Children’s Day: Global films make their way to Karnataka’s rural schools

BENGALURU: For Sindhu S, a Class 5 student, Wednesday came as a surprise when she got to watch

foreign language children’s films

at her remote school in

Bengaluru Rural.

Though she could not follow the English subtitles, she was awestruck to see an eye blink on a pineapple in the English animation film, Crab Story. Sindhu, from Sadahalli Government Primary School near Devanahalli, was one of the three lakh children from rural government schools in Karnataka who were introduced to global cinema as part of Children’s Day.

Her classmate, Keerti M, said she was fascinated by English animation film, Jubilee, in which the queen’s hat flies across the town of London through a burst of wind.

For the first time, the education department organised a screening of select international films telecast via satellites. The duration of the movies varied from two minutes to 20 minutes and the primary screening was held at the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT).

Children who thought the films would be based on national leaders, were taken by surprise when they got to watch Russian and German films with English subtitles. The screening included only one Indian film, My Best Friend’s Shoes, directed by Ajitpal Singh, in Gujarati. While some of the films were easy to catch, some remained mysterious for the audience.

“While children enjoyed most of the animation films which didn’t have dialogues, many could not understand some films and were briefed about the storyline after the screening,” said Renuka Devi HS, a teacher from Gulur Government Higher Primary School near Tumakuru.

“The response from teachers and students has been encouraging. Entertainment must be an integral part of education. Use of films in education is what we are trying to highlight,” said Syed Sultan Ahmed, managing director, LXL Ideas Private Ltd, which screened the films.

The education department is mulling to take this forward by screening select movies often in schools. “This is a good exercise for children to get a world view. There are many inspiring child-friendly films in Kannada and other Indian languages. We will see if such films can be periodically screened in government schools,” said HN Gopalakrishna, director, DSERT.