The old “idiot” box…

First time here. Your post took me through a nostalgic journey down DD lane. Indeed the serials of those days were more entertaining than today’s mega sagas. Hope the oldies make a come back.

Wow Sakshi! Those indeed were the days…

Here’s some of the English ones I remember from DD days: Fireball XL5, Knight Rider, Famous Five (used to love these so much that I used to video tape ‘em!), Sherlock Holmes, Different Strokes….

Even used to wait for Pranoy Roy’s “The World this Week” just because only once a week we’d get good coverage of international news!!! Certain things def. have improved at least!!

wow…. that’s quite something. though i haven’t actually seen any of them, its easy to draw the contrast of them and today’s serials. a lot has changed, i must say.

btw, cool blog :).

I do remember those old days of Doordarshan with unparalled fondness. Those serials were real entertainers unlike today’s which revolves around conspiracies and conspiracies within conspiracies without any meaningful story. I thought that through years you become better but not in the case of DD (for that matter many things in India) they went from best to mediocre to worst. May be tt only happens in India.

Brilliant stuff. One conveniently forgets everything apart from Krishi darshan.

Re wagle family on diwali

I had the same experience when I wore a new Fab India kurta to an aunt’s house and discovered that I matched her tablecloth and bedcover

Good ol’days. I love Wagle ki duniya and yeh jo hai zindagi. Couple of other good ones - Mohandas BA. LLB, Dekh Bhai Dekh, hum panchi ke chaal ke.

Now a days I end up watching only Just for a laugh aired late night….I believe its a canadian show.

You make me nostalgic about “Yeh jo hai zindagi” - I was a total sucker for the show. Come to think it, DD should release these on DVD. I for one would buy it.

yeah .. those were the days…creativity was not reigned in by TRP…it pains you to see the same taleneted bunch of satish shah and all being wasted on some really botched up sit coms.

in fact eve in the later half of DD days…. saans was a very good serial.
i remember watching one serial in the mornings on sundays which made neelima azeem quite famous. it had long and beautiful name. pity i forgot the name.

there were some nice school based serials and telefilms in those days and once in a while one could catch a nice hollywood flick as well, i remember catching kramer vs. kramer and tootsie in one series of good movies.

i think we should try and compile the list of these gems as i feel that it would be a long long time before we can see something like those

You revive some old memories with “Wagle ki Duniya” . It really made me nostalgic and made me remember the old comedy serial “Yeh jo hai Zindagi” which I think came before it. The fare dished out these days is too steroetyped and it is one heck of a task keeping children away from the idiot box.

Sakshi, great post. Re-collecting the past is always fund especially when they are such lovely thoughts in them.
But hey, let’s not forget that the same cable network today also gives us access to some other wonderful channels like Discovery, Nat Geo and Travel & Living. Yes, the Saas-bahus should make an EXIT after so many years of sobbing.

Nice trip down memory lane. They never let the quality of their programs mire in the bureaucratic red tapism. Some other honrable mentions are Gul Gulshan Gulfam, Circus .

Anyone remember Neev ? it was a sit-com about a boarding school…don’t remember much else but it was fun show.

hmm u forgot junoon… how can u forget KK and thata nagarkar..
and ya rangoli..?

Well why don’t we see it from another prespective. Those were the days of DD and when I say that I mean it becuase well, there was no competition. So, all the good producers and directors had no choice but to make serial for DD alone and no wonder, they were good.

Another thing which kept the directors busy with making good dramas was the simple policy of 13 episodes per serial that DD followed strictly for many years. I remember “Khithij ke us paar” which, well, was very well made and had a logical ending after the 13th week.

These days there are so many channels that every Tom Dick and HariPrasad is a producer or a director and every soap-opera (as they call it) seem to have a bunch of ladies all glossed up being shot at exterme closeup, and they call it drama!!

I still miss that 20 minute run of commericals (from 9 in the morning till 9:20) before the start of Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Those were the days when the number of commericals would mean that the serial is really doing good bussiness. I still remember counting the ads and it were some 145 for Mahabaratha

Those were the days!!

Sigh! DD could really make great serials then, instead of badly done sci-fi things nowadays. Tamas was what HBO would call a ‘Mini-series’ and even though I was too young to understand Hum Log or Buniyaad (I watched StarTrek, Robot, Chitrahaar and Babu Basu’s Quiz Time, I was barely ten) everybody says that they were great. I wonder if someone knows that there are immense commercial prospects for such serials? I would buy a Tamas or Malgudi Days DVD, and so would many others…

Ah ! The memory lane. Yeh jo hai zindagi and Udaan were my favorites. If I remember correctly YJHZ was on Friday nights. Once our TV broke down and the repair guy was supposed to get it repaired and drop it back by 5 pm on a Friday. 5pm became 6 and then 7. I still remember how hard I prayed to get the TV back in time

Good post Apart from those mentioned I recall fondly the Sunday morning show “Aap ke liye” which was hosted occassionaly by Vinod Dua, the comedys shows like “Idhar Udhar” and other shows like the Lucy Show, Star Trek, Johny sokko and his flying Robo, David Attenboruogh’s “The Living Planet”, Vinod Dua’s Parakh, Narottam Puri’s “The Sports Quiz” and the immensely popular “Rajani”. I also liked the Germal TV shows that were telecast at that time like the “Music Laden”, wheer I heard the BoneyM for the first time, and “Telematch”. Then there was the dubbed Japanese serial “Oshin” and the most friendly news readers like JVRaman, Neethi Ravindran, Tejeshwar Singh, Rini Simon, Salma Sultan. Hmmmm…good old days…reminds me of the childhood and the innocent entertainment we had.

