Anyone who grew up
in India in the eighties will have so many memories about “DoorDarshan”
including the “Chitrahaar”, “Ek chiriya..”, “Malgudi days” and so on. And in
those sweet memories I am sure there will be hidden somewhere a message most
annoying and almost devastating at times, “Rukawat ke liye Khed hai (Sorry for interruption)”.
How can anyone bear a break in a running program? So much so that anything that
disrupts good program was not only annoying, but also received all sorts of expletives.
But one man not only wanted to disrupt the running
programs, but do it in a way that everyone would be waiting for these
disruptions. Even to think of something like this one’s sense of logic should
be placed upside down. And upside –down was the only logic that this man knew
and started teaching to all of us through his upside-down interruptions in
running programs; rightly calling it, “Ulta-Pulta.”
Someone on cloud nine with a huge success of an unusual (almost
crazy) concept would want to cash on a success like this and built deeper roots
in the show-biz. And may be our friend wanted the same, so he must have been
happy to receive green light to air a full 30 minute show to be aired weekly
(only frequency that was in vogue during those days). And he may have wanted it
be a big hit. But how would that even try to explain why he named it the “Flop-Show?”
I will never understand why, I will never understand the
logic behind such things; but I thoroughly enjoyed everything he offered.
Everyone knows that he had superb comic timing and an excellent mind that would
think after seeing any social issues and other problems. But the only thing
that this man was in-capable of was showing anything in a sorry state. Be it
the inflation or the corruption or the red-tape or anything else that people
will sit on hunger strikes for. This man addressed those issues with his wit
and satire mixed to perfection. Make you laugh at the day today incidents in
life that most others would want you to cry about.
The genius, be it in any field can never be repeated; and
the same goes for him. The sad accident that took him recently from the man
kind, might have taken the future gifts that he would have been conceiving for
all of us. But how ever sudden and cruel the death may be; it cannot take away
what he gave to all of us over last two decades.
Jaspal Bhatti ji, I know you are not the kind who would want
to rest in peace; the laughter that your wit and humor creates will be making
God and all Heaven-goers laugh and disrupting the peace of heavens.
PS: Some that I watched many a times in
addition to Flop Show and Ulta Pulta; The
police officer of Mahaul Theek hai, Jija ji, Ram Saran Dubey of Kuch meetha ho
jaye and the list goes on….
