In my personal experience of using social networking sites since last decade, one of the most popular, widely followed and cherished posts here are the ones talking about Doordarshan and its nostalgic content that entertained as well as enlightened us with many finer details of life.
Many of us regularly keep remembering and writing on the nostalgic days of watching those fabulous TV Serials of the 80s and 90s. Many of us still love to be in that kind of mindset living with those memorable characters. And many of us really wish to travel back in time when the TV actually introduced us to a quality entertainment, rich Indian literature, the legendary authors, the culture and history too through its outstanding, well-conceived programs.
However, despite the subject being so often discussed at various sites or platforms online, it was really strange that neither any author/researcher nor an actor/writer/director thought of writing a book on those years in the last two decades (even when countless books on cinema were being published in this particular time period in both English and Hindi).
Thankfully actor-writer-director Ananth Mahadevan rightly thought of writing it as a first-hand account of his personal experiences as an actor working in those timeless classics. And that’s how we got this immensely valuable and probably “first of its kind of book” fondly remembering that gone but not any forgotten era.
Beginning with a Foreword by Hema Malini, post notable testimonials by all eminent theater, TV and film personalities, the author takes you on to a truly enjoyable journey of TV in India. A journey that commences from history of TV in the country to Asian Games in 1982, beginning of daily soaps, the coming of cable TV and the arrival of reality shows in the last two decades changing the entire scenario.
Reading about those days, you will find names of almost all the serials we have been writing about in our posts on the social networks in the recent past. And that too with a lot of valuable and lesser-known references revealing many back-stage stories related with our favourite ones.
In short, if you have lived that blessed era as an aware viewer then this is a must read for you as a cherished journey back in time. But in case you were born later, then the book is an even more important must read for you, as this will reveal how Doordarshan and TV rightly guided and taught us which is not being done by the Television now in the present times since last two decades.
Ironically, we got much more from just two channels of Doordarshan’s in the 80s and 90s, in comparison to the 100s of channels available now at a single thumb movement. No doubt, this is one aspect of our development wherein we haven’t gone forward but turned backward in terms of quality, content and conception altogether.
As a conclusion, Just GO FOR THIS and feel the difference between THEN and NOW through the writing of Ananth Mahadevan.
Bobby Sing
bobbytalkscinema.com
