Post

The old “idiot” box…

Most TV programmes are nothing more than bad-parodies today, not dramas. They often display a high level of tension, frustration, and conflict within the family. Somehow. The norm is middle to upper middle, or high, class families that often live in plush homes in virtually interchangeable suburbs. On the other hand, it seems that the Indian Television is getting over obsessed with the “Reality” show concept. Every damn T.V channel has some talent hunt show going on, be it singing, acting, dancing, fashion….practically everything one can do under the sun. In short, it’s a monumental cultural wasteland on TV “a travesty of game shows, violence, sadism, murder, bad men, good men, private detectives, cartoons etc., and endless commercials” of screaming presenters, tacky shows, cajoling and offensive.

All the above, somehow forces me to miss the “idiot” box that existed before the arrival of “cable” network. Our national channel aka “Doordarshan”, was surprisingly not so ‘doooor’ from it’s viewers needs and sentiments in those days.

Some of the best T.V shows were aired on ‘DD1′ and ‘DD metro’ in the 80s till early 90s. Here is a look at some of them….

Tamas (1986) -

Director : Govind Nihalani

Main Leads : Om Puri, Deepa Sahi, Amrish Puri, Bhisham Sahni, A.K. Hangal, Manohar SinghDina Pathak and Saeed Jaffrey.

The serial is a story of partition in India, in the year 1947, which interweaves the lives of the young innocent people caught in the Hindu- Muslim and Sikh – Muslim tensions during partition. Based on the book written by Bhishma Sahani, it looks at how extremist elements of both communities infuse hatred in the communities, and finally how realisation dawns as to the futility of violence. It consisted of out-standing performance by all the actors and especially Om-Puri as ‘Nathu’ and Bhisham Sahni as ‘Karmo’.

A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court, asking that Doordarshan be restrained from airing the show. The grounds for challenging the airing of the serial was that the serial was likely to promote disharmony and hatred on grounds of enmity, ill feeling among different religions and it was likely to train people to use criminal force or participate in criminal acts.

Wagle Ki Duniya (1988)

Director : Ravi Oja

Main Leads : Bharati Achrekar and Anjaan Srivastav.

‘Wagle Ki Duniya’ was based on charachters created by famous cartoonist R. K. Laxman. It was a marvelous entertainer, which, in some ways, embodied TV’s ubiquitous appeal over the language barrier. The concept was simple and clean, which only focused on the world of the quitessential common man ‘Wagle’. Each episode is a separate story about this middle class family and their day to day, almost mundane, yet exciting life. Anxieties, anticipation, apprehensions, appreciations, appalling incidents, … all form a part of their small and simple world. The serial was as much loved in North India as it was in the South.

There was this one episode from the serial, which I somehow always remember during the Diwali Festival. In that, Wagle goes shopping for new fabric that was to used for the new curtains for their small house for Diwali. He forgets how much meter he was required to purchase, by his wife. And he lands up buying much much more then needed. Now to use the extra fabric, the family decides to use it by making shirts and other household items, out of it. So on Diwali eve, we see the whole family in same clothes, with same curtains, dinning mats and bed sheets….it was simply hilarious.

Karamchand (1985) -

Director : Pankaj Parashar

Main Leads : Pankaj Kapur and Susmita Mukherjee

Pankaj Kapoor made a debut as an unforgettable carrot-chewing detective in this serial. It was a perfect blend of ‘mystery’ and ‘comedy’. Susmita Mukherjee was equally unforgettable as Karamchand’s assistant ‘Kitty’. It was probably the first detective show on Doordarshan. Whenever Susmita Mukherjee tried to help by adding her bit, she was given a instant reply “Shut up, Kitty” by her boss, the ‘gajar’ eating private detective Karamchand.

The chemistry between the two was amazing and show not only brought instant popularity to the leading actors but also gave the vegetable ‘gajar’ a whole new identity make-over.

Malgudi Days (1987) -

Director : Shankar Nag

Main Leads : Master Manjunath

Every one of us would have grown watching ”Malgudi Days” which was the top serial in the Doordarshan. Malgudi Days was basically a collection of short stories based on the people of a fictitious place, Malgudi. Malgudi is a small village situated on the banks of river Saryu and the whole story revolves around the people living there.

