Sitcoms
I am not that familiar with (history of) Indian Television (shows), however, I want to write about sitcoms on our Indian Television. That is because, I believe, sitcom is one of the hardest form to direct and make it success. So I just want to give a bit of limelight to those kind of shows. And I love this kind of art; I (sort of) have been grown up with watching all British, American and Indian sitcoms. I am not going to compare it, though. I will just (briefly) take you through some of my favorite Indian sitcoms.
“Dekh Bhai Dekh” - you have to start with this sictom; it is a classic! It was first aired on Doordarshan in year 1993 and then, the sitcom has done a lot re-runs on both Doordarshan and SET (Sony). “Dekh Bhai Dekh” was produced by Jaya Bachchan and a lot of filmi personalities, like: Farida Jalal, Navin Nischol, Shekhar Suman, etc. acted in this sitcom.
You could have mistaken “Dekh Bhai Dekh” as a family saga or a loud comedy serial. But that was not to be the case; it is a proper sitcom. It was wittily written by Lilliput and well crafted by Anand Mahendroo. And then the acting by all characters was just perfect and none of them went over the top; some of today’s actors could learn a bit from them.
“Is rang badalti duniya mein, Kya tera hain kya mera hain, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Har shaam ke baad savera hain…” - that was motto of the sitcom. Everything was believable about the sitcom. It made you, okay, It made me to fall in love with each of the character; be it: Sameer, Chachi, Kareema, Sanju, Keerthi, Shilpa… However, Sameer played by Shekhar Suman stole the show as Lilliput penned brilliant lines for him and there was that spark in his acting.
I wish they could bring out DVD of “Dekh Bhai Dekh” - it would sell like hot-cakes.
“Yeh Duniya Hai Rangeen” - this sitcom followed same sort of routine as “Dekh Bhai Dekh”, but in this case the family was a society - a Battliwala Apartment in Mumbai. The society is made of ‘chaaliwallahs’, high-middle-class families, a Gujarati family, a Marathi family, a Punjabi family, a South Indian, a young couple and more. This obviously created hilarious situations, for example, constant feud between the Gujarati family and the Marathi family. It centered around daily society/family problems and how everyone helped each other out. It was telecasted on SET(UK) a few years ago and now it is doing re-runs..
“Office Office” - again this is aired on SET (Sony) and also the new series is aired on one of the Star channels. It is more of a parody of current Indian affairs than a sitcom. The central character is played by Pankaj Kapur - it’s only the character that stays same in each episodes. He plays a victim of our system in each episodes. This is one of the funniest.. it won a couple of awards as well. I wish I could write much about “Office Office”, but I have not seen much of it lately and do not know name of other characters, so…..
I have heard there are quite few good sitcoms on Sahara Channels and also have heard that some of them are remake or inspired by BBC sitcoms. Any-of-you know much about it?
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You’re forgetting Tu Tu Main Main (I think the bahu in that is in a new sitcom as the saas).
Of course nowadays the dramatic sitcoms seem to be all over the place (Kabhi Saas bhi Bahu thi etc.)
I’ve never seen the new sitcoms, can’t stand that whooshing sound they all seem to use.
DBD was certainly a classic. Too bad Shekhar Suman started copying Jay Leno after that.
All the washed up sitcom stars can now be seen as judges or participants in Naach Baliye or the Gret Indian Laughter Challenge.
Good post HG. Dekh Bhai Dekh was really a classic one…Superb performances by Sekhar Suman, Farida Jalal, Navin Nischol and Bhavna Balsavar. But, long before that we had one another classic sitcom called “Aa baail mujhe Maar” by Amol Palekar..It used to come on saturday Afternoons..i think 3:00 PM. Then we also had Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi…cult….I dont quite know if Kabh Saas Kabhi Bahu can be called a SITCOM…coz as far i know SITCOM is an acronym for SITuaionalCOMedy.Ohh Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne, another with Mohan Gokhle..shit dont rememebr its name..but he is on a lookout for a prospective bride in it….Wud Flop Show come under it?
I would think the old gems on Doordarshan were classics .. nukkad, circus,yeh jo hai zindagi,
of the recent lot , the one that i remember is Sarabhai V/s sarabhai other than the ones that you have already mentioned
ya sarabhai vs sarabhai was gr8… i hope it comes back.. the one liners by aatish kapadia were awesome and same was KHICHDI…
i liked hip hip hurray… and just mohabbat was really good till jay’s childhood… but then they just stretched the serial…
OFFICE OFFICE is still gr8…
but people i ont know how many of u r aware of this gr8 serial on air ryte now called MOHALLA MOHABBATWALA by TIGMANSHU DHULIA… its an amazing sitcom by him… the one liners..the characterizations r gr8 and after all its tigmanshu dhulias real comedy timing… u should watch this one if u havent…
The one with Mohan Gokhale was called Mr Yogi.Some nice sitcoms i remember are Just Mohabbat,Hip Hip Hurray,Banegi Apni Baat and Chamatkar
Nice post.. brought back some wonderful memories of childhood and early days of Indian television.