That was one awesome post. I was on google searching for something and I came across this. It really made me recall a few old nice things that I had not remembered for a long time. “Giant Robot” was one serial that was good too. My favorite serial was always Malgudi days though.

Just wanted to say GOOD WORK! Thats all!

Bye all,
Kalyan

Great post (I just discovered your blog)!

Indeed, things have changed. though we have more coverage, at least of international events and detailed analysis of national events, no one can argue that DD of old times did have quality shows. I’d like to add “Byomkesh Bakshi”, “Reporter”,”dekh bhai dekh” and “Mahabharat” to the hindi list and “Yes Minister”, “Are you being served” and “Hercule poirot” to the English one. Nostalgic and memorable indeed.

Sakshi
loved reading your post and the trip down the memory lane…
infact there is a community dedicated to Old DD serials on Orkut (which is a online network kinda thing)

Sakshi,
Gr8 one! was just watching Malgudi Days on POGO along with my friends. So all you Malgudi Fans start watching POGO! That set us talking about the good ol’ days of yore! I would like to add Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne, Vikram aur Betal (which had our “Lord Rama” as Vikram!) and even before that Didi’s comedy Show, Spiderman and later the Science Quiz Programs along with Science Quest.
Those were really good ones. Of course Fauji, which launched King Shah Rukh!
Remember those days when DD would telecast regional language films and we could get to see all those “Award?” winning films?
DD also used to telecast really good movies late in the night whenever there was a film festival happenning anywhere!
How about Surabhi with the cheerful Renuka Sahane and the “big” man Siddharth Kak? This show also set a world record or something by receiving over 10 lakh answers for an episode I believe!
Thanks a lot for stirring up good cheerful nostalgia!
I miss those days!
Adios!

Nice post. Just the other day I was lamenting the sorry state of our TV industry now and couldn’t help bringing up the good-old DD of our times.

In addition to the ones listed here, some other awesome serials used to do rounds back then.

‘Stone Boy’ - I haven’t come across many ppl who remember this one. Sigh. It was the perfect childhood fantasy.

‘Indradhanush’ - The first desi series based on time-travel. Marvellous.

‘Faster Fene’ - About a teen-age detective. Was funky stuff.

‘Honi-Anhoni’ - Amongst the first horror/supernatural series on TV. Gave me my first nightmares

‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ - What can I say.

Interestingly I found this site while googling for Malgudi days DVD. It is great see the nostalgia of 1980’s DD programs. I would like to add YATRA by Syam Benegal as one of my favorite serial. The other day I was watching National Geographic’s “The Great Indian Railways” and it took memories back to YATRA serial.

Guys,

How about Cosmos (with Carl Seagan), the Jacques Cousteau series on his famous boat — Calypso, UFO, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Chunauti, Subah, Sanjha Chula (Rama Vij, Shah Rukh, etc), all those crappy Bengali serials based on every quintessential Bong author, Ek Kahani, Bangalore DD had “The Odd Couple” & “Around the world in 80 days”, Star Trek, Johnny Soko & the Flying Robot, The Old Fox (I know Mumbai DD had this too — my roomie used to watch it), Telematch, Yes Minister, Hasya Kavi Sammelans during Holi (KP Saxena, Dubey saab from Gwalior, etc), Idhar Udhar, Spiderman, He-Man & The Masters of the Universe, Circus, Fauji, Khandaan (what a cast — Shreeram Lagoo, Vivek Vaswani, Girish Karnad, Neena Gupta, Mohan Bhandari, etc), Ghalib (I did not like it, too tragic and sad but my roomie, who digs Ghalib swears by it and the ghazals of Gulzar saab and sung by Jagjit saab), Jeevan Rekha/ Life line — probably the best medical drama I’ve seen — it beats St Elsewhere, it beats ER, you name them….Jeevan Rekha was uber (what a cast — KK Raina, Shabana’s sis-in-law and Baba Azmi’s wife — can’t recollect her name — the lady with beautiful eyes, the Marathi actor who plays the chaste Mahrashtrian — his name begins with “A”, can’t recollect his name either, Pankaj Kapoor, AK Hangal saab, etc) — that series had the BEST soundtrack for TV that I have heard in a long time (was it Usha Khanna or Vanraj Bhatia who gave the music for that?) — Vijaya Mehta did a splendid job on that series — superb cameos by accomplished actors like Shafi Inamdar and oters whom we saw a lot on TV but really do not know their names. we had World of Sport on Sat/Sun? afternoons with people like Dr Narottam Puri, Anupam Gulati, Kenny Lal, etc. Dr Puri used to have a live sports quiz program too on nights (monthly program?), do people recollect Sabeera Merchant’s What’s the Good Word — I belive that was a production of Mumbai DD, on Mumbai DD they used to show Chiman Rao with Dilip Prabhavalkar — believe it or not we saw that program in Blore in the early 80’s before Blore DD started making its own programs (since ‘82?), Marathi news ancohrs like Pradeep Bhidye and that lady (can’t recollect her name — very famous lady), Mumbai DD had Aamchi Maati Aamchi Mansa (Our Soil, our People) — Marathi version of Krishi Darshan, late 80’s had Ulta Pulta, Flop Show, that irritating Deepak Malhotra (some Deepak, forget his name) on DD’s breakfast shows.

