5 TV Soaps We Wish had Re-Runs

For most of us it must have been ages since we switched on DD apart form some cricket matches in between.With the coming of satellite channels and its further diversfication into a number of niche channels coupled with declining content on DD,

DD has almost ceased to exist for us.But how much we slam DD the most iconic serials of Indian Television have been telecast on DD itself be it Buniyad,Hum Log,Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi,Flop Show,Bharat Ek Khoj et all.(Although I faintly remember these serials:P)

When the satellite channels came in early nineties,we got to see some different stuff and some ahead of the time serials too like Tara,Banegi Apni,Baat Hasratein and Aahat.The content of these shows was on par with the DD and audience had best of the both worlds.They could watch both conventional and different stuff at the same time

As a kid grown up in 90s I would like list 5 of the serials which I think if are re-telecast would give present day serials a run for their money

1.Byomkesh Bakshi-This is definitely the best detective series ever telecast on Indian television.Based on the fictional detective character by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay inspired by Sherlock Homes,the show had 33 stories directed by Basu Chatterjee and was aired on DD in early 90s

Played brilliantly by Rajit Kapoor it covered the time span from 1932 to late 60s.A dhoti clad detective along with a period set up and that too with very modest production values may not seem to be a good idea to many but the show was as gripping it could be.Most of the stories were good and had an excellent background score too.In fact Rajit Kapoor is still known by this very character

One of the most important criterion for choosing a protagonist for a detective serial is that actor should not have a set image and this worked for this series too.Rajit Kapoor albeit a good actor was mostly doing theatre and it was his earliest stints on TV and came without any baggage of an image which worked for the serial

The show is one of the best examples of the cliched saying that if the plot is gripping everything falls into place.I would strongly recommend this show to people who have grown up on CID and Adalat and you will know the difference.No wonder if you go to Youtube too see it you ll see so many hillarious comparisons with CID.

Go take a nostalgia trip and please do watch some episodes of our own version of Sherlock Homes and one of the most iconic characters of Indian Television

2.Filmy Chakkar-Aired on Zee,this was one of the best comedy shows of 90s with a stellar star cast of Satish Shah,Ratna Pathak Shah and Rakesh Bedi.There were some very good comedy sitcoms before too but this one definately takes the cake because of its unique plot dealing with a film crazy family

The sitcom very cleverly inserted the film obsession in the plot to make it more relatable as India is a film crazy nation and it cuts across everywhere.

The serial had hilarious situations where they related their life events to the plot in the movies or the situations and had brilliant performances by its lead actors including the kids and had a brilliant title track too

The serial had a re-run with Marathi theatre veteran Prashant Damle as the main protagonist but couldnt' recreate the magic of its earlier episodes.This was one of the last genuine good comedy serials of that decade which then gave away to serials which concentrated more on incorporating the laughter tracks rather than the content

3.Tehkikat-Sam De Silva is also one of the most popular characters of Indian Television and the most well known after Byomkesh Bakshi as far as detective shows are concerned.It starred Legendary Director Vijay Anand as Sam De Silva and Saurabh Shukla as Gopi as his sidekick

The serial can be termed as an urban version of the Byomkesh Bakshi and was more contemporary.The method of solving crimes was also different from the latter. Tehkikat followed more of an investigative approach than Byomkesh Bakshi which was more intuitive

Vijay Anand was an unusual choice for this role.Although he was a legendary director with one of the best movies of Indian cinema in his kitty but he had not been a very poplular actor and was not very active in acting too at that time but here he was at his best and as I mentioned earlier too,him not having an image worked for a detective serial .Saurabh Shukla also played Gopi brilliantly and provided some funny moments too.The chemistry between them was crackling and in fact better than Ajit and Byomkesh of Byomkesh Bakshi

The series had 13 episodes and was aired on DD in 1994

4.Shriman Shrimati-One of the most hillarious sitcoms.Rakesh Bedi's "Dilruba" character is still one of the most popular characters of televsion.Aired on DD metro in 1995 the show starred late Jatin Kanakiya,Reema Lagoo,Archana Pooran Singh and of course Rakesh Bedi

The show was a laugh riot revolving around Keshav's infatuation with Prema Shalini(inspired by Hema Malini) and her gayish husband Dilruba's infatuation with Keshav's wife and their attempts to out do each other.The show also had a very good supporting cast especially Shail Chaturvedi as Keshav's boss.The show was definately loud at times but the hillarious moments made up for it

Rakesh Bedi has played numerous comic roles on TV but this one definately takes the cake. Jatin Kanakiya was also brilliant in the show and his scenes with Archana Pooran Singh were very good.People who have been irritated with Archana Pooran Singh of late on Comedy Circus must see this show to see one of her better acts

The serial was also re-telecast on Sab TV but was not much succesful then as times had changed

5.Aahat-By Aahat I mean the first season aired in mid 90s.The best supernatural serial which can even give good thriller and horror movies a complex.Each story was very scary and something not attempted in television before,yes we had Zee Horror Show (more hillarious than scary)that time but nothing in the supernatural genre.

Supernatural genre is something which unfortunately has not been explored much in our industry and barring a few attempts most of them have fallen flat and turned out to be unitentionally hillarious but this show was something different.Its sad to see shoddy shows like Fear Files these days which are  miles away from thrill and we had Aahat around 20 years back.There has not been a single genuine supernatural show post Aahat and infact its subsequent seasons were also very shoddy compared to its first part

Apart from these were shows,there were some other decent shows too like Aahaa,Chamatkar,Ghar Jamai,Baat Ban Jaye,Sailab,Reporter etc watching which could give us a sense of Deja Vu....