When SRK did a Panchayat 33 years ago

August 28, 2022 by Keyur Seta 10 Comments

Shah Rukh Khan is not only one of the biggest stars in India but also world over. But the actor has had to work his way up through hard-work from scratch. After doing theatre in Delhi, he migrated to Mumbai to continue the profession.

During his initial days, he was seen in quite a few Doordarshan shows like Dil Dariya (1988), Fauji (1988), Intezaar (1989), Adhuri Zindagi (1989), etc.

One notable work Shah Rukh Khan did during those days for the same channel was in the show Ummeed in 1989. The serial featured different stories that used to run for two episodes. In one such segment, Khan featured in the role of a young bank employee.

A noble soul with the channel name of ‘Super Tuber’ uploaded the two episodes of the show on YouTube three years ago.

As soon as I started watching the first episode, I was instantly reminded of TVF’s Amazon Prime Video show Panchayat. The web-series saw Jitendra Kumar play Abhishek Tripathi, an engineering graduate forced to take up the position of a secretary at the panchayat office in the small village Phulera, Uttar Pradesh.

Shah Rukh Khan in Ummeed and Jitendra Kumar in Panchayat

The city-bred Abhishek gets a culture shock by the life in the village. But there were ruder surprises in store for him when he takes a look at the panchayat office. It turns out to be a basic office which, must to his dismay, also doubled up as his residence. Abhishek also finds it difficult to adjust to the workings of the village due to the politics and age-old attitudes.

Coming back to Ummeed, Shah Rukh Khan plays the character of Anand Gupta who is ‘promoted’ as the branch manager to the bank’s newly-opened branch at Bhingri. In reality, Anand’s superior was under tremendous pressure from his senior to send someone at the said branch since nobody was willing to relocate to the place.

Anand’s happiness turns sour as soon as he lands at the bank’s branch in Bhingri. The place is located in a no-man’s land and is completely empty; no staff and just one helper. In fact, the helper and Anand are the only members of the staff.

This is similar to Abhishek’s situation in Panchayat. And just like that web-series, Anand’s personal room is also inside the office, just a few steps away, and this one too has a set-up for making tea near the window.

That’s not all though. Just like in Panchayat, Shah Rukh Khan’s character in Ummeed too forms a bond with the people of the village after, initially, going through a nightmare.

This is in no way stating that Panchayat was lifted from Ummeed. A city-based officer facing challenges after being transferred to a rural area is a common theme around the world.

Ummeed featured a very innocent and raw version of Shah Rukh Khan. He perfectly fitted the role of a common man from a middle-class family required to work hard to rise in his career. In other words, he made a clear announcement of his acting talent very early in his career; something we got to know in the following years.

Also read: Exploring Gehraiyaan’s selfish character in James Hadley Chase manner

Ummeed was written by Mukesh Sharma. I couldn’t find any other work by him after doing a Google search. Vikas Desai, as per IMDB.com, before directing this show, had acted in quite a few parallel films like Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan (1978), Giddh: The Vulture (1984), Andhi Gali (1984) and Anantyatra (1985). There is no record of what he did after that, except that he acted in Ketan Mehta’s Aar Ya Paar (1997).

Rajat Kapoor is named as one of the assistant directors on the show. It is not known whether he is the same one of Bheja Fry (2007) fame.

Ummeed was produced by Joint Publicity Committee, Public Sector Banks. It is interesting to see a show produced by the banking sector showing the sorry state of banks in rural areas.

Watch both the episodes of Ummeed below:

Why Byomkesh Bakshi continues to win hearts in the OTT era

July 14, 2021 by Keyur Seta 3 Comments

Over the last couple of years, shows on OTT platforms have become a rage in India. The shutting down of theatres from March 2020 onwards due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a major reason for that.

A large number of these OTT shows are crime thrillers or mystery dramas that have something related to crime. But even in such a scenario, Basu Chatterji’s crime detective show Byomkesh Bakshi continues to wow the audience on YouTube. The high number of views it keeps garnering is a proof of it.

For those not in the know, Byomkesh Bakshi was first aired in 1993 on Doordarshan. The show is based on the written works of author Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The stories revolve around the character of Byomkesh Bakshi, played by Rajit Kapur.

Bakshi is a detective but prefers to be called truth seeker [satya ki khoj karne wala]. His best friend-cum-assistant Ajit is played by KK Raina while Sukanya Kulkarni plays is wife Satyavati. Each episode starts with a crime and ends with Bakshi solving it. Few stories are divided in two episodes.

There are various reasons why the show continues to be popular on the internet amidst thousands of new crime stories on OTT platforms from India and abroad.

