to be here to watch me again," Thejalakshmi told TOI.She wove together the sounds of gushing water, frantic rescue operations and sickening silence of hospital wards. The 2018 floods and the Chooralmala landslide formed the motifs. Thejalakshmi said that reproducing those sounds was painful initially as each attempt brought back distressing memories in her. It would have been the same for her father, Shyju Perambra, himself a mimicry artist, who trained her.The mimicry event reflected a generational shift as contestants harped on contemporary social realities and pop culture. Aradhya M K, a Class VIII student of Gurukulam HSS, Alathur, chose the omnipresence of ghost characters in Malayalam cinema as her theme."Maadan, Marutha and Yakshi are conquering the land of Kerala," Aradhya declared in her opening monologue, before exploring how celebrities might react to supernatural encounters.Aradhya said the idea took shape after watching the film Lokah, which revisits the legend of Kalliyankattu Neeli. Adding to the contemporary flavour, her performances incorporated DJ beats and references to viral social media characters, including Instagram personality Naga Sairanthri.The performances underlined how mimicry at the school arts fest has evolved as an artform with less stock voices and more storytelling. For Thejalakshmi, it gave space to express her personal loss.