Memories of Doordarshan - and Award winning cinema

[Plum]

Memories of childhood and troublesome teenage are always an allure. For the children of 80's, and as attested by kid_glove, 90's, Doordarshan played a major role in shaping their movie-watching taste. Their Sunday afternoon slot for regional award winning movies is still unmatched in satellite television for being a catalyst to good taste for young minds.

Here's to the slumbering giant.

[Plum]

Some memories - the most powerful first.

She was not your typical gentle docile woman. She exuded power and intelligence in her eyes. Even when she played cornered characters, the feistiness could be felt. Smita Patil. I will begin my trip to nostalgia with a fittingly powerful image - the most powerful among such multitude of fare that DD provided.

She didnt take nonsense, did Sonbai. Wife of a lowly factory worker, but in spirit, a queen and a leader. So, when the lecherous subedaar eyes her, he is forced to pitch battle. He virtually has to use every ounce of his limited power to subdue her. And when he does break through the fort, literally, of her resistance, her last act of defiance is an unforgettable vignette in the memory of that child in the 80's who watched transfixed as spirited sonbai inspired a bunch of rag-tag spice factory workers to subdue this lecher with that vivid attack with chillies. You do not wonder what happened next, you do not realise that it is but a last act of defiance, the chilli is not permanently decapitating and the Subedar most likely had his revenge. But the movie, fittingly, stops there and for an impressionable mind, a vivid image forever to carry. Truly peerless actress. Thanks Doordarshan, nobody else has given me that virgin moment of experiencing the power of cinema.

[jinju]

great thread Plum.... :clap:

yeah mirch masala remains etched in my memory too for that amazing actor called naseeruddin shah and his lecherous Subedar role...

another everlasting memory...watching v shantaram's Do Aankhen Barah Haath...don't know whether it was a remake or not, but the movie and those characters and especially the climax made such an impact on me as a kid and is still a fresh memory....

not to mention the gud' ol' serials they had in DD those days...have more to write...sometime later!

[Plum]

Jinju, do write. And also on Malayalam comedy - I saw that you vehemently disagreed with ajaybhaskar in the other thread. Think you should write more on that as well. Camblicater-um ezhudhaNum but avar ezhudha mAttAr.

[jinju]

and when u mentioned Smita Patil, the G Aravindan classic Chidambaram comes to my mind, again on that precious and most coveted 1:30 p.m. slot on a lazy Sunday! what cinema! Bharat Gopi, another legend!

[Plum]

I have seen Chidambaram but strangely, have zero memory of it.
Will come to kAttathE kiLi kUdu and kUdevidE some time.

[jinju]

Jinju, do write. And also on Malayalam comedy - I saw that you vehemently disagreed with ajaybhaskar in the other thread. Think you should write more on that as well. Camblicater-um ezhudhaNum but avar ezhudha mAttAr.

sure Plum...will do so in the malayalam film thread...

//romba veruppettheettu ponaar ajay about the present malayalam film comedy being better..ahem ahem the surajs n salimkumars vs the adoor bhasis n jagathys :evil: !//

[Cinefan]

Yeah Plum,you are absolutely right.DD certainly refined the taste of children in the 80's incl yours truly by their excellent choice of films.

Have a lot of pleasant but vague memories on many a film incl a sunday when I literally cried through Kabuliwala(not the Balraj sahni one but even older).

Feel sad looking at the kind of stupid stuff kids these days are exposed to.Sadly,even if I get the films I admired/liked as child,my son shows total disinterest.6 years-ke taste form aayidcha OR should I go on trying??

[Prabo]

DD serials/advertisements kooda add panni irukkalam :) ....I have vague memories about serial 'Kab Tak Pukaroon', Pankaj kapoor acted in it. My dad used to see it, dont know why it stayed in my mind for such a long time :?

[complicateur]

Camblicater-um ezhudhaNum but avar ezhudha mAttAr.
Idhu thAnE vENaangurathu! Naan ennavO vechchukittu vanjanai paNra mathiri. That is vonly equar! :P Anyway there are only 2 films I remember barely from those Sunday afternoons. Yavanika (which I have yet to find and watch again) and Agantuk (which I found and watched online somewhere).

Doordarshan seems to have lost out primarily due to a lack of production values. Which is sort of a telling indicator that form tends to overpower content in the visual medium. Sadly one doesn't even watch DD often enough anymore to ascertain if the superiority of content is still valid. But it does take a state agency to persist with shows like Ariviyall indru and vivasaaya seidhigal or some such which might actually be useful to the agrarian economy dependent. Unfortunately, they are all watching Thirumathi Selvam.

[Plum]

Cambli, I meant that you had to write more on Malayalam Comedy!

[tvsankar]

Mruga Nayani

Dhil dhariya - Sharun.......

Nadiya.

Thu thu mei mei

Sunday Early mor - 7.30 a m Rangoli - Old hindi songs....

Indha time la dhan enga area la TV pakkara alavuku - Vinyana Valarchi vandhadhu....

[Plum]

Apart from movies which made a significant impact, there were the others which made a blip of an impact and you forgot most of it except for a few stray images and names. Prominent among those for me include

kubi mathu iyAlA - Kannada - that name was too good for me to forget - everything else is forgotten

tabaraNE kathE - Kannada - the movie that gave rise to the quiz which family has 3 national award winners

Cheluvi - Kannada - didnt realise it then but a later favourite Sonali Kulkarni(was it her?) made her debut with this

Aparoopa - Assamesse - Bhupen Hazarika introduction for me - the title song still runs through my mind and I havent heard it in 20+ years after hearing it just once on DD

Paar - Shabana and Naseer - oNNumE puriyAttAlum full padam pArka vechAnga.

[kid-glove]

I saw an obscure film in DD, which (I think) is centered around Assam, which deals with a trigger-happy (maybe schizophrenic?) house woman and a stringent school teacher - which had some intimate moments. Based on my nostalgic recollection, it'd be fair to assert the entrenched visuals and relationship (despite the couple's oddity) were Balu Mahendra-ish. I seem to think of Moondram pirai's influence on this or the other way around depending on which preceded which. Unfortunately, I'm unable to trace the film's name..

[tvsankar]

One malaiyalam movie.

Geetha and Gopi

Heroine - is a lady Naksalite.
film per theiryalai.

[kid-glove]

Film name is Panchagni.

Hariharan-MT Vasudevan Nair. A message-oriented turbulent film with uniquely etched characters as one would expect from the combo.

Nadhiya is so wrong here ;)

[tamizharasan]

Film name; Piravi
Directed by: Shaji N Karun
Actors: Premji, Archana

Still have very good memories about this excellent film. Absolutely devoid of cinematic elements.

[kid-glove]

They're playing some lovely films in DD Lok Sabha channel..

[Cinefan]

Is Piravi the one which was based on the infamous in- custody killing of a student during emergency?That was a lovely film.

Saw Veedu also on DD-touching.Where is that BM?

There was also one more movie(Hindi)-a couple run a homestay kind of thing in rajasthan and they steal/kill from the people who stay there supposedly to hoard and gift to their son who is staying very far away from a long time and will come back one day.

The son who has no clue decides to give a surprise and lands up as a lodger.Unknowingly they kill him and the next day realization hits them-a very powerful film.