''Bettada Hoovu'' ( ) is a 1985 Indian

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language film directed by N. Lakshminarayan, based on the Shirley L. Arora's novel ''What then, Raman?''. Produced by

Parvathamma Rajkumar Parvathamma Rajkumar (6 December 1939 – 31 May 2017) was an Indian film producer and distributor. She was the wife and cousin of veteran Kannada actor Dr. Rajkumar. She produced successful films featuring him and their sons Shiva Rajkumar, Pu ...

, it stars her son

Puneeth Rajkumar Dr. Puneeth Rajkumar (17 March 1975 – 29 October 2021), affectionately known as Appu (by his fans, after his first lead role in the movie Appu (2002 film), ''Appu''), was an Indian actor, playback singer, film producer, television presenter a ...

in the lead role. Puneeth plays Ramu, a young boy born into a poor family, who is fond of reading books, but is forced to discontinue his studies and support his family financially. His performance earned him the

National Film Award for Best Child Artist The National Film Award for Best Child Artist is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Silver Lotus (Raj ...

. ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

'' rated the film number one among the best "children's movies in Kannada". The film won three

Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...

. The movie was also screened at

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Plot

Ramu is a young boy born into a poor family, living with his parents and two siblings in a hill station. His parents hardly make ends meet; mother working as a fruit- and vegetable-seller, and father running errands in and around the village, often as a help to the visiting tourists. However, Ramu likes reading his books and going to school. He even has a friendship with a healthcare worker, who teaches him English after school. He is fascinated after watching a screening of the film '' Sri Ramanjaneya Yuddha'' in his village and also upon seeing

Kuvempu Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa (29 December 1904 – 11 November 1994), popularly known by his pen name Kuvempu, was an Indian poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He is widely regarded as the greatest Kannada poet of the 20th century. He wa ...

's '' Sri Ramayana Darshanam'' at a bookstore, both based on the epic

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

, and wishes to buy the latter to read. The book costing 10, he begins working towards saving the money. Due to an off-season when tourists return home, Ramu's family situation becomes dire and his father has to move to the city in search of work, leaving the responsibility of managing the family to young Ramu. Ramu is now forced to drop out of school to earn for his family. He starts doing little chores around the village, while saving a part of his earnings towards buying the book. He begins selling wildflowers to an American teacher, who is writing a book on Indian wildflowers. He earns ten rupees, enough to buy the book, when he brings an orchid flower to the teacher. However, when he goes to buy the book, he has a rethink. He has to make a decision between buying the book or a blanket to comfort his family members from the chilling winter cold. In the end, he decides to get the blanket, much to the happiness of his family. But then his dream of buying the book is shattered.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Rajan–Nagendra Rajan–Nagendra was an Indian musical duo who were prominent composers of film music in Kannada and Telugu cinema from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Rajan, along with his brother Nagendra, created a niche for themselves for nearly four dec ...

. # "Patte Huli Balu Ketta Huli" – C. Aswath # "Bisile Irali Maleye Barali" – S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Master Puneeth # "Thaayi Sharade" – Master Puneeth, P. B. Sreenivas

Awards

; National Film Awards – 1985 * Best Kannada Film —

* Best Child Actor –

; 1984–85 Karnataka State Film Awards * Second Best Film —

* Best Story Writer – Shirley L. Arora ;

33rd Filmfare Awards South * Best Film - Kannada -

* Best Director - Kannada - N. Lakshminarayan * Special Award Best Child Actor -

References

External links

* {{Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada 1980s Kannada-language films 1980s Indian films 1985 films Films scored by Rajan–Nagendra Indian children's films Films based on Indian novels Best Kannada Feature Film National Film Award winners Indian drama films Films directed by N. Lakshminarayan Films featuring a Best Child Artist National Award–winning performance