Sakshi, I just wanted to reitrate that I’d love to be younger in today’s generation rather than we grew up. Why? Simply, because of the innumerable choices kids today have. It is simply astounding. Some of the programs mentioned on your blog are par excellence. However they were few and far between and it is important for usto acknowledge that. We waited ofr Hum Log, we waited for Buniyaad on Tues and Thurs, we waited for Nukkad on Mnday, we waited for Chunauti on Sat(?) — my point is it was frustrating then, although looking back, nostalgia is so sweet to taste. I think today with the internet and cable it is so much more fun. However, those times were definitely more innocent — no doubt about it. Were they as innocent as when our parents grew up?? Definitely not.

Thank you for this blog. I am missing so many other nuggets and memories. My roomie, who is now in his early 30’s, recollects much more than me. I was quite young, relatively speaking.

All the best,

Sriraj

Hi Sakshi

It was memorable to go through your nostalgic Tv serials of yesteryears.
One more really good serial comes to my mind that I would , anyday, love to watch. It was called “Kahaan gaye woh log?” - a serial that dealt with inspiring stories of yesterday’s superheroes, in the background of India’s freedom struggle. Many of them brought tears to my eyes. It was a serial, produced by Actor Manoj Kumar. Why can’t these serials be made available on DVD?

M. K. Girish.

Guys,

Some more inputs…do you remember Phatichar (Pankaj Kapoor), Shyam Benegal’s Discovery of India, what about Yatra (also a Benegal creation) with Om Puri — superb cinematography, captured the whole panorama of our nation, I remember a serial with Sudesh Berry and Mita Vashist on Mon evenings (this was more of early 90’s), do you recollect on Wed evnings there used to be a program on B’wood personalities — it had a catchy tune — and I’m not referring to a song-dance thing like Chayageet or Chitrahar (this was again, early 90’s), and of course, do you remember Tabassum’s program via Mumbai DD (man, I’m forgetting it’s name), also Vinod Dua used to interview celebs on Delhi DD. Also, what about those boring UGC programs. A lot of the geeky kids in my school loved those programs, Paintal had acted in a series called Sarfarnama (?). Do you guys recollect they had shown The Godfather in 1992 in 13 episodes — with Tom Alter as the moderator/emcee/host? Do you recollect an obscure German program for kids called Peter’s Toy Box (I guess they showed it on Sat/Sun)? Does anyone remember them showing The Famous Five — I guess they had made those in the 70’s in Britain but they showed it on DD in the late 80’s/ early 90’s.

Sakshi, I think you ought to start a blog for TV ads of the 80’s too. Some gems : Gimme gimme gimme Vijaya Butter, Khao Gagan Raho Magan, Jo biwi se kare pyaar woh kaise kare Prestige se inkaar, Aramusk ad with Deepak Malhotra, Dinesh suitings with Sunny Gavaskar, Thums Up with Shastri(?), Sunny & Patil, Dinesh ads with Shastri, Richards, Border (during ‘87 Reliance Cup), of course the ad that revolutionized India as we see her today — Pepsi ad in ‘90(?) with Remo and Juhi…the list goes on..I think janta should be able to contribute much more.

Sriraj

Did any of you manage to loctae DVDs/VCDs for Malgudi Days, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, & Tamas? In case you do, please drop me a line. And yes, the Ramayan episodes of Bharat- Ek Khoj. Thanx in advance.

My family had actually recorded about 6 episodes of “Wagke ki Duniya” on VHS. I even had the one with Shahrukh Khan…remember he stars as a brat who accidentally runs into Mr. Wagle and both of them spend a harrowing two days waiting to lodge a complaint at the cops. I remember thinking then …this guy is so cute…he shhould act in movies…well…he did. Those shows were so much better than the “saas bahu” nonsense thats dished out.

Hey…nicely written.Finally someone has discussed about the good old serials.The main thing that stood about those serials were humility and simplicity,they did not preach unlike the ones running now.It didnt seem fake then.
Talking about comedy you forgot jaspal bhattis’ “the flop show”…i feel that was the best indigineous comedy and satire series..not just a copy of foreign shows.

Thanks for starting this great post Sakshi.
In my opinion “Chanakya” was the best serial of all times, though it was not an entertainer, but the research, direcion and acting (all primarily by Dr. Chandra Prakash) was awesome. Anyone has any clues if its CD/DVD is available.
Among others I liked, Indradhanush (time machine funda), Buniyaad, Tamas, “Fir wahi talaash” (whose shooting was done in JNU), Mahabharat, Chunauti etc. were good ones.

