Kahaan gaye woh din….

It was a Friday night around 10:30 PM in the night. I was swapping channels as there was a commercial break on Saregamapa Challenge 2009. As I casually and drowsily flicked the remote in my hand, something interesting caught my eye. Amitabh Bachchan was being interviewed by Abhishek Bachchan. It was basically a chat show to promote their ‘Unforgettables’ tour. I got interested in it because my dear Akki too was part of this tour. I was waiting with bated breath to hear about Akki from Big B. But there was something which Amitabh said that made my mind go nostalgic. It made me forget about Akki, Saregamapa….

 Amitabh said that he was surprised to see lots of youngsters still able to recollect dialogues from famous Amitabh movies of yore. He said that although most of the youngsters were not even born but still they knew a lot of dialogues from his famous movies. Hmm… That sounded interesting.. Then I tried to recollect some of the dialogues which I knew… Instantaneously, dialogues like – “ Mere paas banglaa hai, gaadi hai, bank balance hai… tumhaare paas kya hai..”  from Deewar …. “ Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi… naamumkin hai… “  from DON…… “I speak in English, talk in English, walk in English…”  from Namak Halal….. “Mausijee, to main shaadi pakki samjhu… “  from Sholay … “ My name is Anthony Gonzalves… “ from Amar Akbar Anthony  and many more such dialogues came to my mind…I myself was surprised to know that I remembered so many dialogues of Amitabh. How do I know these dialogues? How did these dialogues get imbibed in my mind? When did I see all these movies? Where did I see all these movies?? 

Fortunately, the answer to all these questions was present in one single word which I think everyone would love to hear…. The answer is Doordarshan.  Yes, the flagship channel which transformed and revolutionised the spectre of entertainment in India. It was easily the single biggest factor which changed our lives. Agreed that private channels which made their foray later too played a big part but the biggest of all was Doordarshan. 

I still vividly remember those Thursdays when I used to eagerly await for Chitrahaar. Those great Saturday evenings when a blockbuster was shown on TV. I would say I was priviliged enough to have a TV in my house since 1985. Although I was born in 1983, I started watching television from around 1988. I am still proud of the Solidaire Black & White TV which we owned. Oh.. what an atmosphere it was… !!!!!! Some of the neighbours would come to our house to watch the programmes. Honestly speaking, at that time I was filled with  a kind of malicious mirth seeing people come to our house for watching TV. 

Those were the days when I watched with rapt attention all the programmes. TV soaps like Humlog, Buniyaad, Karamchand, Nukkad  etc… would keep me completely engrossed. Not to forget the superb informative programmes like Surabhi, Turning Point, Bharat Ek Khoj, etc.. Who can forget the flashing smile of Renuka Shahane and Siddharth Kak in Surabhi… !!!!!  Only a ‘dumbo’ can forget about the mythological epics Ramayan, Mahabharat… It was mind-blowing.  Just like all other children, I too enjoyed watching Jungle Book, Duck Tales, Talespin… Not only these programmes but also the wonderful message-oriented videos were thoroughly enjoyable. Who can forget Pandit Bheemsen Joshi kicking it off with Mile Sur mera tumhaara…. Who can forget the animation on Ek anek… daana chugne baithi chidiyan… Even the news were wonderful then, strictly to the point without much ado on irrelevant things. The grace and flawless English and Hindi of those newsreaders was soothing to the eyes and ears. Newsreaders like Tejeshwar Singh, Minu, Salma Sultana, Usha Albuquerque, JV Raman, Gitanjali Aiyar were simply spectacular. Oh God !!!! I can sense goosebumps on my body just imagining those wonderful days. J 

But I guess, I have deviated from the main topic of this article i.e. Amitabh Bachchan movies… But who cares?.. I would like to keep this nostalgic feeling of the erstwhile Doordarshan going in my mind. I suppose all the readers of this blog too feel the same. 

I seriously think those days were the most wonderful. These days we have an embarassment of riches with hordes of channels with nothing worthwhile to showcase. Hmm…. Thinking about this, I dozed off leaving a certain Mr. Amitabh Bachchan fuming as I didn’t say much about his movies. I thought I will write about it some other day…. Let me enjoy this feeling of nostalgia --- Kahaan gaye woh din…..

