Hindi Soap Operas that made the society better Part 1: Hudd Kar Di…!

If you are a 90’s kid you will get it. You will deep dive into the nostalgia now and I am sure you will remember all those days, watching television with the family. In this series of articles, I am going to talk about the serials or daily soaps of the 90s that helped in making this society a better place to live. There was a clean comedy, the entire family could enjoy the limited screentime together. These soaps made sure that they will speak about the issues in society in an extremely mature way. One such series is “Hudd Kar di” starring Mahesh Thakur, Dara Singh, Reeta Bhaduri, Shilpa Tulaskar, Sumeet Raghavan, Kishori Godbole, Swapnil Joshi, and Pallavi Kulkarni as lead roles. Directed by Sachin Pilgaonkar this one series is just so close to my heart.

It came in 1999 - 2000 and every episode had a different story to tell. The main attraction of this series was Papa Ji, played by Dara Singh. A beautiful story of a family where there are grandparents Beeji (Reeta Bhaduri) and Papaji, sweet parents Sooraj and Namrata played by Mahesh Thakur and Shilpa Tulaskar their Kids Nikku / Neeraj and Riya played by Swapnil Joshi and Pallavi Kulkarni along with it, their driver it who is a part of their family Raju (Sumeet Raghavan) and their house help who just like the daughter of the house Shobha (Kishori Godbole)

What I liked the most about this series were:

1. The Values: the values that it has. How having grandparents at home makes a lot of difference in the upbringing of children. Teaching about our culture like Ganpati and Navratri, Good values, Promoting the truth, respecting elders. Everything that you will teach your kids, you have that in here. I am seeing so many in so many families people do not treat their house helps with respect. They all should watch this family sitcom. This series is a treat to the eyes.

2. Clean Comedy: Most importantly it has clean comedy. Papaji’s jokes make you laugh from the core. Their funny Punjabi accent, fun situations make you forget everything and watch them for a long time. You can still watch this series with family and everyone will smile only.

3. Beautiful Language: In this series Dhanova family is Punjabi. Ther “Beda Gark”, “Te hor ni to ki” makes you fall in love with this language. Dara Singh's funny Punjabi songs and Beeji's surgery language make you happy from the inside.

4. No Drama: There is no drama in this series, everyone is happy and enjoying. Everyone has a takia kalam like “Hamri Phuppi hamesha kaha karti thi”, “Lo sun lo gal te kar lo baat”, “The whole thing is that” and you just laugh on all this. No one is doing planning plotting, no bahu is converting into makhhi, no nagin is taking revenge. Here a clean funny family situation will make you laugh.

You will fall in love with the Dhanova family all over again. All the 106 episodes are there on youtube and you can still enjoy this series with family, and get nostalgic because you will see a landline, you will see people are sending letters to each other and waiting for the letters, no technology had took over at that time, and that you will love the most.

It is a beautiful experience, if you have missed it then, make sure you don’t miss it now.

We will meet with another blast from the past in the next series. Till then go and watch Hudd Kar Di.

- Niharika Pole Sarwate