Malgudi Days – The Hindi TV Serial On DVD – Views And Reviews For Episode – The Oldman Of The Temple

Episode #7 of Hindi TV Serial Malgudi Days is titled as Mandir Ka Buddha 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)

The episode is quite special in the term that it brings R. K. Narayan face to face with the viewers. In a small conversation he shares his thoughts about the stories and mainly Malgudi. He convey effectively that Malgudi can be any small town in the country. The spirit and attribute are the main thing, which can be found in almost any village/town.

The story explored in this episode is an incident told by Mr. Sheshadri, a businessman from Malgudi who deals in fertilizers. Due to his work requirements, he often need to go for business tours. Due to the irregularity of buses, he prefer going through a taxi. And Das is the only taxi driver he like to go with. The main thing Sheshadri like about Das is his calm nature and having passions. Because during his business tour, there came the occasion when driver need to wait for a long period, and Das never complain.

It also explores several truths correctly. The not-so-trustable bus services, can be a problem a lot of remote villages and town, can relate themselves with. The need of a businessman or any working person who have to finish the stuff on time, thus needs to go through private taxi services. And the attributes of the driver Sheshadri mention, are what we all expect from him when we hire a taxi.

Anant Nag is really convincing as Sheshadri and we can say he is the top performer in this episode. The actors playing villagers sitting at a place and passing time, have a mixed lot. A couple of them are convincing, some of them are not so good at acting.

Once Sheshadri was on the way back to Malgudi after finishing his business tour, in the car of Das a mysterious incident happened to him. It was very late night and Sheshadri was taking naps in the backseat when all of a sudden Das stopped a car and he claimed seeing an old man who otherwise could have been overran by the car! Awakened by the incident and shouting of Das, Sheshadri looked on the road, and he found no-one there! He then come out of the car and tried finding the oldman Das was talking about. They went to the temple but Sheshadri found no one there anywhere in the way or at the temple, despite of Das was claiming to see it at various places throughout.

Sheshadri was unable to see anyone, start thinking that Das was drunk and probably is having illusions. And he advised Das to sit inside and drive the car to their destination. But it was not the end of the incident, it was just beginning. The old man shows himself, but inside Das?! Das started behaving that he is captured by some soul. The interesting things happen that point forward are the rest of the episode. The actor playing Das performs above average. His dubbing is really convincing. Especially, as an old man inside him.

You go to any traditional village or town and you will hear such stories, which are focused on ghosts or rather unbelievable incidents. The background music is rather very good and the stuff filmed really well. The content may not found appealing by a lot of people though. The episode is a good watch for timepass.