Woh Bhuli Dastaan - 4

As promised, the fourth in the series. It seems a lot of people shared the joy of going back and being nostalgic. I still haven’t completed 50% of the list. So I guess you have to bear more of this.

Aamne Saamne
A talk show by Vipin Handa. It featured a celebrity guest who talked for hardly 15 minutes. This was way way before Simi Garewal and Karan Johar.

Mr. Yogi
Mohan Gokhale plays Mr. Yogi who comes to India in search of a bride. Om Puri plays Sutradhar who directs the story of Yogi. The story revolves around Yogi and his search for a perfect bride. The ending episode had Yogi marrying Om Puri’s daughter. 13 episodes and 13 girls. Hilarious.

Trishna
The serial based on Pride and Prejudice. This was long before Aiswarya Rai did “Bride and Prejudice” The story was about 4 daughters and their mother who is worried how to get them married or something like that.

Mungerlilal Ke haseen Sapney
Hilarious. Raghuveer Yadav as Mungerilal who day dreams. The common thing in all his dreams was this heroine. He always dreams about her. His dream always starts with twitching of his eye. Don’t remember who the heroine was? I could not see many episodes because of the tuition again. I hate my tuition teacher.

Wagle Ki Duniya
This one was one of the best serial on DD. Anjan Shrivastava and Bharti Achrekar played Mr and Mrs Wagle. It involved the problems and everyday life of middle class man called Wagle. I think it was designed on R K Laxman’s “Common Man”

Ramayan and Uttar Ramayan
Ramanand Sagar’s historic epic. Arun Govil and Deepika were synonymous with Ram and Seeta. A very popular serial at that time. The road were deserted during that time. Had a lot of songs during each episode. Stretched and stretched the serial. High point was Dara Singh playing hanuman in the serial. After so many years, it does appear funny. Imagine two arrows coming toward each other, staying in the air for some time and then the special effect changing for one arrow and then one arrow disappearing. They actually stretched the serial because of these unwanted special effects. Uttar Ramayan didn’t become as popular as Ramayan.

Mahabharat
After Ramayan, it was turn of mahabharat. From the B. R Chopra stable, this ended in 100 episodes. Better in directions, special effects and execution than Ramayan. It was very much popular. After Mahabharat all religious serials started loosing stream. Hardly any mythological serial could repeat the success of Ramayan and Mahabharat. The best part was the voice of “time” as the sutradhar of the story. It was Harish Bhimani’s voice. “Mein Samay hoon” Never has “time” been so popular.

Ek Do Teen Char
“Ek Do Teen Char. Charo milkar saath chale toh karde chamatkar”. A whodunit with children. I think they modeled it on Enid Bylton’s “Famous Five” (Enid Bylton, good stories Need to revisit that too.). Saturday afternoon stuff or somewhere in the weekend. Good stories. Actually it was some kind of national integration too as each boy came from different religion. Oz, you are right, one of the boy was in “Stop”

Khel Khel mein
Another serial with the children as heroes. A similar storyline like “Ek Do Teen Char”. Sunday morning flavour.

Malgudi Days/Swamy
The serial based on stories of R K Narayan. The stories were really good. I think it had a south Indian director. The serial became interesting after Swamy joined it. The theme music changed from the slow “Ta na na tana na na na” to a fast paced track with “Swamyyyyyyyyyyy” being yelled in between. Swamy was the best and I think the first serial that dealt in growing up of a child and the story was told from the child’s perspective. Girish Karnad plays Swamy’s father. . I don’t remember how the story ends. I still remembered Swamy acting as if he was sitting on a horse and then the horse taking off. Incredible. The name of the boy was Manjunath, right?

Rangoli
Sunday early morning. I used to get up early for that. I think it used to come at 7:30 AM. The Sunday newspaper (Loksatta, The Sunday Observer and Sunday Mid-day) and Rangoli. I used to schedule my bath before or after the show.

The Sword of Tipu Sultan
The same in which Sanjay khan almost died in the fire on the set. A grand serial where Tipu Sultan comes very late. The title music was the grandest of all

Chandrakanta
A real fantasy serial. Started very well and then got totally lost. The main character remained absent from the serial for many parts. Durga Jasraj played the wife of the main villain, Pankaj Dheer who has poison in his blood. Chandrakanta was played by Shika Swaroop. Title song by Vinod Rathod. Chandrakanta is the princess of one of the two kingdom, vijaygarh or naugarh. I don’t remember. The story stretched so much that we lost track of what was happening.