Apart from that, it is one of the greatest works by a great writer R.K. Narayan and who can forget the lyrics of the title song…“Tana na aa tana naanaa aa tana naanaa naaa”…still feel like singing it…..

Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984) -

Director : Kundan Shah and Manjul Sinha

Main Leads : Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi and Statish Shah.

‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ was the official first ever ‘ sitcom’ of the Indian Television. It was about a couple, a brother-in-law, and the trouble they get into. Usually staid and boring sarkari broadcaster developed a sense of humour on Friday nights. Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, the tale of fun couple Raja and Renu forever quarreling in sweet banter became an instant laugh riot across the nation. The roads would usually be empty in most towns come 8.30 pm. London video stores would await periodically for the copy of the serial’s tape. The box-office openings in cinemas were affected, as actor Jeetendra once complained.

And Shafi Inamdar and Swaroop Sampat became your next-door neighbors, whatever your neighborhood.

Fun facts…..‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ trivia

* Kishore Kumar sang the incredibly famous title track “Yeh Jo Hai, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi”.

* Farida Jalal made her comeback in television with the serial.

* The entire serial was shot on a single camera set up.

* The line “30 years ka experience hai” was actually written by Satish Shah himself.

* The first episode that was shot of the serial was actually the first episode on air as well. The serial had no pilot episodes.

Udaan (1990) -

Director : Kavita Choudhary

Main Lead : Kavita Choudhary and Shekhar Kapoor

Udaan, a television serial based on the struggle of a woman aspiring to be an IPS officer. It was a story of a girl named “Kalyani Singh” who joined the police force and with her hard work and sheer determination went on to become an ‘ASP’. The story was written by also written by Kavita Choudhary was inspired by her older sister Kanchan Choudhary who went on to be appointed as Director General of Police of Uttaranchal, becoming the first Indian woman to head a state police force.

It was one the first serial to showcase “women empowerment”.

Many other serials such as Hum Log, Rajni, Buniyaad, Nukkad, Fauji (this serial made Sharukh Khan and the word “champ” really famous), Zaban Sambhal Ke, Lifeline, etc…were known for their good and quality storylines, performances of actors and the messages they forwarded. However today, poor “Doordarshan” has been crushed by the cable generation. Gone are the days when we could actually sit with the entire family and watch television, without having the hassle of switching TV channels and ‘remote control’ fights.

For now one could only wish that some of the olden goldies of the “idiot box” would make a comeback. However till then, we the viewers will continue to watch the ’saas-bahu’ sagas and over-hyped “quiz” shows, while our fingers on the remote control flip channels and our head wanting to scream out loud, hoping that so-called “TV gurus” would hear our plead one day.


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that were aired on the good ol’ DD…this was in the late 80’s to early to mid 90’s…..i went on the net to search the serials….and lo….there were the memories thqat came back so i thought i better put them down…found a lot of info from…http://sakshijuneja.com/blog/?p=192…. just for my convenience….i will replicate the whole thing(page) without her concent…hope shew will not sue….this is for makeing sure that this info is not lost….all this in the end. here is the partial list….hope someone has dvds of all

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Comments

126 comments | Add your comment »

sowmya
Oct 28th, 2005 at 12:08 pm | #

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.

Melody
Oct 28th, 2005 at 5:08 pm | #

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!!

Abhishek
Oct 28th, 2005 at 5:55 pm | #

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 :) .

Joy. D
Oct 28th, 2005 at 5:56 pm | #

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.

Rohit
Oct 28th, 2005 at 6:04 pm | #

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

Someone
Oct 28th, 2005 at 7:39 pm | #

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.

anon
Oct 29th, 2005 at 12:23 am | #

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.

krishn
Oct 29th, 2005 at 3:42 am | #

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

Hiren shah
Oct 29th, 2005 at 8:01 am | #

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.

Kapil
Oct 29th, 2005 at 11:11 am | #

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.

Kuttan
Oct 29th, 2005 at 4:33 pm | #

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 .

Vishal
Oct 29th, 2005 at 6:53 pm | #

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

madhu
Oct 30th, 2005 at 7:09 am | #

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

Piyush Garyali
Oct 30th, 2005 at 2:40 pm | #

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!!

