Some of the old DD serials are getting adapted by new channels. Most of them are also on the Net.
On December 31, 2008, I ate a scrumptious dinner and then promptly tucked myself into bed. I watched as my pet pup chewed on her favourite squeaky toy, warmed my hands around a mug of hot chocolate milk and switched on the TV. And though I was simply browsing through channels, I signalled the Tata Sky remote control to channel 101. Ah, there was good ol’ DD with its age-old charming logo at the top right corner of the screen.
Tacky sets, cheap lights covered with shiny, coloured paper to give neon effects, thick, black wires protruding from an uneven wooden dais that doubled up as the main stage, it was all there. And it made me smile. Now watching DD used to be the worst thing possible — it still is I’m sure — especially on any new year’s eve. It meant, especially when I was in college, that one was bereft of any social life. Watching DD on the last evening of 2008 reminded me of the feeble attempts I’d made year after year to convince my parents who strictly forbade me from going out for any late-night parties with — or without — friends.
That’s what TV nostalgia does to you. It invariably connects the dots — of visual elements that you watch on a humble TV set to the thought process you might have had in your brain at that time. Having watched a couple of DVDs of the ’80s comedy, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi recently (courtesy Shemaroo home videos), I remembered how fascinated I used to get with its signature tune, sung by Kishore Kumar.
I remember one particular episode where a character kept popping in his head from a cute kitchen window that was connected to the dinner table. “Hot chappatis from the kitchen window directly into the plate Mumma, what could be better than that?” I’d told my mum. This “interior” concept, thanks to the serial, was incorporated a few years later when my parents built their home in Jaipur.
In fact, when I spoke to Sameer Nair of NDTV Imagine recently, he spoke about how the channel’s new serial, Ghar Ki Baat Hai, slated to go on air sometime this month, has been adapted and inspired by Ye Jo Hai Zindagi. Incidentally the serial is being produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Company that forays into TV programming for the first time.
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What’s more, the channel has also acquired the legal rights of the film Seeta aur Geeta and will be serialising it. And enough R&D has been done by the channel to show that audiences wouldn’t mind revisiting old films and serials in new avataars. Towards the middle of our conversation Nair also joked about how “all gods got booked” ever since NDTV Imagine’s Ramayana went on air last year.
It reminded me of how we used to gather watching serials like Ramayana and Mahabharata religiously, and every time my grandparents watched the show, they often bowed their heads in front of the TV set when the “gods” came on the show. Oh, there was another rule. No one in my family sat with their feet facing the TV set when we watched these mythological shows.
It’s an irony that we are revisiting old serials once again. From new television channels adapting older scripts, to companies bringing out DVDs of old programmes (the likes of Malgudi Days and Chanakya are already there), to Internet sites like YouTube plastering old episodes of ’80s serials that were shown on DD (I’ve checked out Bharat Ek Khoj, Fauji, old Chitrahaar clippings), the library of old serials is growing every single day.
It feels so right to pronounce happy viewing.
