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Put
a few children together to be themselves. Lo! They create
a wonderful world of their own deriving immense pleasure
in PLAYING - and 'learning' through it sub-consciously.
Playing in open space is quite different from playing
within the four walls of home. Open space provides greater
scope for interaction, experimentation and learning
besides multiplying the thrill of playing. There lies
the imperative need for playgrounds. But where are the
playgrounds! Thanks to the indiscriminate growth of
concrete jungles of ever-growing cities, there is hardly
any open space, let alone proper playgrounds - particularly
in the localities where poor and middle class children
reside.
This film Thutturi (The Bugle) is an attempt to highlight
this problem to raise the consciousness of society about
the imperative need of nearby playground for children
in each locality.
The story goes like this. Confined to homes for most
of the year with heaps of homework and preparation for
dreaded examinations, children jump with joy with declaration
of summer holidays. That is when they are 'allowed'
to go out and play.
Lack of playground in the locality compels them to play
in streets. Thanks to blazing publicity, cricket and
computer games seem to be the only games these city
children are exposed to. The arrival of a village boy
opens them up to the joys of rustic village games. Broken
glasses, obstruction to traffic etc leads parents to
advise children not to play in the streets. They go
out in search of a place to play and find a vacant land
full of stones & thorns. They plead with the owner of
that land - a well-meaning lonely old man left to himself
with a lot of riches and also a lot of health complaints.
They get his permission to play there. Old man is quite
impressed with the way children were clearing up the
whole place. He becomes one with them in creating a
beautiful playground there with novel ideas drawn from
David Werner's famous book on creative use of readily
available things around. He proclaims that the playground
henceforth belongs to them. Mingling closely with children
helps him regain his zest for life. In their company
he finds a new meaning to his life. He starts spending
more and more time playing and roaming around joyfully
with children. His health starts improving.
Old man's only son (Hari), settled in America, is not
happy with his father's association with 'street children'
as he calls them. He arrives on the scene with his little
son (Abhi). Abhi is quite attached to his grandfather.
Abhi derives great joy playing with other kids, unmindful
of Hari's objections. Hari's admonition of Abhi embarrasses
and hurts the old man. To retrieve Abhi and old man
from 'street children', Hari virtually orders them to
pack-up and move to America immediately, much against
his wishes. Hari's rudeness puts old man in a state
of shock. He loses his speech and becomes bed-ridden.
Hari cleverly uses this opportunity to keep the children
away from Abhi and old man. Hari is unmoved by children's
pleadings & parents request and, arranges for demolition
of the playground to build a commercial complex. Unable
to see their fruits of labor (playground) going out
of their hands, children obstruct demolition. Children
& parents are taken to police station. Embarrassed parents
punish their children and order them to remain indoors...
Finally, these children manage to regain their playground
with the help of old man. A realised Hari endorses the
old man's gift of playground to children.
The film ends with the old man appealing to all parents
for dealing with children the right way and grooming
them for their all round development providing space
for both studies and play.
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