K
Oct 30th, 2005 at 4:38 pm | #

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…

One More Reason
Oct 30th, 2005 at 6:08 pm | #

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 :)

Debashish
Nov 2nd, 2005 at 8:56 am | #

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.

Kalyan
Nov 3rd, 2005 at 4:53 am | #

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

Umair Ahmed Muhajir
Nov 6th, 2005 at 5:46 am | #

Great post (I just discovered your blog)!

madan
Nov 6th, 2005 at 9:04 am | #

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.

Lalit
Nov 8th, 2005 at 7:58 pm | #

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)

m.n.arvind
Nov 14th, 2005 at 8:42 pm | #

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!

Anurag
Nov 15th, 2005 at 6:14 am | #

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.

Ashok
Nov 15th, 2005 at 6:54 pm | #

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.

sriraj
Nov 17th, 2005 at 6:01 pm | #

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

M. K. Girish
Nov 18th, 2005 at 1:28 pm | #

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.

Sriraj
Nov 18th, 2005 at 5:03 pm | #

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

sadanand joshi
Nov 18th, 2005 at 5:40 pm | #

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.

Aparna
Dec 7th, 2005 at 7:57 am | #

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.

Akash
Dec 8th, 2005 at 6:54 pm | #

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.

Abhishek Pandey
Dec 11th, 2005 at 6:12 pm | #

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

Vishal
Dec 12th, 2005 at 7:39 pm | #

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?

Vikrant
Dec 29th, 2005 at 7:34 pm | #

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.

KM
Jan 2nd, 2006 at 12:41 pm | #

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

Arun
Jan 3rd, 2006 at 12:01 am | #

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.

SPK
Jan 7th, 2006 at 4:57 am | #

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.

varadh shetty
Jan 8th, 2006 at 7:13 pm | #

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.

loki
Jan 14th, 2006 at 1:09 pm | #

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?

balwant
Jan 16th, 2006 at 5:09 pm | #

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.

Priya
Jan 20th, 2006 at 5:50 pm | #

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

Priya
Jan 20th, 2006 at 5:53 pm | #

And oh SUBAAH-Salim Ghouse beinga drug addict

Rajeev
Jan 24th, 2006 at 1:41 pm | #

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

Utsa
Feb 3rd, 2006 at 6:53 am | #

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:)

Umashankar
Feb 4th, 2006 at 2:12 pm | #

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

gaurav
Feb 8th, 2006 at 12:59 pm | #

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

Chaitra
Feb 8th, 2006 at 10:28 pm | #

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!!:)

Ravi
Feb 17th, 2006 at 7:10 am | #

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

Rama
Feb 20th, 2006 at 3:15 pm | #

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

Honey
Mar 10th, 2006 at 11:42 am | #

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.

Praveen
Mar 20th, 2006 at 6:28 pm | #

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

sreeja
Mar 23rd, 2006 at 9:34 am | #

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

Piyush Garyali
Mar 27th, 2006 at 8:44 am | #

I agree with all the above things ppl hv said

Shashi
Apr 5th, 2006 at 6:00 pm | #

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

Ashutosh
Apr 11th, 2006 at 4:24 am | #

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).

Kapil S
Apr 16th, 2006 at 3:27 am | #

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

onkar
Apr 20th, 2006 at 8:04 am | #

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?

mitila
Apr 28th, 2006 at 10:21 am | #

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…….

Sam
May 3rd, 2006 at 5:09 pm | #

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…

sats
May 9th, 2006 at 7:15 am | #

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

ILA
May 26th, 2006 at 8:27 pm | #

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

cramasaur
Jun 9th, 2006 at 8:11 pm | #

Remmember Mr Yogi!??

RT
Jul 10th, 2006 at 4:02 pm | #

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

Nishigandha
Jul 15th, 2006 at 4:50 am | #

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…

Rakesh
Jul 16th, 2006 at 8:28 am | #

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.