Abhishek

Growing up i watched Byomkesh Bakshi and malgudi days, Now i am in US and i miss those shows, can anyone tell me where can i get VHS or DVD for those shows?

Hello Friends,
Do you all remember the TV serial “GIANT ROBOT”, it was the best serial in those days, Can anyone give me a link to that series.

An excellent post. Good Old days of DD. Anyone remembers Yugantar, Mr. Yogi & Kakka Ji Kahin by Om puri & Shail Chaturvedi. Apart from these Fursat Mein that was on Sunday Mornings. Then the suspense Serial Kile Ka Rahasya with its typical Title song.
And the nation binding songs like Mile Sur, Baje Sargam etc. Not to forget Ek Chiriya

NUKKAD : One most entertaing serials with an awesome cast.
GIANT ROBOT: My schools use to show this serial during breaks .. TV was not common in those. Myself and a friend ended making a cartoon series based on Gaint Robot.

Chankya serial is now available on DVD (8 volume set). It is a great serial. Except that the
last 3 episodes (Vishnugupt tries to bring Rakshas back to Patliputra) is a little lightweight.

actually todays serials have become bakwass. The bakwass serials credit should go to Ekta kapoor who is making the serials. I thank a lot to the doordarshan, still now i think sony/star/zee cant beat doordarshan that serails. in which no peoples were left outside the streets when the serials were started in doordarshan after 8p.m. i was running from tution to see the giant robot serials and if i miss even one part i felt so much bad. My favorate were i think everyhting whether marathi/hindi serial all were good. Marathi serials like ek shunya shunya, gotya, hello inspector, avhan, chimanrao, jopi gelela jaga jhala, ase pahune yetil, etc and in hindi it was kiley ka rahasya, giant robot, vikram aur betal ramayan and mahabarta of course, chankaya, wagle ki duniya, hone anhonee, show theme, phool kile hain gulshan gulshan, karamchand, malgudi days, stone boy, ascharya deepak, ek do teen char which was coming on sunday and dada dadi ki kahaniyan, and baingan raja, and of course the movie name which they tells in saphtaki at last. and chitrahaar and chayageet. chitrahaar had new songs and chayageet some old songs. the spiderman, He-man, singhasan batisi, We were lucky enough to see these serials. but todays generation they r not that much lucky to see these serials even though there r 1000 channels but still nothing can beat the DD serials. i luved it and still i remember the moments of those days. if possible pls show these serials again or make such serials which has a sense, a reality, not like saas bahu serials kachra i dont know what is the end of these serials. i think any child can write these today serials stories. because there is no need of sense and mind. and ekta kapoor on what basis she is getting awards god only knows. boycott these ekta kapoor serials/ ekta kapoor she is full pagal and the characters are all pagals.

Some more additions - Derrick at 11AM, survival -sunday evening, DD’s comedy show - saturday afternoon, sherlock holms, different strokes, panchatantra, himalay ki godh mein, kashmiri-gul-gulshan-gulfam, ascharya deepak, aisa bi hota hein ….. wonder will see them ever again?

hi no one remembers the famous school life serial NEEV .acoording to me what jo jeeta wahi sikandar is to bigscreenie NEEV is to small screen,perhaps thus is the only serial which explains the day to day life i shool campus.can any one give me the link of NEEV.

Wow, trip down memory lane:
Other serials that I never missed:
Rajani (Priya Tendulkar)
Mr Aur Mrs (Jayant Kripalani)
Ek, DO, Teen, Char
Spiderman (On Sat-with the I love you Rasna commercial before it)
Street Hawk
Famous Five
And there was one set in London with Sayeed Jaffrey beinga restaurant owner-dont remember the name.
How I wish they wud release the DVDs of all these great serials

And oh SUBAAH-Salim Ghouse beinga drug addict

Hi guys, Actually if u guys know abt TORRENTS and how do download em

You can check

http://www.bwtorrents.com/search.php?searchid=232099

The site is down now but will be back up in some time

http://www.desitorrents.com (its got everything, from movies to cricket to even everyday TV serials)

P.S For cricket, come to http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s119/p12.htm

Just stumbled upon your blog..been actively seeking something worth reading on any blogs and thought it absolutely necessary to commend you on your wonderful blog plus writing about some of the Oldest shows that were aired on the Doordarshan Network years ago. Remembering that “Old is gold”. Those shows were truly Gold..I almost remember watching all the shows listed by you above and a few more such as “Kashish” think it was called- about the sisters with Pallavi Joshi and Sudesh Beri innit. I liked this one and Udaan in particular. Well, although I could go on forever reminiscing the old time shows..I’d just like to thank you and congratulate you on doing such a brilliant job on this blog.

