DOORDARSHAN IS 60. A LIST OF 15 DD SHOWS YOU CAN WATCH EVEN TODAY
Our hitlist: 15 fabulous Doordarshan shows you can binge-watch even today
Ageneration remembers watching Doordarshan (DD) serial
Mahabharat with the whole family on Sunday mornings, almost like a ritual. We are past the era when TV was a community experience. With the coming of satellite TV in the 1990s, DD saw viewership dip. As the satellite revolution penetrated small towns, its audience declined further. With the arrival of OTT platforms, DD pretty much dropped from the nation’s consciousness. Its shows no longer create buzz, like they once did. Yes, viewers didn’t have any other channels to watch then, but the serials were made by the best and brightest in the business and many have stood the difficult test of time. Our pick of a few of the best...
FAUJI
A coming-of-age show based on the lives of trainee commandos, Fauji (1989) found a national audience for its insider’s view of military life.
But that’s not why you know Fauji .A young, dimpled Shah Rukh Khan played Lieutenant Abhimanyu Rai. A Kannan played Major Na ray an an, ending training sessions with the signature quote “Koi shak yaa sawal? (Any doubt or query?”) Vikram Chopra was Varun ‘I say chaps’ Ch au han. If you’ re watching Fauji today– it’s streaming on Amazon Prime – you’ll find a heartwarming, earnest narrative peppered with instances of male bonding, romantic interludes, team banter and a non-jingoistic war sequence thrown in.
And you’ ll see why India fell in love with Shah Rukh Khan.
THE SWORD OF TIPU SULTAN
Why watch the historical drama now? For its opulent sets, historically accurate costumesand big budget–all rare for the time. For the show’s own history – an on-set fire claimed 52 lives and left the lead actor and director, Sanjay Khan, with 65% burns.
But mostly to remind yourself of what Tipu Sultan–the last Indian ruler to valiantlyresist British rule–meant for India.
Khan, now 78, remembers the fire. “On the first day of shoot after recovery, I was so weak, I needed a crew to help me mount the horse ,” here calls. That is the moment that gave me back my self-respect as a man.”
HUM LOG
If you want to know what India was like in the 1980s, look no further than Hum Log (1984). It also belongs to the era when TV tackled social issues like family planning, empowerment of women, alcoholism and drug abuse.
Author Man oh ar Shy am J os hi created a compelling portrait of a lower middleclass joint family – the alcoholic Basesar Ram, his self-sacrificing wife Bhagwanti and their five children.
Actress Seema Pahwa, who played the eldest daughter, Badki, feels its plot is still relevant as ground realities in city peripheries, rural areas and small towns, where Indian mainstream cinema is now sourcing its stories from, remain unchanged.
A MOUTHFUL OF SKY
A who dunn it wit habit of I-Know-What You-Did-Last-Summer. It debuts a young, hot Milind Soman, alongside Rahul Bose, who play two of five friends reuniting 13 years after their MB As. Why watch it now? “On the one hand you had Hum Log. On the other had was this Westernised, urban look of India,” says Samir Soni, who played the villa in .“It’ s interesting to see how that played out 24 years ago .” That is the reason to watch it.
YEH JO HAI ZINDAGI
Hilarious, episodic, and one of those shows (it’ s playing now on Amazon Prime) that so effectively captured middle-class life that you wondered whether you were laughing at the characters or at yourself.
Ranjit (Shafi Inamdar), his wife Renu (Swaroo pS am pat) and Renu’s unemployedbrother Raj a( Rake sh Be di) live in a tiny flat in Mumbai. And everything still seems familiar: calculating one’s budget before visiting a restaurant, spinning lies to avoid annoying relatives. And this is what makes it watchable 35 years later. Sam pat says she enjoying working on this show more than anything she’s done.
JUNOON
Featuring popular faces, including Archana Puran Singh and Neena Gupta, it revolved around two rich, rival households. The show ran for five years.
In 2019, it might see ma little kitschy and melodramatic--the show actually di ms the lights to indicate lovemaking – but there are several reasons to watch it now including the plot twist sand well-written characters. Above all, who doesn’ t like to see that play out on screen?
Says Singh ,“It was based on reality and this resonated with the audience. The show was shot in real locations. Juno on would fit well in the web space today.”
KACHCHI DHOOP
It’s still hard to find good shows that revolve around children. Amol Palekar’s Kachchi Dhoop (1986) remains a breath of fresh air. Based on Little Women, and writtenby Ch it ra Pa lek ar, it chronicles the joys and sorrows of a single mother and her three daughters. It’s still #relatable. The warm, slice-of-life narrative zooms in on the personalities of the girls, their ambitions and struggles.
