Who would have thought that the millennial generation with their own two cents on everything would actually sit down with their families and watch shows on Doordarshan? We personally feel that more than these shows being a medium to spend time together like we did when we were younger, it is also a way to catch up all the mythology we missed out on and have dishevelled opinions about.
Us millennials have witnessed that transition between the ’90s and 2000s, we’ve seen the very first mobile phones making it to the markets, we’ve seen our favourite childhood items slowly biting the dust, and the slow and steady death of summer vacations and our favourite shows. The golden age of TV was indeed in the 1980s and 1990s; the content over the years sadly never reformed the Indian television. Except for a couple of shows here and there, TV has largely been a bad influence on us Indians and we aren’t ashamed to say that out loud!
For us to overcome a global pandemic, it was important that kids and the elderly didn’t step out for their evening playtime and evening walks. Doordarshan placing its re-runs strategically might be pre-planned since each Ramayan episode lasted for 60 minutes or more! Either way, it helped us wade through the lockdown far easier.
Why millennials still rave about shows like ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’, ‘Buniyaad’, or ‘Office Office’ in a time where they prefer quick cuts and no melodrama, has a very simple explanation!
Doordarshan took the country by storm recently and claimed its place by re-introducing old favourites with the same old charm and fervour. From re-telling its best iconic shows like ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’, in their original, unadulterated versions, to exploring filmmakers like Ramesh Sippy, writer-director Aatish Kapadia and actors like Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, Doordarshan could easily give cable tv a run for money!
We think one of the reasons why millennials are enjoying going back to this era is because these shows have seen us grow. A lot of happy days, joy, laughter, carefree vibe, is associated with the simpler times that are now lost in transition.
- These shows remind us of the simpler past we’ve all witnessed and also crave for in this modern-day chaos.
- The entire family coming together to watch TV, is something we all forgot to do, re-runs of our favourite shows made it possible again!
- There was no glorifying a regressive mindset.
- Comedy was not empty and subjected to women or the popular roasting culture, it was sane, also taught values without being OTT.
- No double meaning context, just pure innocent shows that the young and the grown-ups could watch together.
- People playing these roles were relatable, the styling was relevant, and there was more thought given to scripts. In short, producers worked hard.
- What we’ve grown up reading in history books, a show like ‘Buniyaad’ (based on The partition) made back in the ’90s is a great way to take us back in time.
We absolutely loved watching these shows, Doordarshan did make the lockdown better for us. What are you thoughts on this?
