On the occasion of Teachers’ Day this Wednesday, Suchitra Film Society, is screening the award-winning and equally evocative heartwarming Kannada film Thutturi (Bugle) as a form of salute to the fraternity of this noble profession. It also gives children an opportunity to have a gala time on the holiday . 

Thutturi is an enterprising children’s film directed by young P Seshadri, who has won accolades for his other cinematic renditions. Children are bound to regale and rejoice in the antics and adventures of their screen bretherns.

While the likes of Lagaan  and Chak De have dealt with India’s major sports, Thutturi uses  gully cricket as a springboard and spotlights the more traditional and sadly forgotten pastime games likes kunte balle, khokho, kabaddi, mara kothi, lagori and chor-sepoy, while weaving them into the much more pressing problem of depleting open spaces for parks and playgrounds.

Through the resourceful rustic Shivalingaiah who comes to the city on a vacation visit, Seshadri’s Thutturi, makes a clarion call for protecting and apportioning enough lung spaces around our cityscapes so that children can flower into more rounded adults. How the children win their hearts into a reclusive and reticent rich Thatha and ensure he gifts them his land for a Children’s Park, and thereafter unitedly fight to see that it is not encroached upon by the landsharks to whom the money-minded son of the rich nobleman wants to palm away forms the gist of this heartrending tale.

Hamsalekha’s melodious scores and spontaneous acting by the cast should make Thutturi a wonderful day for the children. Screening at Suchitra, Banashankari II Stage, 10.30 am. Call: 26711785