The girls’ light music competition at the State School Arts Festival could boast an enviable history.
Its winners down the years include K.S. Chithra, Sujatha, Minmini, Arundhathi, Susheela Devi and Shabnam, all of whom went on to become playback singers, with varying degrees of success.
The contest for the Higher Secondary girls proved that the festival would continue to produce fine talents. Not all the singers may have been of top quality, but there were some outstanding singers whose voices we are sure to hear in the future.
In fact, the winner S.K. Keerthana (Silver Hills, Kozhikode), is already a star on television, having won a Mappilapattu reality show.
But, she was not the biggest star in the competition held at a packed Jawahar Auditorium. Composer Ramesh Narayan’s daughter Madhushree Narayan is already a playback singer.
The Carmel School student from Thiruvananthapuram, however, could only finish fourth, behind Navaneetha Praveen (THS, Angadipuram) and Anjala Nasreen (GVHSS, Kalpetta), another familiar face from television shows.
Keerthana had come last on the stage as the 18th contestant and hers was an appeal entry. Her victory was another proof that there is a lot of merit in the appeal system, contrary to the popular notion.
With a superb rendition of the song beginning with lines, ‘Sindhubhairavi ragam…, she caught the ear. She has an excellent voice and fine diction.
About the competition as a whole, the judges felt the contestants should give more importance to the meaning of the lyrics. “You should try to bring out the emotions of those words,” said Rajan Cosmic on behalf of the judges.
