Tanaa naa naa naa naa naaaaaaaa.......Tanaa naa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaa

I still quite vividly remember the days in late 90s/early 20s when colour televisions were quite new and novelty for the middle class.It would usually be only some homes in an apartment building which had those and fortunately my dad had bought one of those(he is an avid TV viewer).So generally on most evenings, neighbors would come down in the prime time slot to watch TV programs being telecast on Doordarshan.

I am pretty sure most of the people still remember that colored display of lines when transmission used to go off and the doordarshan music before and after each show.While the transmission was such that it left much to be desired , the programming was not.There are atleast a dozen shows which i can recollect which had quality content and were as varied as you can ask for.

1.Malgudi Days - adaption of short stories.My best show ever.
2.Vikram aur Betaal - An indian folklore based show which had two best character actors
3.Buneeyad - A social drama sans all rona dhona of current soap operas
4.Ye jo hai zindagi - A comedy which is still unmatched or rather surpassed
5.Ramayan & Mahabharat - I dont think they require any description
6.Karamchand - A goofy detective kinda show.
7.Byomkesh Bakshi - Detective show belonging to Sherlock Holmes genre.
8.Mr Yogi - A very unique theme based sitcom
9.Shrimaan Shrimati - A slapstick comedy show

I am sure i am missing many more.Please fill in.

The good things about these shows apart from the concept was that they had actors like Om Puri, Nasseruddin Shah,Satish Shah,Paresh Rawal,Shabana Azmi,Renuka Shahane etc who are great actors.Also these actors were complemented by directors like R.K.Laxman,Gulzar,Basu Chatterjee,Kundan Shah et al who need no description.Generally most of the shows were 13 episode series or 26 episodes which made the viewing more enjoyable since the content was not at all compromised with.I am not a moral policeman or tht kinda guy but in retrospect i think these shows instilled many values in us without being pretenious abt it.

Comparing what different channels and so called BIG production house have been dishing out to Indian audience for last few years or more to only one channel(doordarshan) and a few shows a decade back, leaves me wondering as to what has happened in just abt last 10-15 years that almost every other show is based on the same shitty concept of saas-bahu and has no other topic to talk about?? While the number of channels have increased almost 100 times but the shows they air revolve around same "old wine in a new bottle" kinda concept.There are only a couple of shows in last few years that were watchable ....Kaun Banega Crorepati(derived from "Who wants to be a millionaire"),Khichdi,Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and office office.But other than that it has been by and large pathetic.

Just makes me think that have we as a nation completly lost orignality and can think of no new concepts ? Does the younger generation grow up watching Kyunki saans bhi bahut thi and associated shit shows? Don't these channels and show producers have any responsibility to at least make 1 sensible show for 5 over-the-top crap they churn out? Is it only about money? These people have made it pretty obvious that its only about making money.They have now given a literal meaning to the term "The Idiot Box".Even most of the actors in these shows are picked up from road and you can't tell whether they are laughing,crying,sad or happy.

They say "Media is a reflection of the society" and that only those types of films/serials get made which people want to watch.I think i have to agree to that after seeing most of the people being obsessed and literally feeding on these shows."Mihir Virani","Anurag Basu","Tulsi" etc have become a point of national discussion and producers of these shows are raking in moolah for these senseless crappy shows.It's good that the adolescents or the next generation hate these shows in general and stay away from them.But what happens is that they in turn get more glued to MTV shows or types.......and how good that is is altogether a different point of discussion.

While i have been away from home for the last year and dont much know about the shows currently running there(lucky me :))...i am quite sure the saas bahu crap still rules the roost.I think people like us can only hope for a change or subscribe to english channels to watch some real quality shows.But there is still a desire to being able to watch a Indian series which as good (if not better) as the yesteryear shows and go "Tanaa naa naa naa naa naaaaaaaa.......Tanaa naa naa naa naa naaaaaaaaa" in the heart :) !!!!