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…..