Nostalgia: For those who have grown up in the 1990s, the very mention of Byomkesh Bakshi is enough to make them nostalgic and go back to the bygone era. The show reminds us of the times when we used to watch Doordarshan with the whole family. We have hundreds of TV channels today but they are no match to the national television of that era.

Simplicity: The stories explored in the show are based in the eras from 1930s to 60s. Hence, we get a glimpse of the simple times in Kolkata, all thanks to the production designer Jadab Bhattacharya. But apart from the setting, there was ample simplicity in the making of the show as well.

Despite dealing with an issue like crime, Chatterji stayed miles away from adding any sort of melodrama or forceful thrill through the background score. It was a show where the crime used to be introduced in a simple manner and the mystery used to be solved in the same way. This ensures that you don’t lose interest even if you predict the mystery at the start itself.

Characters: In a lot of shows and movies detectives being shown as heroes or someone with an unusual way of living. But the characters of Bakshi, Ajit, Satyavati and whole lot of others in this show were simple, common and everyday people. Hence, it was extremely easy to relate with them. Even after Bakshi solves a truly complicated case, he is never portrayed as a hero.

Performances: Rajit Kapur’s performance as Bakshi was the backbone of the show, apart from Chatterji’s handling. There are various moments where he cracks humour out of nowhere. Similarly, there is also an undercurrent of humour in his performance which is a hallmark of a great actor. Raina too gave perfect support to him and added the right amount of curiosity for the audience.

Title Music: As soon as you hear the title tune of Byomkesh Bakshi, your mind is sucked back into the era of the 1990s. Composer Ananda Shankar has added thrill in the score but not gone overboard by retaining the simplicity of the show.

Peace-inducing content: I am sure this point will come across as either surprising or weird. But this is my personal observation. There is something about this show that induces peace. Watching an episode of Byomkesh Bakshi fills me with calmness, though it’s a crime show.

When the show was re-run on Doorsharshan in 2013, my grandmother used to feel the same. She said on numerous occasions how shaant she felt after watching the show. She said she never felt this way while watching other crime shows like CID.

Watch Byomkesh Bakshi on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Disney+ Hotstar CENSORS small bit from an episode of Malgudi Days, a 35-year-old show

May 14, 2021 by Keyur Seta 2 Comments

Disney+ Hotstar has censored a small bit from the first episode of the first season of the old classic television serial Malgudi Days [thanks to my friend Roy Daniel D’Silva for pointing this out]. The platform has recently started streaming the show directed by Shankar Nag.

The said scene is the one where Swami is attending a session by a catholic priest in his school. The priest is seen mocking idol worship. He says, “Tum gande, bejaan moortiyon ki puja kyun karte ho?” [Why are you worshipping dirty and lifeless idols of God?]

The platform has edited out the word “gande” in the above sentence uttered by the priest.

Malgudi Days on Disney+ Hotstar — YouTube screenshot

To censor a 35-year-old TV serial [it was aired for the first time in 1986] and that too from Doordarshan is bewildering netizens. Plus, the show has had several re-runs regularly till recent times. But the aforementioned content never saw any eyebrows raised, leave alone igniting any sort of protest.

Interestingly, Malgudi Days has been streaming on YouTube since more than 10 years after being uploaded by random users. Ultra Bollywood channel has been officially streaming it for five years. But none of the versions on YouTube ever edited out that word.

[Watch the show on YouTube by clicking HERE. The scene in question comes at exactly 2 minutes. Watch the same scene on Disney+ Hotstar by clicking HERE]

Interestingly, the show is also currently streamed on Amazon Prime Video, but over there too the word hasn’t been cut off.

So, why is it believed that the uncensored scene would invite controversy only if it’s streamed on Disney+ Hotstar?

The platform has a reputation of editing out bits from their shows that appear controversial. But this is a 35-year-old show and that too belonging to the sanskar-iest channel India has ever seen.

For those not in the know:

Malgudi Days is one of the most loved shows on Doordarshan that was aired for the first time in 1986. It tells simple but appealing stories from a fictitious town Malgudi, situated in southern India.

When Navjot Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja were rivals on Sundays

July 4, 2020 by Keyur Seta 9 Comments

The phrase ‘reality show’ has been in the vogue since a decade and a half. But there were a lot of popular reality shows back in the 1990s. The only difference was that they weren’t termed as ‘reality shows.’

Not many would remember that we also had cricket reality shows in the 1990s in which some popular and successful former and current [at that time] cricketers used to perform. One such show was hosted by the great Mohinder Amarnath. It was a quiz show were ex-cricketers like Sandeep Patil, Atul Wassan, Roger Binny, Sayed Kirmani, etc, used to participate.

