Starting February 20, Doordarshan National channel will telecast a 52-episode series which would take viewers through the famous pilgrim centres spread over 16 states in the country. Named ‘Sarvajan Prarthanalay’ (Common Worship Centres) it will be a pilgrimage through temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras and shrines.
The message of the documentary is the unity that lies latent in the diversity of faiths, languages and lifestyle of men and women and of the Nature. The serial unravels the legends and glory of each holy place.
The serial begins with the Sabarimala Temple and would cover holy places in Kerala (Vallarpadom Basilica, Beemapally Dargah Sharif, Vettucaud Church, Aruvippuram Siva Temple, Sivagiri Matt and Attukal Temple), Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari Temple, Vellankanni Church and Nagore Dargah Sharif), Karnataka (Kollur Mookambika Temple, Dharmasthal, Shravanabelagola and Infant Jesus Church), Goa (Basilica of Bom Jesus and Mangeshi Temple), Pondicherry (Sri Aurobindo Ashram), Andhra Pradesh (Kolanupaka Jain Temple, pilgrim centres in Pedakakani, Sri Rajarajeswara Swami Temple, Vemulawada, and Masthan Dargah, Guntur), Maharashtra (Sri Sidhi Vinayak Ganpathi Temple, Mumbai, Mahalakshmy Mandir, Mumbai, Mount Mary Basilica, Bandra, St Michael’s Church, Mahim and Shirdi Sai Baba Temple), Gujarat (Sadanshah Pir Dargah, Haji Pir Dargah, Kutch, Pirana Dargah and Meera Dattar Dargah), Rajasthan (Brahmakumari's Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalay, Mount Abu and Dargah Sharif, Ajmer), Punjab (Golden Temple, Amritsar), Delhi (Bahai Temple, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Jain Temple, Mehrauli, Ladakh Budh Vihar, Birla Mandir, Hasrat Nizammuddin Dargah, Sacred Heart Cathedral and Chattarpur Temple), Himachal Pradesh (Paonta Sahib Gurudwara), Uttar Pradesh (Kabir Samadhi, Gorakhpur), Bihar (Bodhi Mandir, Gaya), Madhya Pradesh (Sanchi Stupa and Ujjaini Temple) and West Bengal (Dakshineswar Kali Temple and Bandel Church).
The serial is the result of five years of intensive and in-depth research by E N Muraleedharan Nair, who has conceived, produced and directed the serial, and K L Sreekrishna Dass, who has written the script. Khurshid Ahmed is the associate director of the work. The panel of consultants include Vellayani Arjunan, Prof M Balakrishnan Nair, Dr Arsu, Dr M K Preetha and Dr M M Basheer.
The serial has been produced under the banner of Life Line Film Makers, Thiruvananthapuram, which has to its credit many productions like a documentary on the life and times of Sree Narayana Guru aired on Asianet, a 13-episode documentary on the life of former Chief Minister E K Nayanar (Asianet and ATN Bengla), a documentary on the cultural heritage of Kerala (Doordarshan), a documentary on the cultural and educational monuments of Kerala (Doordarshan), a documentary on the fishermen community of Kerala (Doordarshan) and a serial ‘Ithihya Kathakal’, now being telecast on DD Malayalam. ‘Verpadukalude Viralppaadukal’, a serial based on a famous novel, has been commissioned to be aired on Kairali channel.
‘Sarvajan Prarthanalay’ will be telecast in Hindi on DD National daily from 7.30 a.m. to 8 a.m.