Yep.. Dekh bhai dekh, Aa bail mujhe maar, Mungerilal ke haseen sapne, Tu tu main main, Ye jo hai zindagi were all classics.. It’s only when they tried to stretch certain sitcoms beyond certain number of episodes it used to get boring.. I don’t know if you guys remember, but earlier with DD, there was a limit of sanctioning 13 episodes at a time - and whenever any good tv serial used to get sanctioned for another set of 13 episodes, it used to be celebration time
Not sure if can be called a sitcom, but Malgudi days was a good one too. There was one more in which Liliput acted - it was about the theft of a diamond necklace - forgot the name - but was quite funny..
Om - The one with Mohan Gokhale was called Mr. Yogi.
Honhaar Gunda, thanks for bringing back all these memories
i have not seen early one like Nukkad, Yeh Jo Hain Zindagi, etc, so did not comment it.
Great Indian Laughter Challenge - was half decent, i liked it. And Shekhar Suman did some American style chat shows, did not he?
Is Sarabhai V/s Sarabhai on Sahara channel? And what’s it about? And what’s Mohalla Mohabbatawala?
Hip Hip Hurray, oh yeah, it used to on SET(Sony) and was about college kids, right?
I never knew about ‘Malgudi’ until SET(Sony) did a re-run of the series a couple of years ago. Nah, I would not classify ‘Malgudi’ as a sitcom; it was more of a drama series. But, yes, it was exceptionally good.
i forgot, ‘Hum Paanch’; it was a bit loud, but I found it funny.
Ya hip hip hurray was about college students…it was gr8.. it was actually youthful with real situations ..not like the serials now a days which term themselves as youthful like LEFT RIGHT LEFT..al these so called youthful serials r pathetic…
Mohalla Mohabbatwala is a comedy sitcom by Tigmanshu Dhulia… its about a mohalla which have love in the air all the time.. with different comic love stories…the characterizations r really gud..
many characters performed by good actors… i really like the serial..
watch it on sabtv mon-thu 8 30pm…
Also, there used to be one serial called Hotsel or something like that. It was damn good…set in a school hostel.And then Faster Fene and Ek Do Teen Char…all for young adults.
The promos of Mohalla Mohabbatwala(MMB)and Ek Chabi Pados me are very interesting. But whatever I have seen of MMB, the set looks very tacky…far from real life and characters are mostly caricaturish. Though have seen only in bits and pieces.
Oh this post took me back sometime, I loved Dekh Bhai Dekh - totally great. It was whole entertainment for the family.
Office Office was class too - Dopey we don’t get Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai here, it’s a great comedy, i’ve seen a few episodes through a Indian soaps forum. I’ll send you a clip i’m sure that you would like that.
Ek Chabi Pados mein started last night here in the UK, it was watchable but I can’t see this being in the lines of such superb sitcoms.
Sanny.. on what indian channel is Ek Chabi…? And we get Star One or Star Gold since last month, right?
Star Plus - Sunday at 9pm.
I’m a cable viewer so I don’t get Star One or Star Gold but I believe Sky viewers too.
Kabhi Idhar Kabhi Udhar-
With Shekha Suman and dinyar Contractor on the doomed home TV great too
anyone know where to get these on dvd
OMG!!!! How the hell could anyone( including me) forget Swamy…..was amazing SITCOM…..among the top 3 ever…..Master Manjunath …..where are you?
my best and two of the most keenly followed TV Serials were
Byomkesh Bakshi - Rajat Kapoor and KK Raina … with Rajat kapoor as the thinking detective … I remember the ghost episode senidng terrors down my spine.
Flop Show - the claim to fame for Jaspal Bhatti. No satire ever …. can recreate the magic of Flop show’s ‘Bhatti Sahib’ !!!
Another one was Filmi Chakkar…Satish Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah in a comedy about a family obsessed with movies…very funny at times, and introduced (I think!) Razak Khan as Pappu Kangi…
ahh a blast from the past! these are some of the shows i grew up with, though not all are sitcoms.. nukkad, hum log, buniyaad, circus, fauji, gul gulshan gulfam (story set in houseboats in kashmir), mr.yogi, mungerilal with raghubir yadav at his best, wagle ki duniya, malgudi days, flop show (last saw jaspal bhatti wasted away in fanaa), ek do teen char, and vikram aur betaal (with arun govil and was it AK Hangal?)
hm.. might have to do a search on how many of these are available on DVD/VCD…
I remember Dekh Bhai Dekh…i think this was probably one of the first Indian shows I started watching.
I agree that Shekhar Suman was the star of the show. I have this vague memory that he used to almost slip when he used to go downstairs.
I used to think that Sanju was quite cute at that time too…glad to say my taste has changed over the years.
Farida Jalal also fit naturally into that show, as she tends to do with everything.