Cheers:)

was looking for episodes of discovery of india when i found your blog. was reminded of a few glorious days of childhood.
loved vishwamitra and indradhanush. i have the entire Bodyline Series. if ne one is interested write back

cheers

US

any1 remembers the show saturday afternoon D.D. comedy show. if any1 have any link plz mail me

I was looking for the name of the Bengali detective series when I bumped into this link. I found the name i was looking for, Byomkesh Bakshi…..but along with that had a pleasant trip down memory lane!! WOW!! Those good old days of Doordarshan..man!! unforgettable!! begging my mom to let me watch one serial in exchange for half hour lesser in story-book-reading-time..oh those days!!
The earliest I can go back to is when I was 3 or 4..I forget the name, but the serial was about a bunch of mischevious kids playingpranks on teachers, at home, everywhere..then there was I Love Lucy..Stone Boy (I was so upset when the serial ended!!)..Indradhanush..Sunday Fairy Tales..one serial on the real life Children Bravery incidents (based on real life incidents of kids who received bravery awards on Republic Day)..The Puppet show series - Alibaba aur 40 chor..spiderman (yes the rasna jingle with “I love you Rasna”!!)..Kashish..the Jeffrey serial about a restaurant in London..Byomkesh Bakshi..Tehkikaat..Surabhi (Renuka Sahane and her lovely smile!! Siddharth Kak)..Discover of India..Chanakya..Mahabharat..Ramayan..Circus..Akela Keval..Fauji..Dekh Bhai Dekh..Malgudi Days..Udaan..Reporter..Wagle ki Duniya..Hercule Poirot..Famous Five..Yeh jo hai Zindagi..The World this Week………oh those were the days!!
I dont even want to think about the crap that today’s TV dishes out……and given that we have so many channels its surprising that not one can come out with decent soaps!! Ekta Kapoor is the crap queen..however I am amazed at her talent to come out with such obviously incomprehensibly absurd concoctions of plots!! her talent is amazing!!:)

hi i am a big fan of old doordarshan serials, if u have the titles of any serial in mp3 or any other format, pls send me at ravihim2002yahoo.com

ramayan, kile ka rahaesiya, sanja chula, beomkesh bakshi are great serials

Kindly let me know where can I buy Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi VHS or VCD

Does anyone remember of the programme “fairy tale theatre” I would love to have a DVD of the same as it had a nice compilation of fairy tales.

Hi Priya, the name of the serial with Saeed Jaffery playing a restaurant owner was “Tandoori nights”. It used to be telecast in 1992 or so between 8:15 and 8:45

Praveen

Hi,Can some one help me find cd/cds of Farman the popular serial on DD1 few years back. It was a wonderful serial directed by lekh tondon. It was based on a novel ‘alampanah’. Just like the serial even the novel seems to have disappeared into thin air. I tried for the book at many places but couln’t find one. If some one out there who can help me find the CD or the novel please contact me on my e-mail sirija_nair@yahoo.co.in

I agree with all the above things ppl hv said

Hello everyone

I have tried to ask several people (same era as you all) about a serial which I would very much like but unable to recall the name.

It aired on Wed or Thurs evening; it was about an actor who suffers a stroke (and gets paralyzed); he takes a break from acting and moves to his farmhouse away from his busy schedule. There he recollects and mostly is depressed till he meets a neighbour/local who not only helps in his recovery but also teaches him humility & to enjoy a simple life…. and so on. Can anybody recall the name and the cast (I have a vague feeling the actor was shreeram lagoo–but I may be wrong)

The second serial is a 3 part series on river Ganga (aired around 11 or 11.30pm) on three consecutive weeks (had the life history of ganga as it starts in the glacier/himalayan areas, the middle portion and later the ghats, delta/sunderbans etc., it had PC Ramakrishna do the commentary and music was by the famous L. Subramaniam/L. Vaidyanathan

Thanks

Fine article Sakshi and equally fine responses…

Reminds me of two more serials

Gulzar had produced / directed two brilliant serials Mirza Galib and Kirdaar for Doordarshan.

Mirza Galib, needless to say was based on the legendary Urdy poet. In my view Naseeruddin Shah’s portrail of Mirza would rank among his top 3 performances. Superb acting, briliant music and fine direction made this 17 episode serial memorable. ( Fortunately this got released on CD/DVD. )

Yes, those were the days when serials used to get over in not more than 52 episodes.

Kirdaar was also directed by Gulzar and contained adaptation of 13 short stories of 4 different writers. Om Puri was the leading actor in all the episodes (perhaps).

great article
was looking for “Stone Boy” when bumped into this one

I sincerely hope someone starts a TV channel and telecast all these serials
I fondly remember
Indradhanush
Stone boy
byomkesh bakshi
karamchand
fatichar
sigma
aisa bhi hota hai
surabhi
discovery of india
mahabharat
ramayana
Kshitij

the list is unending.. After this cable invasion never was addicted to some serial like the one’s mentioned above
Waited desperately for a sunday morning and it was fun watching the serials from 9-12
But alas now there are so many but none like them
also the concept of sunday morning programs is completely out these days .. all old episodes are aired

Thanks to the author.. really made me nostalgic
I miss my childhood

this is good to see that the dvd’s of tamas are avilable.i was searching for them for last 4yrs.and i want it desparetly.can any one give me some idea how to bye it or from where i can get it?

