Today unknowingly (or maybe knowingly) I watched the silliest TV program. The program was all about mistrusting your spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend. Watching the program become unbearable for me only after few minutes, where hidden cameras and objectionable questions were peeking into the very personal life of a person. So this the state of shows and programs today. When at a single moment we have more than 200 channels to surf through at the click of a button , we hardly have any viewable programs.
Gone are those days, when we children waited for the Sunday to come. After all the homework and studies for the whole week, Sunday was a day of sheer TV watching and playing. The Sunday started with a steaming glass of milk and Rangoli. Then came the mom's sunday special breakfast with Ramayan/ Mahabharat followed by Junglebook or the likes. Afternoon were Regional Awarded Films with English subtitles, again in the evening a good sweet romantic movie or an art film. The dinner was definitely accompanied with the much awaited Surabhi. Who can forget the sweet Renuka Sahane and the debonair Siddharth Kak not to mention the Sawaal Jawab to top the pie. Weekday evenings were a fun too with family drama like Lifeline, Udaan , Buniyaad and many. All had a message to convey.I still remember the serial Udaan inspiring me so much that at a point I had decided to take IPS. There were educative programs like Turning point , Bharat ek Khoj , The world this week, etc and crime thrillers like Bomkesh Bakshi , Tehkikat , comedy like Ulta Pulta , Dekh Bhai Dekh,
children shows like Fairy Tales , Shaktimaan , duck tales and on and on and on ...... Who can forget the Swami of Malgudi Days, Pankaj Kapoor of Karamchand,Bhishma Pitamah, Krishna aka Nitish Bhardwaj of Mahabharata. They were the household names then. The cute ads of "Humara bajaj", the famous "Jalebi" ad of Dhara , "Kuch khas hai zindagi" cadbury ad till date bring a smile on our face. And how can we forget the small films of "Mile sur mera tumhara " , "Ek enek aur ekta"... Oh the days were so packed up with all these. Even the 15 min news was so much welcomed with newsreader like Sunil Tandon, Rinni Khanna.
Today we have loads and loads of Saas Bahu soaps where it takes no time to fall in love and no time to fall apart,where a single person gets married uncountable times, where the ladies don designer sarees and designer sindoors and cook, and where every third day the cast changes. The soaps never end and the 100 yrs old dadi never dies. We have reality shows bombing our drawing rooms and real life. People get married in shows and get divorced the next day. News is 24 hours and full of सनसनी news with no news. I sometimes wonder what will be the state of TV programs another 10 years or so. I wish (and I know all of us wish) that we could get the golden days of Doordarshan back, when there was just one channel and and just few hours of programs.
8 comments:
do we think so alike? I'd written a very similar post in Marathi. Am posting the link, just go through it.
हरवलेला रविवार
The best part of serials was that they would end after 13 episodes. Even the extremely popular Param Vir Chakra didn't get an extension. They could show the story of only 13 out of the (then) 15 winners.
And the advertisements were great. Even for prime-time shows, the time and number of advertisements were fixed. Today too, you can see good advertisements. Infact, what remains viewable on TV are the advertisements.
I hear you on this one ..but another thing is that I don't remember being so obsessed with television back then.. Today I panic if my cable doesn't work for a couple of hours.. Although internet is fast taking over Television I feel what is disturbing is that Media dominance continues to rise in our lives.. I remember how eagerly everyone in my house would look forward to Rangoli.. Two good Lata mangeshkar songs and that would make our week..Today you have inane music numbers playing on numerous channels all day long ..Having said that I still believe that there are still some Quality shows out there ..What goes down will come up ..I can see Indian television changing for the better in the near future..
I swear.. i remember all thosa serials.. and u ont beliebve I search for their torrents online... Byomkesh Bakshi, kakka Ji Kahin, Mungerilal ke haseen sapne, udaan , hum log , etc etc etc.... We used to be glued to Tv sets specially on sundays... How I wish those days are back..
@Vinay.. could read ur post but cud not understand (as it was in marathi).. yes I go with u and Shruti.. even I watch malgudi days and the old ads of DD
@Mugdha.. u r true that we do crib when the cable is not thr even for a day.. but do we really wait impatiently for some particular day of the week just because our fav program is shown on that day.. I remeber waiting for Thursady evening for Lifeline
hey sush - i loved ur post - i myself wanted to write about doordarshan and DD metro :-) my favourite is Byomkesh bakshi - i have this series saved in my laptop and watch it whenever possible
a few programs that i remember other than those on ur blog:-
potli baba ki
spider man, he man, batman, flash gordan, phantom
talespin - ballu, kit, madam mahalingam and don karnaaj :-)
remember flop show??? - hehheha
chankaya
tipu sultan
the great maratha
chandrakanta - yukku the kroor singh :-)
dopahar ka prasaran ...
Great work Sushmita, you have put into words what we always felt. Today when we are spoiled for choices, we do not actually have anything called sensible viewing. Values have become a passe and flashy is fashionable. There is a serious derth of serenity today.
Loved those days when I would run back from my music class to catch up with Kachchi dhoop and then we had a houseful of neighbours for the evening movies on thursdays and sundays.
Keep writing...love to read your blog...:)
Oh thanx Ani di.. thats so sweet of you..
Seriously di.. miss those days so much..
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