I used to rush from school everyday just to be in front of the TV at 5.30 p.m. sharp, when programmes would start on Doordarshan in Chennai (called Madras at the time) in the 1970s. For us, the programmes would end with ‘Seidhigal’ (News in Tamil) at 9. 30 p.m. Just 4 hours a day from Monday to Friday. Saturdays and Sundays were movie days with only one film on offer at 6 p.m. Children, the youth and the old, with no knowledge of Hindi, used to watch Hindi movies with awe on Saturdays.
Usually, a friend conversant in Hindi would play the guest of honour and explain the story, scene by scene, to the households. Come Sunday, it used to be a grand gala time, both in the morning and evening. While English and Hindi shows had everyone glued to the national channel in the morning, old Tamil flicks of MGR and Sivaji on Madras Doordarshan would keep everyone entertained in the evening. Dinner plates before the TV set, grandma serving hot ‘puris’ and an infant cradling on his mother’s lap were a common sight during this movie time.
Monday programmes on TV were not as captivating. But, it was drama time on Tuesdays. Tamil plays that were shot indoors, both comedies and family soaps, used to draw the attention of many, particularly women. ‘Chitrahar’, songs of the then latest Hindi movies, provided a lot of excitement on Wednesdays. On Thursdays, the multi-lingual song and dance sequences programme, viz., ‘Chitramala’, offered Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi and Oriya film songs. Electronic national integration it was! Friday was the most popular day of the week, for, we used to get to watch ‘Ozhiyum Oliyum’, the prime time show of the then latest Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth film songs.
They would be the talk of the town in schools the next day. On all days, there used to be a programme for the farmers, ‘Vayalum Valvum’, the attendance for which, understandably, was always thin in the house. Other than these programmes, ‘Munnottam’, a weekly curtain-raiser for the next week’s programmes, used to attract many viewers. So, Monday to Sunday provided fun, limited and just required entertainment for the people.
Special programmes like live telecast of cricket Test matches played in India, live telecast of Republic Day Parade, etc., were sources of entertainment for the youth and retirees. Sometime in the late 1970s, Doordarshan started some other channel beginning with a breakfast programme. The channel used to go off the air at noon. But, it slowly went into oblivion. But none regretted it, since they had a lively regular channel.
Today, when we recollect the immortal memories of Doordarshan, it gives us immense pleasure. Such nostalgia has no parallel. Currently, the scores of TV channels screening shiploads of programmes matter nothing to me, and of course, to my tribe and peers, I suppose. The TV programmes of the 1970s unlike today’s were drawing-room programmes. Today’s programmes can be seen only in bedrooms, for, they are replete with obscenity, violence, slapstick comedy, double meaning dialogues, pedantic plays and uncensored movies. TV programmes have changed since 1970, from good to decent to bad to worse to indecent. And in the days to come, may be, the less said the better about idiot-box programmes.
One is unable to comprehend today whether it is advertisements between programmes or programmes between advertisements that are more entertaining on the various TV channels. No two neighbours see the same programme at a given time unlike the days of the 1970s when choice was limited, but entertainment was almost unlimited and wholesome. Today, it is exactly the opposite. How sad!
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