hi all,
its a great post…discussing the good old serials on DD which were far more entertaining then the ones on air now. I wonder how all of you forgot one serial titled ‘farmaan’. its kind of a desi take on M&B. kanwaljeet singh plays a stylish , suave young nawab and deepika deshpande comes to work under him and a beautiful love story is spun around. it was a must-watch for me.

one of the best things abt those days was , all the serials used to come once in a week, so u had to eagerly wait for a week to know the progress in the story and not only that, all the stories would end at the right time ( i mean there was no unnecessary stretching and no irritating 20-year leaps).

those days were the best…….

hey friends this is da 1st time im msgin.. i just wanted to know whether u guys remember an ol serial “Muthi Bhar Sitare” well i’ve been searchin all over for da title song.. so if u any one of u could help me i would really b thank ful…plzz do msg on sam_ajit69@rediffmail.com…. thanx alot…

Some one did mention Indradhanush….i did use my fist few times for front seats in hostel.

am not very fond of remembering ol times coz it only makes ya feel bad coz time nobody can bring back..but for a change i recollected all those years of childhood bliss..in tune how can u forget “mrignayani”, the beautiful pallavi joshi..or cartoon shows at early sunday morning and evergreen chitrahaar..discovery of india actually changed my life..am a humanities student with delight.wonderful post..keep it up

Remmember Mr Yogi!??

It was so refreshing to read all these gud ol memories. Infact I am also looking fwd to the episodes of ‘Discovery of India’. Hope I could get these some where. Infact any of those old series… If somone knows please write back … tandonr@gmail.com

wow…if you compare all these great serials of those days with all pompous K series style dramas - lack of soul & tons of make up, you realize what you are missing on Indian TV channels…. I remember how much we liked Udaan..Humrahi…cool blog…

hi
i have full set of CDs of Bharat ek Khoj, chanakaya, and other historical movies.if some one need please contect me at rakaa05@yahoo.co.in.

Its really great to remeber those old gold days, when we were used to wait for serials, I catched this blog when I was looking for serial fursat mein. Its really wonderful to remember those days when I was kid, My favourite serials was malgudi days, Mirza Ghalib, then some good comedy serials like kakkaji kahin, Mr. Yogi, Idhar Uhdar, yeh jo hai zindagi,Mulla naseeruddin, Tenai raman. Some detective serials like Ek do teen chaar (I remember the title song. ek do teenchaar, chaaron mil ke sath chale toh kar de chamatkar), faster fene, Karam Chand,Byom kesh Bakshi, some cartoon serials spider man, potli baba kii (Title song written by gulzar.. aaya aaya zhenu wali jhunu kaa baba, kisso kaa kahaniyo kaa geeton kaa zhaba..), Alice in wonderland(title song:tap tap topi topi topp me jo doobe, pal pal farmaishee dekhe hai ajoobe). Then Rangoli (I was used to wake up early in morning to see this program, and routine was contiue till I was in India), fatichar, qile kaa rehasya, Neev, Nukkar, Neem Ka pedh (I remember the title song also.. Mooh kee baat sune har koi, dil ke dard ko jaane kaun, aawaazon ke baazaron mein khamoshi pehchaane kaun). Then wait for movies on sundays and some time saturdays. Those are now memories to cherish. I wish those days can come at any cost.. I know it wont.

Would like to say lots of thanks to writer of this blog, for remembering those days, god bless.

Cheers
Nitish

Nitish Again,
Forgot to add some more serial, that was:
1.Paramveer Chakra (I think that directed by Chetan Anand) and title song was like this:(Shaan teri kabhie kamm naa ho, Ai watan, mere watan…)
2. Indradhanush
3. Manoranjan
4. Aisaa Bhee hota hai
5. Tipu kii talwaar
6. Nayee Dishaayein (I guess that was based on youth and drugs)
7. One scientific serial Lekhu

Thanks
Nitish

hi! i am a big fan of almost all of the indian soaps u mentioned!!hey its been my dream to get that serial farmaan downloaded.could u help me??i made a real good search in the net but wasn’t successful.would b grateful if u could help.

Amazing:
This is an awesome collection of good old Serials…..I guess i have a site called nostalgicdd.com would u guys be intrested in having aforum on that to discusss things like this?
I remember appu od pappu….Indradanush, stone boy , Giant robot , ek do teen char , Spiderman Mr yogi….MUNGERILAL KI HAseen Sapna, Night rider , street hawk..and a few more not coming off my head…the site will be ready by 19th sept 2006 so catch u there if intrested

Any clue as to where to find the title song of KIRDAAR (produced/directed by Gulzaar). I shall be extremely grateful. My mail id diwan55@yahoo.com

Found this site while searching for Malgudi Days tune. I really enjoyed all the wonderful serials of those days. I remember the Taxi Strike to protest against one Rajini episode where she tackles an errant taxi driver. Wow ! Those were really the days when serial were thought provoking and meaning full. I really pity the kids of the present generation who have so many channels to watch but all full of crap.

i am looking for cds of two old serials : hum log , buniyad.
pleaase guide me where will i get them.
kindly notify on myy given email address.
thank you
kalpana goswami

Awesome blog post.. I was searchin for something on google and landed here, spent an hour reading all comments, time very well spent.