But one competitive show that excited kids and adolescents a lot in the 1990s featured Navjot Singh Sidhu and Ajay Jadeja. The reason this show stood out was that it wasn’t a quiz show.

Interestingly, the show tested indoor cricket skills of youngsters. It used to air on Sundays before lunch time on Star Plus.

This is how it worked. Sidhu and Jadeja were two captains whose teams would participate against each other. Each team would have youngsters who were commoners or cricket enthusiasts or budding cricketers.

Interestingly, players used to wear coloured clothes with one team wearing blue and the other orange. [On a lighter note, whoever thought that Indian players wore orange for the first time in their 2019 World Cup match against England was wrong]

Both teams used to participate in a number of indoor cricket games. This included Chinese cricket, juggling the ball on the bat, trying to hit the stumps from a distance, etc.

But one that I loved the most was a box cricket game with ‘ek tappa out’ rule. It meant that a batsman can be given out even if the fielder catches the ball after one bounce. There was a complete relatability factor since we used to play with the same rules in our colonies.

While batting in the stadium, Sidhu was known for coming down the track to the spinners, including Shane Warne and Muttiah Murlidharan, and lofting them for huge sixes. He used to dance down the track in this format too, but only to play the ball along the ground, as were the rules.

Also see: Forgotten Cricket Moments: The real Lagaan match at Brabourne Stadium

Jadeja was the best Indian fielder in that era. He used to showcase his fielding skills in this show too. Sidhu also became a much better fielder but that was much later; maybe just a year before he announced retirement.

It was a much admired show then among cricket fans. Of course, it was the era when Hindi television had content to offer; much before the saas-bahu pollution ruined it.

What made the show special was that the two cricketers involved in it weren’t ex-players. Both Sidhu and Jadeja were in form current players then. They used to somehow take time out of their busy cricketing schedules to shoot for this show.

I have been trying to remember the name of the show since few weeks now but to no avail. But a couple of cricket enthusiasts recently told me it was named ‘Kricket.’

Strangely, not only is there not a single video of this show, I couldn’t even find a mere mention of it in any article or post.

Additional reading:

England also had one Mark Waugh who also batted well and bowled off-spin

Double standards: BEA never asked rowdy political parties to apologize

July 31, 2012 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare apologized to the media after the Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) demanded an apology after few incidents of violence and abuse by Anna supporters. Anna did the right thing as such acts are uncalled for in a peaceful movement. However, the way the BEA went up in arms against Anna and the movement, shows the media body’s filthy double standards.

Over the years, there have been numerous incidents where goons of rowdy political parties have smashed offices of various news channels. Apart from the huge monetary losses, their acts also caused injuries to the people working with the channel. Despite such criminal or even terrorizing acts, BEA has never ever till date demanded an apology from any of the political parties. A shining example of their double standards or bias towards a movement, which is trying to save India from corruption.

Just because we (team Anna) are harmless, they condemn our minor acts and demand an apology but when it comes to dealing with the powerful political outfits, they become scary bones! In this way, BEA is indirectly stating that you can’t misbehave or abuse the media but it is perfectly fine if you walk into a media office, destroy its property and injure its employees. Worse, the BEA doesn’t even blink an eyelid when the heads of these political parties laud their acts of violence!

I am sure anyone from the BEA doesn’t have an answer to this.

And this is what we get by apologizing to the media – From the live coverage of Jantar Mantar (on the internet); it was noticeable that the venue was flocked with thousands of supporters. However, when ‘The’ Arnab Goswami saw the same scene, he announced on his channel that there are hardly 400-500 people at Jantar Mantar! Need more examples of how media is trying to sabotage the movement? Watch these news channels continuously. Coming back to Arnab, the pictures below reveal the truth.

Excerpts from this article have been sent to the BEA. I know this will not have any effect on their attitude but at least they would know that the people of India won’t take anything lying down! You can mail them too on – broadcast.editors@gmail.com

The crowd is touching the end of Jantar Mantar in both the pictures.

Satyameva Jayate: No to alcoholism, yes to life!

July 2, 2012 by Keyur Seta 2 Comments

People indulging in harmful activities or habits doesn’t shock me anymore. What shocks me is when they raise their eyebrows after knowing that I have always kept away from a harmful habit. The habit I am referring to is drinking alcohol. People give strange reactions when they come to know that I have never tasted alcohol or any type of liquor ever in my life. In fact, some even feel offended! At times, this makes me speechless but since my beliefs and morals are super strong, it never affected me.

Yesterday’s (July 1) episode of Satyameva Jayate threw light on the terrible effects of alcoholism. After listening to the shockingly tragic tales of the victims of alcoholism, I am proud to have never tasted that thing and my belief has become even stronger. Let’s look at the experiences shared in the episode.

