As we drive up to the Asset Homes property on the outskirts of the city there is absolutely nothing that gives away anything about the occupants of the building. The 22 contestants of the Hairomax Miss Kerala contest. Parts of the building are under construction, there are a couple of security personnel, one of whom points towards the building's basement.
We begin to have serious doubts about the ‘where' of it. At least the place is well lit, and there is help at hand and we are on our way up, in the lift. The contestants haven't arrived and we wait, then they arrive and we wait. For them to ‘freshen up'. In the meanwhile I chat with the brother-sister stylist duo Semu and Atit. They are ‘really impressed' with the standard of the contestants, ‘you know Kerala's high literacy rate'. They have worked with fashion show contestants elsewhere. “ These girls are raw but much better than some of the girls in the other contests that we have worked with,” says Semu, clearly impressed with the academic credentials of the participants. She is every inch the stylist, complete with the mandatory blue eyeliner.
Semu-Atit have designed the rounds for the fashion show. There will be four rounds – sari, casuals, fusion and the crowning. The duo promises that the garments will make a statement.
Experiment
A statement the tenth edition of Miss Kerala will definitely make. When, finally, Miss Kerala will be crowned she will be wearing.…hold your breath…a gown made of the Kerala sari. The designers are confident and so are the organisers going by what Ram Menon of Impresario Event Management India (the organisers) says about it being change etc.
The girls look like a million bucks and are extremely high on the confidence factor; in fact some of them are already behaving like they have won the crown. Mayuri Joshi, their trainer cum choreographer has only good things to say about the girls. She too is impressed with the educational qualifications – MBAs, engineers, biotechnologists etc. Again thanks to Kerala's high rate of literacy. “The girls are articulate, they know how to express themselves well and they pick up everything so fast,” says Mayuri. Last time round, most of the contestants were struggling with getting the catwalk right on the day before the contest. This time round most of the girls have got it right a-day-and-a-half before the event. Mayuri agrees, “We worked on the walk one evening and the next morning they were doing it so well.”
Practice makes perfect
It's time for practise and the girls are ready to do one of the ‘walks'. First they chuck their high heels , some are wearing or rather balancing on sky-high heels, and get down to work. Maitreyi puts on Kt Tunsell's, ‘Suddenly I see' for the girls to do their jig. Mayuri watches them, matching steps with them, prodding them on with the steps while her sister Maitreyi controls the music. ‘And you can hear she's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl…' goes the song repetitively and most of the girls do the jig as if their life depends on it and they believe in the song too. Probably for the moment it does too. Then they practise the catwalk, a few times. By the time they are done they are exhausted. After that they troop out of the room.
While all this was happening, in a corner in the same hall, a tailor labours away on the sewing machine getting the gowns ready. We sneak a peep, all we'll say is ‘let the finale do the talking'.
Meanwhile the girls are in the dining hall and eating sandwiches. It was a photo-op that we just couldn't pass. Beauty contestants eating! Suddenly the girls yell for ‘Suma ma'm' the contestant coordinator. A contestant has hurt her finger and she needs attention, we leave Suma helping the teary eyed contestant.
The expected judges, for the final show which will be held at Le Meridien on August 5, are designer Digvijay Singh, Anita Nair (writer), Vinod Nair, Nisha Kutty (photographer), Anoop Menon (actor), Renjini (actor), managing director, Medimix, Pradeep, Lintas CEO and Vijay Babu (CEO) Surya TV, according to Ram Menon.