Does anyone remember “Appu aur Pappu”, and the host of Cartoon Serials on DD in early 1990s? “Alice in Wonderland” “Chamatkari Telephone”, “Taro - Dragon ka Ladka” etc. NCFCYP (National Centre for Films for Children and Young People) had some good shows - “Hum Panchhi Ek Dal ke” and “Ek Do Teen Char”

And then there was the typical DD music before a cricket match, followed by Narottam Puri’s voice..

Cheers

very nice ride down memory lane… great post

and nice blog btw

Does anyone remember the name of the actor in the serial “Hum panchi ek chal ke” ?
He was slightly dark in complextion and has acted as a villian in a few hindi movies after that.

OMG…. it is very heartening to see that so many people used to like Stone Boy. I used to eagerly await Sundays, when i could see Stone Boy and many other fantastic serials on Doordarshan.
When cartoon network was newly launched, there used to be special movie screenings on christmas.. one such was “the halloween tree” - adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s book. It was simply AWESOME!!!
Guys if you find links to download any of these serials, please post it here or send the link via email.
Regards
R S

Yes guys, who can forget those wonderful DD sitcoms. I remember the “yeh jo hein zindagi” theme song till date. I’m reproducing the lyrics here from my memory for anyone who would like to rewind time and go back to the glorious days.

Zindagi, yeh jo hai zindagi,
Thodi mitthi, thodi tikhi,
Phir bhi, is mein phus kar,
Sung sung reh ker,
Jeena kaaaa, ek alag hi hai mazaa.

There was another serial called “Subah” with a very catchy theme song. The serial was initially pretty interesting and was about college going students and their life. Then it took a turn for the worse with drugs/murder and became too dark and gloomy to watch (much like those stupid sitcoms on Zee TV today).

There was another serial starring Anu Agarwal and Mazhar Khan and I rate this as one of the best serials ever shown on DD. I forget the name. It was about stealing a necklace. The serial was short (only 13 episodes) and was brisk and rivetting.

Then there was a comdy called “Idhar Udhar” with Ravi Baswani, Supriya Pathak and Ratna Pathak which was hilarious. There was another comic serial called “Mr. yaa Mrs” starrring Jayant Kriplani and Archana Puransingh which was OK.

Then there was “Show theme” which showed trailers from Indian movies. Generally Smita Patil would host the show.

Then there was “Phool khile hein gulshan gulshan” hosted by the unimitable Tabassum.

Then tere was “Khandaan” which was a mega serial with many stars and went on and on. It was a rip-off from the popular American serial “Dynasty”.

Zindagi, yeh jo hein zindagi!!!!!

Does anyone know where I can get the Bodyline episodes which was aired way back in 1984. If anyone has it perhaps they could upload it for others to download.

I tried searching the planetm’s , musicworld’s but nobody seems to have it.

Mail me at a_saikalyan@hotmail.com incase anyone finds a source

awesome blog simply great……………………………………………………simply great…………………………………………Sukh Sandhu

hey guys non you speak about super dooper shows like NONSTOP NONSENSE( DIDI’S COMEDY SHOW), STREET HAWK,ALIF LAILA,SHRIMAN SHRIMATHI, SUPERMAN ENGLISH EPISODES, EVENING CARTOON SHOWS, FAIRY TALES ENGLISH SHOWS, old is gold.

belated answer to shashi’s 5th apr 2006 post - the name of the serial on the ‘evergreen’ actor stricken by a stroke who is taught how to age gracefully by his nurse was ‘naqaab’. it had the bengali actor anil chatterjee playing the lead role.

the serial on the journey of the ganga was made by siddharth kak and was called ‘pradakshina’. narration in english was by dhritiman chatterjee and the title theme by l. subramaniam.

both serials were excellent…..they don’t make them like that anymore!

Its lovely to walk down the memory lane ..taro- dragon ka ladka .. lol i rem me n my bro used to have breakfast watching tht cartoon series ..

the song goes like

hawa mithi tu aja paschim se .. toofan tu aa ja re purab se ..

Lovely lovely days .. no tensions no worries just pure fun ..

The serial makin Neelima Azim famous was “fir wahi talash”.. many other like “Stone “

The serial makin Neelima Azim famous was “fir wahi talash”.. many other like “Stone Boy”.. indradhanush, Zigma…all afternoon shows!!

Got the Malgudi days title song can someone give me the most famous title track of Karamchand (1985). I am a tabla fan & the tabla played in the title & during the serial was too good!!!!

WOW!! Those were the bygone days!! It was so refreshing to tread along the memory lane again. Good old naive india. I presume if you were a kid in 80s and 90s in india, you were one of those generations which is coming out of shell these days. Believe me these serials did play a part in creating a dreamworld which we are trying to realise today.
Only thing I wish to add is that, Sakshi, you are missing on couple of other diamonds of that time. Few of them are, ados pados, faster fanne, khandhar ka rahsye (the mother of all horror shows), Kachi dhoop and few others.
But, all praise to you to lead us all to the lost pradise. Aha! I feel I become a kid again.
Cheers!!