Nitish
Jul 25th, 2006 at 10:05 pm | #

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
Jul 25th, 2006 at 10:25 pm | #

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

niru
Aug 8th, 2006 at 1:13 pm | #

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.

chetan
Sep 8th, 2006 at 3:58 pm | #

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

Manish
Sep 19th, 2006 at 7:44 am | #

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

wrodrigues201
Sep 26th, 2006 at 12:03 pm | #

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.

kalpana
Dec 12th, 2006 at 3:02 pm | #

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

Devadatta
Dec 17th, 2006 at 4:08 am | #

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

Vikram
Dec 20th, 2006 at 2:28 pm | #

very nice ride down memory lane… great post

and nice blog btw

rahul
Dec 25th, 2006 at 5:17 pm | #

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.

shambhavi
Jan 21st, 2007 at 8:11 am | #

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

Goldeneye
Mar 13th, 2007 at 8:27 am | #

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!!!!!

Sai
Apr 11th, 2007 at 10:45 am | #

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

Sukh
Apr 22nd, 2007 at 2:34 pm | #

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

saravanan
May 5th, 2007 at 9:12 am | #

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.

jeta
May 10th, 2007 at 7:46 am | #

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!

Divay
May 16th, 2007 at 11:14 am | #

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 ..

sam
May 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am | #

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

sam
May 17th, 2007 at 9:41 am | #

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

Amol Kale
Jun 3rd, 2007 at 10:16 am | #

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!!!!

kartik
Jun 3rd, 2007 at 7:25 pm | #

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!!

Girish
Sep 5th, 2007 at 5:00 pm | #

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

shah
Oct 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 am | #

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

anu harindran
Nov 12th, 2007 at 4:08 am | #

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

rutvik
Nov 28th, 2007 at 1:26 pm | #

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)

rutvik
Nov 28th, 2007 at 1:39 pm | #

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)

shivshankar
Dec 5th, 2007 at 9:03 am | #

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.

shivshankar
Dec 5th, 2007 at 9:36 am | #

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”.

Gaurav Arora
Jan 4th, 2008 at 7:45 am | #

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

Kiran Ghag
Jan 8th, 2008 at 8:07 am | #

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 :)

suyash gupta
Feb 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm | #

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

Rhmool
Feb 6th, 2008 at 7:07 pm | #

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

asif
Feb 17th, 2008 at 7:14 pm | #

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 killed as some one pulls off the carpet beneath his legs and he dies instantly..later his body his dumped in some remote place wrapped in the same carpet he was standing on….and also when the other detectives arrives to investigat the matter …a person walks in the room and brings in the carpet of same type and he says that he is a carpet cleaner….

plz mail to me as i believe this series was aired in the 1990s on Doordarshan ..plzzz somebody help and recall this series and the title song and let me know-
thanking you – email : getasif@gmail.com

Zobie
Mar 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am | #

Did you find the singer or the song for the DD series “Computer Specialist”.. The song was HEart of stone or something.. i did a lot of googling but couldn’t find it..

pradeep
Mar 31st, 2008 at 8:40 am | #

Hi,

Great trip down memory lane! Still remember having to watch the Mathemagical show with Benjamin Gilani and Urmila (way before Rangeela) since I was weak in maths.
And those UGC classess..in some of them you could spot SRK in the classroom!
Truly great stuff from Spiderman, Sherlock Holmes, Jewel in the Crown, Bodyline in English.
Karmachand, Hum Log, Buniyaad, Byomkesh Bakshi, Mr. Yogi (Om Puri was hilarious), Tamas, Subah (loved Salim Ghouse in that), Nukkad, Mungeri Lal ki Haseen Sapne, Wagle Ki Duniya, Flop Show, Fauji, Circus, and of course Chitrahaar and Chitrageet.., The world this week was the slickest news programme then and every guy had Prannoy Roy as his role model.
Bharat Ek Khoj, the shortlived Tana Bana ( with Shashi Kumar), Sword of Tipu Sultan, Mahabarath and of course the shoddy byt popular Ramayan (remember the endless clashing arrows, Arun Govil and Deepika?)

All great stuff that made watching telly a real pleasure in those days..
Nowadays its just crap that’s hurled at you.

Shashi
Apr 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm | #

Thanks Jeta

It has been a year and I happen to check this site and ‘Jeta’ had answers for both my questions

Naqaab and Pradakshina. The comment that serials like these never come around often is true. Also, a few episodes of Satyajit Ray presents by Sandip Ray were very good too.

