Yugantar (Old Doordarshan TV Serial)
Yugantar was a very famous TV show that aired in mid 80s on Indian national TV. The name (Jugantor in Bengali) was taken from the revolutionary operation took place during the independence era. But it was not related to that activity. The show was adaptation from a very famous novel by Bengali ace writer Sunil Gangopadhyay who had created Sei Somoy novel a long time back.
The book was later published in English version in late 90s. The show Yugantar showed the old historical characters from Bengal throughout the show. The name Yugantar (yug + antar) means the gap between the two generations. The Bengali Novel Sei Somoy depicted how the time of Raja Rammohan Roy, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was and how things started changing as the time passed by.
Plot
The show was all about the historical era. The show was based on the novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. According to the novel, the writer had mixed up some real life characters with some fictional characters in the book. The show was no difference in this.
The show started with a zamindar house of Thakur Parivar. The well known family that contained names like Rabindra nath Tagore, Mohorshi Debendra Nath Tagore and such had different life than the other people at that time.
The series then continued with other characters like Michael Madhusudan Datta, Ganga Narayan, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and others. The time they showed was the most sensitive time in Bengal’s as well as Indian history.
It was the time when British rule were there and how generation by generation people had led a difficult life. It was mainly a fictional story that had historical real life characters. There were few characters that showed the darkest sides of the society from that era. The character Chandra Nath who was a son of a prostitute was thrown out of the school. The reason was his mother was a prostitute. He was intelligent and smart boy. He was studious as well but still he could not get a chance to continue his education due to his mother’s occupation.
The show continued with these characters (some fictional and some real). As the story progressed we got to see a lot of stories behind the curtains namely society. It was a finite show with few episodes that made a history on national Doordarshan channel back in mid 80s.
Relevance Today
It was based on some of the real life stories. The story of the Tagore family that showed was too some extent true. There were few things that showed in the series were true at that point of time. It was more like an interaction between real and fictional characters which was shown perfectly. Here the credit goes to the director. As the story was based on real life we could easily relate to the show. Though the era was completely different and our lifestyle has changed a lot however some points are still the same.
Our so called society has some limitations even today when we are standing in 21st century. If we talk about the character Chandranath who was a son of a prostitute and alongside a very bright boy then we can know how society plays a bitter role to exploit innocent hearts. If a person is a sex-trader then her son or daughter is not responsible for that. Despite being a smart and intelligent student he was thrown out of the school because of his mother. Even today a son of a common lady and son of a prostitute can get a same position in society? I don’t think so.
The things are almost same in all generations; the only thing that changes is the outer packaging. A modern society will be not be modernised unless and until the mentality changes. The show had shown a many folds of our society through some fictional and real stories.
Important Details of the show Yugantar
| Name of the show | Yogantar | ||
| Country | India | ||
| Language | Hindi | ||
| Subject | Social Drama | ||
| Banner (production house) | Leela Films | ||
| Director | Shubhankar Ghosh | ||
| Creator | Sujit Sen, Biomal Dutta | ||
| Producer | Soumen Banerjee | ||
| Story writer | Sunil Gangopadhyay | ||
| Dialogues written by | Ravindra Rawal | ||
| Official site address | |||
| Telecast Details | |||
| Telecast Date | 1985 | ||
| Aired on | Doordarshan | ||
| Telecast episode | |||
| Episode length | 25 minutes (approx) | ||
| No of seasons | 1 | ||
| Cast Details | |||
| Character Name | Real Name | ||
| Navin Nischal | |||
| Anil Chatterjee | |||
| Mohan Gokhale | |||
| Bina | |||
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