Someone somewhere is made for everyone… But where????

It’s time again to vent out my feelings… Long time ago, when I was in 10th standard ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’, a Hindi movie, released…. Some of my classmates watched the movie and said that there was a special appearance by the great Akshay Kumar in the movie….. Die-hard Akshay fan that I am, I instantly decided to go to the movie over the weekend….. There I was in the good-old Maheshwari theatre , watching a movie wherein the main hero was my dushman (enemy in Hindi), just because my demi-god Akshay had a special appearance in that movie…. No prizes for guessing who my dushman is in Hindi film industry…. I was waiting with bated breath for my hero’s entry… The movie kept on dragging… only saving grace being some good music… Then suddenly Akki made a grand entry in the movie… had a whirlwind of a hit song. In fact, he was part of the title song of this movie, which happened to be one of the biggest hit songs of the year… I was satisfied and felt contented. After that, movie just kept on dragging… I was getting bored of watching the stupid histrionics of my dushman… Just as I was about to sink into a state of oblivion, I heard a great dialogue from Madhuri Dixit. I don’t remember the exact dialogue but still remember the gist of it. It went something like this –‘Sab ke liye kahin na kahin, koi na koi banaaya gaya hai. Bas uske milne ki deri hai. Jab waqt aayega tab hume wo (bhagwaan) bataayega.’ . This means that – ‘There is someone made for everyone somewhere. It’s only a matter of meeting that person. When time comes, God will help us recognize him/her.’. I was damn impressed with this dialogue and kept on appreciating it till the end of the movie. This dialogue left an indelible impression on a 14-year-old boy’s mind.

Four years later…..

Some engineering students were ragging a set of juniors in the bylanes of Nampally… But there was one guy who was not his usual self. He kept on looking at a hapless junior… Others were asking the girl her bio-data, some asking her to sing… the usual stuff that goes on during ragging… But this guy was thinking about something…He had still not forgotten about the dialogue he heard in Maheshwari theatre four years ago… After all, that was an indelible impression… how could it be removed so easily… I guess there have been enough pointers to identify who the guy was… Now this guy was thinking if the girl in front of him was the one Madhuri Dixit was talking about… Influenced by those dialogues, he kept on thinking that she was the one… A week later, he saw another girl who too seemed to be the one Madhuri Dixit was suggesting… He was mighty confused now… Who should he choose ??? … But God is really great… He solved his problem by bringing him face-to-face with a third girl…. Instantaneously, he forgot about the other two girls and thought that this time he has found the right girl !!!!!!

Seven years later…..

A matured and well-groomed engineer.. yeah that’s me…(I know this is a very controversial statement… Me matured… Me well-groomed… There would be critics to this statement… But for the time-being let us assume that I am a matured and well-groomed engineer….) Gone are the days of the fun in college… It is professional out here.. But the indelible impression is still with me… Yes.. Madhuri Dixit’s dialogue is still firmly etched in my mind…. I still keep thinking about this…. Whenever songs like ‘Zara si dil mein de jagah tu… ‘ or ‘Baakhuda tumhi ho, har jagah tumhi ho…’ cross my way, I keep thinking of that dialogue. But where the hell is she? Have been searching ever since I heard that dialogue… It’s exasperating to say the least… Eleven years of search has not got me anything… There have been lots of mirages in the desert but no water… Some girls seem to be the one that I am looking for but the problem would be that they would already have a boy friend.. Thoughts crop up in my mind if all the good girls are already taken but then I console myself by saying that new set would soon arrive… This rudderless search is going nowhere… I have now decided to put a lid on this… Enough is enough… Let her search for me… I will keep a low-profile… Let’s see if she can find me…

Although I have stopped searching for my Khwaabon ki shehzaadi, there is someone else that I am searching for… I am searching for Madhuri Dixit to give her a sound thrashing because she is the one who engraved this stupid thought in my mind…..