Shashi

venkatbabu
Apr 4th, 2008 at 12:35 pm | #

To sum it up, those were golden moments. The list goes like this

1) Yeh joh hai zindagi
2) Udaan
3) Hakke Bakke
4) Neev
5) Nukkad
6) Jeevan Rekha
7) Phir wahi talash
8) Guldastan
9) Hum panchi ek dal ke
10) Udaan
11) Gul Gulshan Gulfan
12) Mitti ke rang
13) Dil dariyan
14) Doosra Kewal
15) Umeed
16) Fauji
17) Circus
18) Chunauthi
etc

Keshav Kannan
Apr 16th, 2008 at 6:08 am | #

Hi,

I am desperate to catch hold of “Kile ka Rahasya” and “Lifeline”. That classic tune of kile ka rahasya still rings in my head once in a while… that “tu ru ru roooo” one… Any one having it can make my day by sharing it with me… My e-mail id is ksubmail@rediffmail.com I remember those blood stained hand prints everywhere in the serial… I only wish someone re-telecasts those again… for the sake of nostalgia!
:)

Chitra
Apr 16th, 2008 at 5:02 pm | #

Hi,

I am desperately looking for old tv serial like neev and fauji. If you can let me know where to find these it will be really appreciated.. i want neev because i have two sons from which one is already in the boarding school and the other one is going to go in july. My elder son was so similar like one character (don’t remember his name) who would not share his stuff with his friends. but staying there has changed him soo much. and i also want fauji… infact i went to find that cd in the store today but the store keeper said that it is not possible and even sharukh would not have a copy of that serial! anyways there are 2 or 3 snippets of this serial in youtube.com. hope you guys see that and enjoy!

manorath
May 4th, 2008 at 3:51 pm | #

anybody here remember the serial Mera Humsafar? it was a serial by Vinod Pande, the man who gave Reporter.. it starred Abhimanyu Singh as Jeeten and Barkha Madan as Poonam.. it was the story of Poonam who single handedly brings up her daughter who has Down’s Syndrome..

somebody pls do something for Ektaa Kapoor!! and save the TV domain..

Lokesh
May 13th, 2008 at 8:11 am | #

Really, those days were the golden era of the Indian television. If I had the Time Machine, I would have gone back to those days to watch those great tv serials again.

nupur
May 26th, 2008 at 2:50 pm | #

do you have any vcd of 1986 serial trishna?

Prashant
Jun 27th, 2008 at 7:25 am | #

Hi,

Good News.

DD is releasing the DVD set of Bharat-Ek- Khoj today ( 27 June 2008) in Delhi. I rang them up to find out the price. The basic econimic edition is priced at 1300 Rs and there are other deluxe editions at 13000 and 20000 Rs too. Cheers. I hope they follow it up with other classics like Yatra too.

Uma
Jul 30th, 2008 at 10:52 am | #

How could you all forget BIWI NATIYON WALI?

And AUR BHI GHAM HAI ZAMAANE MEIN?

:) :) :)

Aniruddha
Aug 4th, 2008 at 6:39 pm | #

Arre yaar, How dare you forget – Different Strokes, Small Wonder, Fresh Prince of Belair? Not fair
But still, those were the days my friend — we thought they will never end, we will sing and dance forever and a day………. la la la la la la…………..
Thanks for such a wonderful experience

u255
Aug 13th, 2008 at 7:08 am | #

Came upon this blog quite by accident. Oh wow! What a trip down memory lane this has been. Took me back to the good old days of my childhood, where fights for the remote were non existant.

One particular serial which springs to mind, which everyone seems to have forgotten is ‘Kachchi Dhoop’ , starring Ashutosh Gowarikar & Bhagyashree. I had such a major crush over the young Ashutosh….! My first crush ever and i used to wait with bated breath for the serial. Oh for the simple pleasures in life.

I shifted base to the US some time back & am getting to watch reruns of I Love Lucy & Are You Being Served. Life completed yet another circle!!

