Growing up in the 80s in India meant that you truly experienced the Golden Age of TV Serials. The first one that comes to my mind is the grand-daddy of all desi serials – Hum Log
In this post I’ll try to present a brief summary of the popular serials along with Youtube links if I can find them -
Hum Log
The serial started way back in 1984 and became immensely popular due to the story and characters. It was a simple story of a middle class Indian family and their daily struggles. Some of the memorable characters were -
Dadi – played by Sushma Seth
Basesar Ram – played by Vinod Nagpal
Lallu – played by Rajesh Puri
Nanhe – played by Abhinav Chaturvedi
Badki – Seema Bhargava
Chutki – Loveleen Mishra
Everyone used to really enjoy watching Ashok Kumar at the end of every episode where he would summarize the show in his unique style using Hindi couplets. He ended his summary with the line – “Agli kisht mein phir dekhenge Hum Log”, which means – “We’ll watch the story unfold in the next installment”.
Here’s a link with the actors after 25 years – amazing – Watch and Enjoy!!
Ye Jo Hai Zindagi -
How can one forget one of the best Indian comedy serials – we used to be glued to the TV and would never miss any episode. The main characters in the show were -
Ranjeet – played by Shafi Inamdar
Renu – Swaroop Sampat
Raja – Rakesh Bedi
and the great comedian – Satish Shah in a variety of characters
Here’s a quick summary -
“The episodes revolved around funny happenings in the lives of Ranjit Verma (played by actor Shafi Inamdar) and Renu Verma (played by actress Swaroop Sampat, a former Miss India 1979), who play a married couple along with Renu’s unmarried & unemployed younger brother Raja (Rakesh Bedi). Other characters were Ranjit’s boss (actor Tikku Talsania), his Bengali neighbours (actors Vijay Kashyap and Sulabha Arya), etc.
A trademark of the show were the characters played by comedy actor Satish Shah. In each episode, Shah played a different character who come into contact with Ranjit & Renu’s world. These characters would be regular people like a plumber or repair guy, a prospective servant, someone from the street who wants to use their bathroom, etc. Shah played these characters exceedingly well using unique mannerisms & accents from all over India and had other affectations which kept the audience enraptured. During the mid-1980s Satish Shah was anointed as “King of Comedy” by the entertainment media as a direct consequence of the multitude characters that he effortlessly played on the show”
Here’s a link -