A youngster Vijay Simha ventured into journalism and tasted enormous success in no time. Nothing could have brought him down but yet he had to spend nine months on the roads of Delhi. His body deteriorated in such a way that he should consider himself lucky that he didn’t die! A journalist at the peak of success was reduced to a mere beggar! Reason for such a devastating downfall? Alcohol!

In another case, a man from a poor family, Lakshman spent Rs 20 lakh in consuming alcohol and another Rs 20 lakh in getting treated for alcoholism for which he was admitted 80-100 times! If he hadn’t tasted liquor ever, his life would have been completely different.

But the case of the death of Curran Anand at the age of just 15 turned out to be the most heart-wrenching one. Just sitting in a car driven by a reckless drunkard cost him his life and his parents, a non-curable grief! Such is the cruel effect of alcohol that it can be fatal even for those who don’t drink!

People can argue they drink only a small quantity but as Javed Akhtar, the guest on the show, pointed out liquor has a tendency to be addictive which can prove terrible.

Therefore, what is so strange in me totally avoiding something which can be fatal for me and devastating for my whole family? I know there is no harm in trying it just sometimes but my point is, if something has the potential to ruin everything I have, why should I try it even once? By the way, according to psychiatrist Dr Vivek Benegal, 50% of liquor-drinking population of India, drink more than what is considered normal (four pegs)! More reasons to stay away from the bottle!

Few youngsters proudly revealed on the show the reason why they drink. A guy said he drinks as it helps him forget everything and enjoy due to the sensation it creates in the brain. According to a girl, drinking helps her dance properly while another one said it is ‘cool’ to drink.

All I can say is I feel terribly sorry for them. Have they become so weak that they need alcohol to forget problems instead of facing and solving them? If drinking helps you dance properly, all great dancers of India should have finished thousands of bottles in their lives! And what is so ‘cool’ in spending your parents’ hard earned money in something that can mess up your life and ruin your family’s image?

A rather sensible reason given by a guy was that he has to oblige his seniors and colleagues by giving them company to drink. Well, I have been in such situations where people have even been adamant in making me drink. However, if you are totally firm as I have been, nobody can put that bloody thing in your mouth!

Watch the July 1 episode of Satyameva Jayate below and if the discussions in the show don’t shake you against alcoholism, nothing else would!

Eka Lagnachi Dusri Goshta premiere enthralls audience

January 17, 2012 by Keyur Seta 39 Comments

For the first time ever in India, audience was bestowed upon with a chance of watching the first episode of a television serial along with its cast and crew. This happened when the makers of the Marathi serial Eka Lagnachi Dusri Goshta organized a special screening of the first episode of the series for the public which was attended by its actors Swapnil Joshi, Mukta Barve, Rekha Kamat, Asavari Joshi, Ila Bhate, Spruha Joshi, along with director Satish Rajawade and producer Shrirang Godbole.

A large number of spectators had gathered at Amar Hind Mandal at Dadar (West), Mumbai to witness the first-of-its-kind event. Efforts were put in to create a marriage-like atmosphere; right from the sets and decorations to the ladies presenting flowers and til gul to guests.

The unusual event amazed not just the audience but also the actors. Said Swapnil, “To watch my serial with the audience is a memorable experience for me.” But Mukta’s excitement knew no bounds. “I feel as if I have come for the premiere of my movie,” said the actress.

The pair of Swapnil and Mukta was hugely appreciated in the movie Mumbai Pune Mumbai. The actors revealed they were excited to share the screen with each other once more. The fact that she is also a close friend of Swapnil helped Mukta a lot, she said.

(Article continued after picture.)

Veteran actress Rekha Kamat gets candid about her character in the serial.

Producer Godbole, who had earlier made a play named Eka Lagnachi Goshta, said, “Earlier, I wanted to make a play on this story. Later on, we thought of making a movie. We also fixed a release date for it. However, after going through the story again, we thought it will be best if a serial is made on this movie.”

Since Eka Lagnachi Dusri Goshta is sprinkled with laughter, there was plenty of humour during the launch. Some unintentional hilarity took place as well when the coconut flew backwards from Swapnil’s hand while he was trying to break it.

But what got the audience in splits for a long time was the question by an aged uncle from the crowd. He asked Swapnil, “Is there a lady character in your serial who likes to poison other people’s tea?” This also took the actor by surprise but he kindly answered in the negative.

During the screening, both Swapnil and Mukta’s entry was followed by loud applause and whistles. Judging by audience’s response, the first episode of Eka Lagnachi Dusri Goshta provided good entertainment. If the same is continued in the forthcoming episodes, the serial should enjoy very good TRPs. (Timings: Monday to Friday at 8:30pm)

More pictures from the event: