Thanx to the lockdown, people are reinventing themselves
with cooking, sketching, writing, stitching, etc. I reinvented my binge
watching. Sure there are many series which we all missed watching on OTT
platforms and swore it that we would finish the series in 3 – 5 days. Spoilt
for choices and the haste to finish the series made me give up on online
entertainment. And it was about reinventing, watching series is common right?
So I switched on to our
trusted, pioneer, age old rock solid source doordarshan. Why I say trusted is because you can be 200%
sure that whatever you watch on this channel will never be violent, ugly, vulgar,
obscene or derogatory. While watching the serials – ya they were called serials
back then, I felt they were quite ahead of its time and very progressive. The
serials reflected the progressive India of late 80’s and 90’s. The shows were
never of child marriage, saas-bahu sagas, heroines turning to snakes, main
leads marrying zillion times and the likes. Even for comedy, the 80’s clan
never took to insulting people, profession, double meaning dialogues, obscene
poses, etc. It was a common man comedy.
Talking of comedy, I am loving the sitcoms of that era and
thats my new addiction. Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi directed by Kundan Shah, ManjuI Sinha
and Raman Kumar is a classic guide of clean, progressive, relatable yet routine
comedy. In one of the episode the couple Renu and Raja enjoy the new sofa and
want to show it off to their guests. How much ever you find it stupid, but we
all have done something similar in our life for Sofa, rugs, curtains, paintings,
crockery, etc. Infact people do order furniture on rent for special occasions and
events at home. Now it is a business, back then it was just a funny thought. But
that was the modern khuddar India, which took pride in doing whatever they are
doing- even if it is for buying sofa. In another episode Raja (Shafi Inamdar)
teases his wife Renu (Swaroop Sampat) that how he enjoys the attention of sales
girl coming to his office to sell products. Now if it was today’s modern drama,
the wife would sob and either leave or do some ‘shadyantra’ and create a ruckus
in everyone’s life. If it was comedy series, the wife would punish her husband in funny was or make him
jealous by showing a fake affair. I was surprised to see that Renu was shown as
a bank employee unlike current bahus who keep battling mother in law and other
female relatives of the house. And to add on it, Renu takes this idea to her
office and convinces her boss that she should be in sales because men tend to
buy everything a women sells. She wants a double promotion by achieving sales
targets. And what better place than her husbands office to sell.
Now that was a strong confident woman of India in 80’s. Where is the insecurity, jealousy, fear of losing husband. She is confident that her husband is supportive of her progress, she can rely on him and manage to achieve promotion too. That was the chemistry of couples, thats what needs to be shown today – the chemistry we see in our parents, the chemistry millenials should aspire with their partners. That is what will bring a smile on your face when you watch it after a stressful day of work.
The direction was also bang on in executing the thoughts
penned down by writer Sharad Joshi. Renu goes to office wearing a one piece
dress, without making it short, revealing and grabbing attention to physical
parts. If the same scene was to shot today it would have numerous angles of
heels, toes, eyelashes, other body parts with orgasmic background score and
office staff ogling at her during her entry. But that was not the thought process
of India that time. Though the series is of 1980’s, apart from fashion, interiors
and currency nothing is old in that. Everything is as fresh and relatable as if
it is meant for today. We need to learn a lot from the pioneers. Am not talking
more about the comic timing because that is not to be read here, that is to be
watched and experienced.
I would urge milllenials who missed the original series to watch
the re-runs on Doordarshan. It is a fresh air of sensible entertainment. There
are more such if one doesn’t want to watch Husband Wife comedy, there is Dekh
Bhai Dekh, Shrimaan Shrimati, etc. No blood baths, no double meaning jokes, no
dark psycho thrillers...just plain relaxing comedy.
In my next blog I
would review another hit series of the 80’s and more on Doordarshan. Even these
shows should get their due share of reviews and ratings.
Show : Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi
Channel : Doordarshan
Timings : Everyday 7.30 p.m.