Reading the post and comments took me back to childhood.
and HG, thanks for that!
Dekh Bhai Dekh is one classic. Wagle ki Duniya and malgudi days are another one which i loved.. oh, there are too many. those were the golden days of indian tv. now all we have (mostly) is Ekta Kapoor crap and her head-spinning camera movements.
Office Office was great. I watched it first time in school on TV Asia… Haven’t watched it in quite a while now so not sure if they still make new episodes or not (do they?)
Speaking of hindi tv shows, I liked Byomkesh Bakshi, too.
yup Windmill, they do make new episodes and i think it’s on Star One. And you can watch some of the episodes on youTube.
DBD ranks at the top
apart from that…have liked the following in the Indian sitcom genre…
Zabaan Sambhaalke (Mind ur language remake)
Office Office (Sahara)
Yeh Duniya hai Rangeen (SET)
Tu Tu Main Main (Star)
Hum Sab Ek Hain (SET)
Wagle ki Duniya (DD) and “… Nayee Duniya”
Nukkad (DD)
Shrimaan Shrimati (DD)
All were top class and amazing…
sadly a lot of the new indian sitcoms are too loud and just not that funny…
have shifted base to american and british sitcoms…:P
hey rahul, ‘hum sab ek hain’ was a good one as well. there was one more sitcom on SET with Dara Singh and Sachin Tendulkar which also used to be good.. but forgot the name!
hi..
any idea where can I get complete series of “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” and “Dekh Bhai dekh”
Maybe download them or buy them online.
Anything
Thanks.. !
some good ones i can recall(some of which are already mentioned)…
SHRIMAN SHRIMATI(DD)-Late Jatin Kanakia,Reema Lagoo,Rakesh Bedi - was really nice… though the title song was
rbehemoth, i know the article was short - i like to say it in… plus, i did not know anything about sitcoms like Flop Show, Kabhi Idhar Kabhi Udhar, etc… have not seen it.
my bad, i meant Sachin Pilagaonkar - there used to be a sitcom of his on SET. Dara Singh was his father.. something like that.
The SITCOM u’re talking about is ‘Hadd kar Di’…..
Sachin was the director…. Mahesh Thakur was main lead….. at the end of title song sachin’s face would appear saying “action”….
that is the one.. ‘Hadd Kar Di’. Thanks Shashank, I used to watch that sitcom whilst I used to have my dinner.
This post and all the comments brings back some great memories! Does anyone know if you can get the cd’s, dvd’s or tapes for any of these shows? I would LOVE to watch them again!!
Ah… good post. Brings back memories. There was another very good sitcom called ‘Nirma Aaha’. I am not sure which channel relayed it but I know I used to watch every episode. It had Shekhar Suman, Farooque Shaikh as his brother, Farah as his wife and Shakuntala as their mother. That was a laugh-riot.
Another good one was ‘Chutki Baja Ke’. This one had Ashok Saraf who would change professions ‘chutki baja ke’. The good thing about this one was that it was short and sweet and ended at the right time without dragging too long.
Does anyone know if these or any of the other comedies mentioned here are available for download anywhere or the dvd’s available for purchase?
hi guys,
iam kiran.iam really found of odl dd serial shreman smremati,is there is any way i can get the dvd’s of that plzzzzzz let me know cos iam a big fan of it.also i like the other odl doordarshn serials like stone boy,fragglerock,vikram betaal-etc to name few.hope if get any of these ill share with all my frens all over india bi teke cazre.
Hi guys,
good post…. some of the serials I miss other then mentioned above are….. Kiley kaa rehsya, Waah Janaab (Shekhar Suman’s first serial), Rajni (late Priya Tendular), Ados pados, babaa jee kaa biscope, vikram aur vetal, chitrahaar (wednesday and friday), Superhit mukaabla, singhaasan battisee etc etc….and the list goes on….it just brought back my childhood in a flash….
The only irony is that you cant get any DVD copies of these old master pieces…
Excellent discussion man, reminded me of the good old days when dd had some excellent shows and sony thro some even better shows managed to get ahead of dd in terms of viewership and ever since dd has stagnated. There is one show i keep thinking of but just cant recollect the name of it. It was with pankaj kapur as a hindi teacher in a school. Guess what just did some googling and got the name, “Zabaan Sambhaal Ke” if anyone remembers it had all kinds of characters in it from an arab to a marathi guy all trying to learn hindi and creating some pretty funny situations.
Just wish dd would use some brains and bring out these classics one at a time on dvds they would make a killing out of it
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi is out on DVD in the US. I just bought the 4 disc season 2 set.
people, you forgot to mention KAKKA JI KAHIN featuring Om Puri in the lead and JEE MANTRI JEE (based on Yes Minister)
i forgot FATICHAR and KARAMCHAND (with Pankaj Kapoor in the lead)
and KATHA SAGAR (brilliant set of stories from all over the world)
CAPTAIN VYOM