“I wanted a Sunday morning slot, but the channel didn’ t have one. I went to Delhi and convinced them to create it. And later, shows like Mahabharat got that slot,” recalls Amol Palekar.
NUKKAD GUL GULSHAN GULFAM
This show from nearly 30 years ago offers a peek into K ash miri life, and much hasn’ t changed. It follows the life of a family that live son Dal Lake and rents out three houseboats named Gul, Gulshan and Gulfam. Then, as now, survival is tough. Parikshit Sahni, who played the family’s patriarch, says the role was an easy one, given he was raised in Srinagar. “It is my home. I knew their language, their traditions,their concerns ,” he says. Even then, security concerns meant they had to shoot some episodes in Bombay.
MIRZA GHALIB
Whywatcha31-year-oldshow about a man who was born 222 years ago? Because the man and his poems are still necessaryand timely in a world that finds new platforms to pull itself apart with hate.
The DD show, uploaded on You Tube, still hastens of thousandsof views. This is where to watch Naseeruddin Shah as G ha lib, delivering lines by the poet and screenwr it erGulz ar. This is where to view G ha lib’ s timeless take on religious bigotry. This where to enjoy songs sung by Jagj it Sing hand Chitra Singh. Says Neena Gupta, who played Ghalib’s muse, Nawab Jaan, “The younger generation knows very little about G hali band the show is a wonderful way to get to know his work.”
Nukkad (1986-87) was Indian television’s first, and, perhaps, only serial of the street. It had Guru (Dilip Dhawan) – he ran an electrical shop, and, was, in effect, the group leader; the lovable al coho lic,Khopri, (Sameer Khakhar); Maria aka Teacherji ( Rama Vij);andKa de rb hai(A vt ar Gill ), the owner of the local restaurant. “A Nukkad re-run would work because, at it score, it is about a group of people who hang out together, trying to help each other,” says actor Pawan Malhotra, who played cycle mechanic, Hari, in the serial.
BHARAT EK KHOJ
Based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s book, Discovery of India, Bharat Ek Khoj was a 53-episode drama spanning a 5,000-year history till Independence, directed by Shyam Benegal. It cast the who’s who of India’s actors in their youthful prime – Naseeruddin Shah, Ku lbh us hanKh ar deadlycocktail of revenge-jealousy-ambition
The band a, O mP uri. In D D’ s early years, when fiction content had not yet begun, the idea was “not to zone out the audience but to engage them ”, says actress, Mi ta V as his ht, who played Suhasini, Chandragupta Maurya’s love, in one of the episodes.
TAMAS
The 1988 television film, directed by Govind Nihalani, is based on Bhisham S ah ni’ s novel on Partition. Its taut story telling is about the calamity that envelops the life of a young Dal it couple as they are used in a plot to let loose a bloodbath, and the ensuing communal madness. These are events that should have been history by now, but aren’ t. Tam as will always be relevant for this reason.
MALGUDI DAYS
“They are like a box of Indian sweets in a highly-coloured container...” says writer Alexander McCall Smith of R KN a ray a n’ s Malgudi stories. The series is about the world of carefree schoolboys in a village in south India. The plot revolves around Swami and his friends Mani, Shanker, Somu and Rajam, and their escapades in and out of school. The appeal of Malgudi Days is that it transport sus to a time when things were less complicated.
MAHABHARAT
“Main samay hoon (I am Time),” announced a deep voice at the beginning of every episode of the mammoth 94- episode Mahabharat, produced by veteran filmmaker, BR Chopra, which began in 1988. The greatest epic ever told went on to achieve great popularity on TV.
Made firmly in the calendar art style with glittering tinselly costumes and cardboard sets, the show was lifted to sublime heights by noted Hindi writer Dr Ra hi Masoo mR aza’ sd ia logu es .( He even invented words such as Pitashri and Matashri.) He was targeted by Hindu fundamentalists who wanted to know how a Muslim was writing dialogues for a Hindu epic. Raza, who hailed from Ghazipur in UP, said, “Why can’ t I write th edi alogu es? Am I not as on of the Gang a ?” Watch the show today for its unforgettable writing.
KHANDAAN
Khandaan (1985) cast every big name in TV in its time – Neena Gupta, Jayant Kriplalani, Girish Karnad, Shernaz Patel, Ti nu An and. It told the story of a rich industrialist family. Gupta, who made her TV debut with the show, played a business tycoon. It was Pat el’ s debut too. She played a nurse married into the family .“The show looks dated but is still relevant because of the content,” says Patel. “It was a family saga with highs and lows of relationships, with which we can connect today.”