When I was young school-going not-so-movie-freak and Star Plus was not as boring as it became since the advent of legendary Ekkta Kkapoor, I used to watch one show which my grand mom disliked… Star Bestsellers. While only a few TV shows from 90’s still linger in our memories, SBS deserve a special place along with wonders like Neem Ka Ped, Byomkesh Bakshi and few others.
In SBS, each episode was a different usually unconventional story presented by some budding director/writer. They were less tele-serial and more tele-films. The content of most of the episodes were really impressive and were adapted into films as well. There was not usual pattern in the story which is usually a case for many such shows. Some stories would revolve around romance and other human relations while some would stress on ambitions and crimes. Each story had a special feeling, a special freshness.
90s was a different age altogether. Conventional movies used to work and people loved even Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty’s stupid movies which made no sense. It was like Post Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood stopped thinking and making cinema. Television imitated cinema to some great extent. SBS was a relief. Had it been showcased at late evening slot in second half of last decade, SBS would have got what it deserved. It’s unfortunate that SBS never got big TRPs… though it was fortunate that SBS existed. Why?
Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Imtiaz Ali, Sriram Raghavan are some names Indian Cinema is proud of. They all are SBS alumnus. Interesting nah? Infact, one of the most riveting episode Last Train to Mahakali was directed by Anurag Kashyap. Also, Hasil fame Tigmanshu was perhaps the biggest contributor to the series. In two seasons, he directed about six episodes.
In next few issues, we will cover some of the best of SBS. If you want us to cover some episode, let us know.
Feel free to mail us at the.reel.admin@gmail.com.
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
1 comment:
Good review, and guess what I was also a big fan of SBS & so much so that I am having right ankle pain in hand & still typing and typing. I remember some time back in my school days( some time back means 10 years only!) I got to see one episode & it was the same Last train to Mahakali and even my small child mind got into its deeps. And then there was the episode of a school girl. I got really atached to these. Please give more episodes of SBS or atleast as you said some of the bests of SBS. See I am staking my right hand.
Post a Comment
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, POST COMMENTS TO TELL US WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THIS ARTICLE,
Finding it difficult to post comments ??
type your comment in white box below and under "Comment as" Drop down list, either:
1. select "Anonymous"
OR
2. If you are logged into Google account, select your Google account from the drop-down list