Arn
Sep 26th, 2008 at 3:19 pm | #

its great to have revisited all those ole DD programmes after so long… it all started with trying to tell a friend of mine about the early morning programmes on sundays… the star trek and there was another games programme by transtel cologne, i just couldnt remember the name of that… if neone remembers the name of it, it was probably a german game thing, funny stuff, they would have to squash grapes or walk on a slippery surface with funny big boots and costumes and would have to pick stuff up and throw them in sum basket… the afternoon sessions of the DD started there after… the spiderman and the regional movies… those times were great… yeh jo hai zindagi, hum log, phool khile hain gulshan gulshan, chitrahaar, he he he i even watched the krishi darshan… everyday wuz something to look forward to… sundays would have all the streets empty because of the programmes… we used to hold the cricket matches early in the mornings so that we could make it back home on time to watch the star trek and other programmes… there was so much time for the kids to play around too during the evening… the quality and the enjoyment of simplicity is gone now… it used to be like, they only had a few programmes for the entire week… chitrahaar used to one and phool khile hain gulshan gulshan and then the sunday movie… no matter wut movie was aired, ppl used t spend that time together with their family and friends watchin them… those were family things…

Any how, if someone could just give me the name of those games that used to be aired, the name of that programme on sunday mornings… take care all

paratta
Sep 30th, 2008 at 6:49 am | #

my old Nostalgia was
EK DO TEEN CHARR.
RAJNI
SPIDERMAN cartoon
VIKARMATIHA

Krishma
Oct 9th, 2008 at 9:11 am | #

Malgudi Days and Chanakya are available in all leading music stores, if anyone has any information on how Fairytale Theater can be procured, please mail me at krishma.v@gmail.com

sarma
Oct 12th, 2008 at 7:05 am | #

sir,
i want to purchase the “Chanakya Tv Serials complete version” plz sent the details…of cost and how to purchase the DVD in hyderabad..

thanks you,
sarma

Shrilata
Oct 16th, 2008 at 10:23 am | #

Oh wow! I was trying to find the name of a particular serial aired on DD and had a great trip down memory lane!!!
I was actually looking for the name of a serial that had a little girl married off to a much older man, who is already a father of grown?? up children. If I remember right, the setting was north india, Bihar perhaps?? The title song was very moving. My memories were triggered because of Balika Badhu, a serial on similar lines being aired on colors currently.

Do let me know if anyone remembers the name of the serial.

priyank
Oct 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 am | #

Hllo hi n all that jazz..
if the blog has still visitors..
Kindly Help me find a torrent for tamas serial/ feature film… 1987… starrin.. the gr8s of nsd…

Sudhir Thakur
Dec 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm | #

Hi Friends,

I just felt that I am reading about my own childhood days!!! U have narrated it absolutely fantastic. Every bit of it made me
remember my good old days. This blog has given me so many like minded souls who feel good and nostalgic about good ol days of our innocence .. i really cherished reading out all and i would like to know if people are still active on the blog..??

We had a Dyanora B/W which had a shutter (I used to have fun opening and closing it over and over again) and ya! Sunday mornings

Hats off to your article. I felt as if it was a liveshow.

The BEST articles i have read on the internet. I almost had tears (of joy) reading this article!. Thanks mate.

why do people grow up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends i have someting to contribute here…

i am sure you guys will like it and will relate to what i am saying ……..
I have something very good for you………
I have…………………

List of television programs currently or formerly broadcast by DD National.

This will help you find your long lost serial….

A
A Mouthful Of Sky
Aa Bail Mujhe Maar
Aaina
Aakhri Daav
Aamne Saamne
Aap Beeti
Ados Pados
Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Agni
Afsane
Air Hostess
Aisa Bhi Hota Hai
Ajnabi
Akbar The Great
Akira
Alice In Wonderland
Alif Laila
All the Best
Amir Khusro
Amravati Ki Kahaniyan
Ank Ajube
Aparajita
Apna Apna Aasman
Asish
Aurat

B
Baaton Baaton Mein
Babaji Ka Bioscope
Bahadur Shah Zafar
Baigan Raja
Bante Bigadte
Barrister Vinod
Basera
Bharat Ek Khoj
Bhootnath
Bible Ki Kahaniyan
Bioscope
Bodyline (miniseries)
Boolbul Bagh
Brahmaand
Buniyaad
Byomkesh Bakshi

C
Captain Vyom
Chamatkari Telephone
Chanakya
Chandrakanta
Chapte Chapte
Charitraheen
Chauraha
Chayageet
Chekhov Ki Duniya
Chhoti Badi Baatein
Chhutti Chhutti
Chitrahaar
Chunauti
Chunni
Circus
Cricket with Mohinder Amarnath

