Aaj Bhi....Yeh jo hai zindagi

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.