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....

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 !//

[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.