Hi all,

Great Blog,

I would like to know if its possible to download or buy all the episodes of Bharat aEk Khoj

If yes pls let me know.

Rgds

please can any one tell me from where to get old dd serial bible ki kahaniyan

please how can i get the old serial farmaan to watch in the internet

Does anyone remember the name of the actor in the serial “Hum panchi ek chal ke” ?
He was slightly dark in complextion and has acted as a villian in a few hindi movies after that.

Yes Rahul his name is Ashish Vidyarthi.

Also guys I think we missed out listing Turning Point presented by Naseeruddin Shah (on Sundays) and Trishna (Indian version of Pride and Prejudice showing 3 daughters and their mother Ratna Bhushan)

Also add the programme “Mashoor Mahal” (aired on sundays) which was some kind of game show in which they used to give big prizes .Also there was a serial named Tera Panne (starring Hema malini)

I wondered if any of you remembered an English serial which used to be aired on DD 2 - at least in Mumbai in the late eighties early 90s. This was the one on a French Aristocrat which ended in his execution at the guillotine in the French Revolution. It had a name “The adventures of baron.”

I think it had the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer in the lead but his filmography does not seem to have it. Would be grateful for the name of the serial or any other details.

A few additions to earlier post

The name I think was “The —-ing adventures of baron—–”

It was about the adventures of a swashbuckling and debonair aristocrat. This was fabulous period adventure which was amongst the best I have seen so far. It was in the genre of “The Three Musketeers”.

Yeh jo hai zindagi is available on DVD and VCD through Shemaroo. They have season 1 and half of season 2. I just bought it in Bombay. I wish someone would remove Buniyaad and Khandaan on DVD. Really DD serials were the best. I mean look at what is available now. Except for Sarabhai V/S Sarabhai all the rest is saas-bahu histrionics. Maybe if DD starts selling the TV serials on DVD/VCD people would love to buy its especially Wagle Ki Duniya, Nukkad and Rajni. Imagine Mondays- Nukkad, Tuesdays- Buniyaad, Wednesdays- Khandaan, Thursdays- Swayam Sidha, Friday-YJHZ,Saturdays -Buniyaad and Sunday morning- Rajni,Bharat Ek Khoj , Ramayanetc and evening-Namaskar (I loved that show),Vikram aur Betaal or Dada Dadi Ki Kahaniyaan and Evening movie with Ek Chidiya cartoon. O and the regional movie at 1:30pm. DD rocked

i found this link with similar discussion…have a look…here, here and here.

Wish we could travel using the time remote in “indradhanush”….i would love to go back and watch those serials

hi sakshi,i just wanted to know that where can i get the cd or dvd of the serial called ‘kile ka rahasya’. i ‘m very desperate for this. please help and plz do let me know on my mail id as its not possible for me to be on line every time.

BEst Regards,
Suyash

Hi All,
Great to know that we are all still happy to think about our childwood days.
I just wanted to add up to the fvourite list.there was an english serial just for 3- 3 weeks and I remember it was in DD2 Thursdays 11 PM.”Escape from Sobibor”…I think its not wrong.I was in chennai so I have some good memories abiout some tamil regional serials too

Happy days were those.I still remember th Rasna Ad and the Tortoise repellent ad.And of course Gold Spot..The zing thing……..
Keeps you living with all these good memories.

Thanks all
Rhmool

Dear friends

i am desperate to find this tv episode-this wud fall under the categories(drama,thriller and suspense).the name of the series is Computer Specialst(the second word SPECIALIST was spelled differently so i guess this wud be some russian or some other language-european series)…the beginning of the series shows a little dog running towards the screen.the series has beautifull title song..bit metallic or rock ..
“Hearts of Stones”.i can faintly remember the lyrics but heres wat i can recall the best
“hearts of stones..ready for hearts of stones ..there is one man….
compromise…”
also the main character i think is a hacker..and he gets in touch with the bad men…of these one the opposite lead character’s name is Elizabeth..she is a european police officer..a female spying i guess.also the other names i can recall is Powell..a bald guy i think is the main villian.
the hacker stays with some lady called “teresa” if i m not wrong and is totally involved in computers…
there are few scenes i can recall: the one of bomb explosion ..they kept under the keyboard and the hacker is made to drive a car into some remote place .. a castle ..where the victim who survived the bomb has been under house arrest.
also the female police officer her name elizabeth(she speaks in some other language at times) in the series kills a man in the hotel room with cyanide (she breaks a bit of the cyanide from the pill and mixes it in the drink,she carries the cyanide pill in her finger ring,,,this was shown cleary).elizabeth also has a locket or necklace with the two letters EP…and when the hacker asks her wat does this stand for ..she replies Elizabeth Powell..to which the hacker replies that its European Police.

there is also one scene when a male police officer is hanging from the window from the hackers home and the bad guys are unaware of thi police officer hanging.
in some other episode a man is murdered who comes in to investigate..he orders the hacker to remove his trousers and the man is