ThinkerViews – Views And Reviews Personal views and reviews for books, magazines, tv serials, movies, websites, technical stuff and more.
Some of the popular creations by R. K. Narayan are about Swami and his friends. We know that Swami is a young boy living in Malgudi. The innocent incidents of his childhood are interesting and realist and it is loved by the readers so much.
Let us talk about the episode exploring the tales of Swami and his friends from the Hindi TV Serial Malgudi ays which is available on DVD for home entertainment.
| TV Serial | : | Malgudi Days |
| Director | : | Shankar Nag |
| Created By | : | R. K. Narayan |
| Sketch Artist | : | R. K. Laxman |
| Hindi Translation | : | Sharad Joshi |
| Actors | : | Master Manjunath [Swami], Girish Karnad [Swami’s father], Vaishali Kasaravalli [Swami’s Mother], B Jayashree [Swami’s Grand Mother], Kanti Madiya [ Muni / Muniya ], B Jayashree [Muni’s Wife], Somu [Shopkeeper], Teddy White [American / Newyork tourist] and others (including but not limited to Anant Nag, Dada, Vishnuvardhan, Shankar Nag, Ramesh Bhat, Padmini Sirish) |
Swami was wandering through the streets of Malgudi and was sad for being alone. He visits a carpenter cum worker who repair cart wheels (and cycle wheels also). Swami’s intention was to find an used wheel of a cycle with which he can play.
Actually the sport of playing with cycle (or any other) wheel is now getting outdated. Children are no more so innocent to find joy in playing with such stuffs. Mainly in villages such sport is still exist, but otherwise, new children may wonder by hearing that an used wheel can be used to play. It is a very innocent sport where children use a small stick (or even their hands in absence of such a luxurious item!) to push the wheel and run with it to keep pushing and driving it!
The stuff is content wise so grounded and the incident is filmed so well, that it is a delight to watch. There are a few dialogs in these scene but they are all good. Actually the surround is filmed pretty well. It explores the environment of a typical village of that time pretty well. A few people wandering by having an umbrella in hand, to keep away the sun. Definitely they are comparatively wealthy or doing work in an office. The farmers are moving in carts. And the carpenter was busy doing his work.
We see that the carpenter tried taking advantage of the situation and desperation of Swami. He tells swami that he need to pay in order to get a cycle wheel, which swami cannot. Actually it was a very big amount! How much?! Well, you should watch it to know it! He then tells Swami that he know a trick to make money! He knew the art of converting copper coins into the silver coins!
Swami was innocent and he consider the stuff as truth! But we see that in the real life a lot of people believe in such stuff! The crooks use such ticks and greedy people got trapped into the same. The dialogs are simple yet powerful in the scenes where Swami was trying get money from various family members. At one point when he got to know that no one has money, he wonder that How the house functions is no one have money! The childish innocence!
The dialog writer definitely deserves the credit to portray such realistic stuff from a child’s perspective. The background music is another positive attribute of the entire TV serial. There is one moral message also. When Swami went to his father to ask for money he was sleeping. Swami first decide to check the pockets of the cloths of his father which were hung on the hook. But later he decide to go through the proper way. To awake his father and ask for the same! It shows how a well taught (in terms of social values) child behave in vulnerable situations!
When we don’t find anything or any proper way ahead, where we go??? Swami does the same thing!!! The way he try getting money and what happen then after is a fantastic stuff to watch. The sequence of incidents portrayed so well that you will love seeing it for sure. The incident happen one after the other and Swami’s reaction for the same are all good to watch.
There is a lot more incidents we are going to watch in the episode, all exploring the innocence and vulnerable childhood experiences.
Master Manjunath is the scene stealer in the entire episode. There are so many scenes which work due to his solo performance. The accent of the old lady is fine as well. Girish Karnard is a nice actor and he prove the same again in the scenes given to him. There are a couple of below average acting, which you can ignore. The content is the king for this episode as well. The realistic tale, sets, dialogs are all make it a genuine watch! However we feel that the end of the episode should have been better and ideal! As in real life we know that the things doesn’t go ideal in most of the cases but in the stories and tales, we need to see it all happening in right way. Right?
Today when we see some below standard stuff aired on TV, availability of such genuine serials on DVD is a good stuff to go for, sure.