D
Daane Anaar Ke
Dada Dadi Ki Kahaniyaan
Danger Bay
Darpan
Deewar
Dekh Bhai Dekh
Deviji
Didi’s Comedy Show
Dil Dariya
Disney Hour
Doosra Kewal
Duck Tales
Duniya Gazab Ki
Different Strokes

E
Ek Aur Kahani
Ek Do Teen Char
Ek Ghar Aas Paas
Ek Se Badhkar Ek
Ekai Dahai Saikda

F
Fairy Tale Theatre
Farmaan
Faster Fene
Fatichar
Fauji
Fhir Wahi Talaash
Flop Show
Fraggle Rock

G
Ganadevta
Gaurav
Gayab Aaya
Ghutan
Ghar
Giant Robot
Gopichand Jasoos
Guldasta
Gul Gulshan Gulfaam
Guniram

H
Haddi Raja
Hamari Bahu Tulsi
Hakke Bakke
Hari Mirchi Lal Mirchi
Heera Panna
Hello Zindagi
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Himalay Darshan
Himalaya Ki Goud Mein
Honee Anhonee
How’s That!
Hum Hindustani
Hum Log
Hum Pancchi Ek Daal Ke
Humrahi
Here comes Lucy

I
Idhar Udhar
Indradhanush
Imtihaan
Inkaar
Intezaar Aur Sahi
Isi Bahaane
Itihaas

J
Janbaaz
Jaanki Jasoos
Jantar Mantar
Jhingur Pehalwan
Ji Mantriji
Jugalbandhi
Jungle Book
Junoon

K
Kab Tak Pukaroon
Kacchi Dhoop
Kahan Gaye Woh Log
Kala Paani
Kakaji Kahin
Karamati
Karan the Detective
Katha Sagar
Karamchand
Kashish
Khali Haath
Khandaan
Khel Khel Mein
Karwa Sach
Kile Ka Rahasya
Kissa Shanti Ka
Knight Rider
Krishi Darshan
Kshitij Yeh Nahin
Kya Banoge Munna
Kunti
Kanoon

L
Lahun ke phool
Lekhu
Life Line
Living on the Edge
Lohit Kinare
Lok lok ki baatein
The Lucy Show

M
Mahabharat
Main Dilli Hoon
Malgudi Days
Mamaji
Manoranjan
Manzil apni apni
Mashaal
MatheMagic
Meri Awaaz Suno
Mirza Ghalib
Mitti Ke Rang
Morning Transmission (Deepak Vohra, the puppet ‘Jee Saheb’)
Mrityunjay
Mr. & Mrs.
Mr. Yogi
Mrignayani
Mujrim Haazir
Mulla Naseeruddin
Mummies Alive
Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne
Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangi

N
Naya Nukkad
Nathkat Narad
Neem Ka Ped
Neev
Nirmala
Nukkad
Nupur

O
Oshin (Its that Japanese serials right?)
Om namah shivay

P
Pachpan Khambe Lal Deewarein
Palash ke Phool
Panch tantra ki kathayen
Panchhi
Parakh
Param Vir Chakra
Paying Guest
PC 1008
PC Aur Mausi
Phir Wahi Talaash
Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan
Phulwanti
Police File Se
Potli Baba Ki
Puraskar
Phatichar
Prashan Manch
Prahari
Professor Vasan
Pumpkin Patch

Q
Quiz Time

R
Rajni
Ramayan
Rangarang
Rangoli
Reporter
Raju Aur Udaantashtari
Raag Darbari
Raja Aur Rancho
Rimba’s Island

S
Saanjha Chulha
Sab ka maalik ek hai
Safarnama
Samundar
Sangharsh
Sansaar
Saptahiki
Sauda
School Days
Sea Hawks
Shanti
Shaktimaan
Show Time
Shrikant
Shriman Shrimati
Shri Krishna
Sigma
Singhaaan Battisi
Space City Sigma
Spiderman
Star Trek
Street Hawk
Stone Boy
Subah
Subah-Savere
Sukanya
Suno Re Kissa
Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad
Super Six
Suraag
Surabhi
Swabhimaan
Swaraj
Some guys just ‘ve ‘em

