Woh Bhuli Dastaan – 6

The sixth in the series and still more to come.

Sanja Chula
I remember the theme song and maybe just maybe had Rama Vij in an important role.

Ulta Poolta
I was in school those days and before going to school, I use to watch TV every morning. Ulta poolta was kind of filler for DD morning programs. Jaspal bhatti’s wonderful debut on television. Had a funny theme. “Uuu uuu ulta poo poo poolta. Ulta ehhhhhhhhhhh poolta ehhhhhhhhhh” Quite early around 7:30 in the morning. DD had just started the morning slot.

Flop Show
Jaspal Bhatti’s stupid comedy. He pulled up anyone and anything. Corruption, politician everything. His real wife played reel wife too. Had his own set of actors. A complete mockery of many things and that too on the government owned channel.

Shanti
DD started the afternoon slot. And Shanti was probably the first afternoon daily soap. Story of a girl who comes to avenge the wrong done to her mother. It started very well but then went into the never-ending stage. Mandira Bedi debuted in the serial. We were in college in Grant Road in Mumbai. College used to end at 1:00 PM and if we managed to catch the right train and bus and a little run at the end, we used to reach to watch the start of the serial. Mandira Bedi debuted. I thought she looked ordinary in the serial. “Extraa Innings” changed that idea

Mirza Ghalib
Naseerudin Shah as Mirza Ghalib, the famous Urdu poet. Gulzar made this as a tribute to Mirza Ghalib. Gulzar also wrote a book on the poet. I was small then and didn’t have a ear for poetry. So did not watch that much.

Swabhimaan
I think it came in the afternoon. Scripted by Shoba De, it had a very bold theme. A industrialist dies and his wife and mistress fight for his wealth. A bold theme and that too on DD.

Bahadur Shah Zafar
Story about the last Mughal emperor of India. From B R Chopra.

Junoon
The prime time mega serial on DD. It had many actors. It surprisingly had Tom Alter in a very important role. Then as most of the long running serial, it went haywire.

Zamana Badal gaya
Tiku Talsania and Aruna Irani. A very heart warming serial about the changing values in India. A story about a nuclear family and the changing environment. It had few episodes and was well made engrossing serial.

Dard
Except for the title song sung by Jagjit Singh, the serial was very boring. It did a good start and then flopped. The serial was like its title song, “Dard bola toh ……”

Kashish
It had Sudesh Berry and Malvika Tiwari. I think the story was of a love story of a director falling for his leading lady. The director is shown very egoistic.

Tehkikaat
Vijay Anand and Saurab Shukla playing detectives in Tehkikaat. Pretty dump for a detective serial.

Hum Hindustani
A serial directed by Hrishikesh Mukerjee. A story about families from all over India and their children getting switched in the hospital. Each man thinks that his child is in the other family.

Sunil Gavaskar presents and Cricket with Mohiner Amarnath
Two serial one hosted by Sunil Gavaskar and the other by Mohinder Amarnath had both of them teaching the finer point of cricket. It was like a cricket coaching camp on TV. They had a guest and then they showed some good match and how the game turned.

A Mouthful of Sky
Labeled and marketed as India’s first English serial. Came late nights. Sameer Soni, Milind Soman, krutika Desai and yes Rahul Bose too. I think only Rahul Bose was comfortable in the serial speaking English. But Milind Soman was the most famous of all the star caste. I think it had Durga Jasraj too. From the Amit Khanna’s Plus Channel stable.