T
Taana Baana
Talaash
TaleSpin
Tamas
Tandoori Nights
Tarang
Tehkikaat
Telematch
Tenali Rama
The National Programme of Dance
The Sword of Tipu Sultan
The World This Week
Thoda Sa Aasman
Thundercats
Trishna
Turning Point
Terah panne

U
Udaan
Ulta Pulta
Upanyaas
Uttar Ramayan
Upasana

V
Vikram Aur Betaal
Vilayti baaboo
Viraasat
Vishwamitra
Vishwa Darshan

W
Wagle Ki Duniya
Wah Janaab
Waqt
World of Sports
World This Week

Y
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi
Yug
Yugantar
Yatra

Z
Zigma
Zamana Badal Gaya
Zameen Aasmaan

I would request that we should have a common forum to dig our past from many sources and then share it among all…

Hope you love it…. your comments and hands open for friendship are welcome at
pinc143@gmail.com

Love and happiness to all..

Yours friendly like minded Nostalgic soul
Sudhir

sangeeta
Jan 28th, 2009 at 6:46 am | #

dear
if any one want to watch the romantic serial Farmaan again, can
watch it on DD Urdu on Saturday at 11.30 a.m. and the repeat of
the same at 6.00 pm in the evening.

also it is bieng telecasted on DD India on Saturday at 10.00 a.m.
so please watch and enjoy the romantic era.

Gaurav
Sep 26th, 2009 at 7:44 am | #

Hi Sakshi,
There was an old serial on Doordarshan called Apna Apna Aasman, it had Girish Karnaad,Llalit Parimu e tc.
The title song by Jagjit Singh.I cannot find that anywhere, if you can recall the song could you send the lyrics to me or upload it.Thanks

moutusi
Oct 19th, 2009 at 12:14 pm | #

thanks a lot for the post!!…its wonderful…..i just loved udaan,neev,dekh bhai dekh,wagle ki duniya n of course malgudi days….indeed it was a beautiful period when we cud watch n enjoy tv with our parents,unrestricted…..how cud u forget good old samachar?….i remember 8:30 to 9:00pm wud be a moment of torture for us ,as kids…..papa wont tollerate any nonsense as he had to listen to the news,any badmashi used to be duly rewarded!!….but samachar was worth watching,all imp events squeezed beautifully n and sensibly into half n hour…..news those days was much better than todays BREAKING NEWS!,coming up every 5mins on every channel…..how bout THE WORLD THIS WEEK,quiz contests by siddharth basu?…..ive grown up watching all this n i must admit,ive learned a lot from various programs aired on DD those days……In fact i was deeply impressed by kalyani choudhary of udaan….i wanted to b an ips officer too,but switched interests n became a doc,not bad,huh!!…..the detemination,hard work,zeal,never die attitude of kalyani helps me even today when im preparing for my all india pre post graduate exams….when i feel defeatedn tired i just recall 2 sequences from udaan,on a barren land kalyani’s father tries to move a big rock when kalyani arrives from school n asks”baba,kya hum patthar ko hata lenge?”,baba:haan bete,koshish karenge….kalyani:aur agar phir bhi nahi hata?….baba:to aur koshish karenge…..now that was beautiful!!….when she goes 4 training n fails to climb up the the wall she recalls the same incident n practices on the ground at nightnext day she manages to jump over the wall…….i hvent watched the serials after it went off the air,but such had been the impact i still remember the sequences so clearly…..
i wonder if our currents channels can ever provide us with such rich n beautiful experiences…..yet to be seen….
thanks a lot sakshi…as u can read i had been extremely attached to udaan….it was great sharing my feelings..

laxmi
Nov 4th, 2009 at 9:34 pm | #

hi,
that was a really beautiful post which took all of us into the good old DD days……but let me remind you about one more beautiful serial which u missed…..AAROHAN,Pallavi joshi playing the leading lady.It was one of my favourites.I guess you forgot to include the name.

janet
Feb 1st, 2010 at 5:33 pm | #

oh god, thank god someone else also remembered that there was this serial on UFOs
i’m so desperately looking for any link to it
plz help!!

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Sakshi Juneja

We all have a right to express our views. In many instances; it will be against ours and in some; with us. To hear them out is 'decency' but to let them get to you is 'weakness'. More info »

I also blog at DesiDabba and DesiCritics

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