The Enchanting Eighties By Victor K Ghoshe

The Enchanting Eighties

In many ways the decade of the 80s was one of the most interesting periods in the history of Indian Socio-economic scenario. During this period our economy broke loose from a state of stagnancy that had persisted for much of the two previous decades. The rate of growth achieved was high, not only by Indian standards, but comparable to that of star performers like Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Turkey.
Unlike during the first three five year plans, growth during this period was not externally induced. It came naturally, in response to a relaxation in policy-based constraints to growth.
The 80s observed positive changes in - demand, productivity, costs & prices, investment, employment, structural change and the balance of trade…..Largely saying the 80s were the first platform for Indian middle class, where people started dreaming, started believing that they can also have a piece of the ‘Good-life Pie’.
Well on another side Bollywood was truly inspiring during this period - Samita Patil was still alive, Dilip Kumar still in action, the Big B showed no signs of grey hair, Naseeruddin Shah was in his prime, Om Puri was introduced with Half Truth…arrr…I mean ‘Ardh Satya’, Pran was still the bad guy to beat…..you got the idea…I believe!
Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi released and Gandhi became an International star. Later the movie would be shown on Doordarshan every Independence Day from many many years to come.

Doordarshan went national in the early 80s. Salma Sultan was reading News. Sitting in front of T.V sets, people used to reply back to her Namaskars. Ustad Bismillah Khan was on the shehnai every Independence day. Along with national broadcast came: the Antennas on the T.V set and on the rooftops. Color T.V came to India in 1982 with the Asian Games held in Delhi. Then we had serials like Hum Log of 1984 and some years later we got the megadrama: Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan ran from 1987 to 1988. Soon came Mahabharat that ran from 1988 to 89 - the story of 23 day war was told the entire year and people developed an interest in history. A serial named Kille ka Rahasya made many people claustrophobic. I still remember our Sunday 11.30 am slots were illuminated by a ‘film clip & chat show’ called Show Theme where celebrities from the film industry would talk about a theme and show hindi film clips….then came Rangoli to make Sunday morning brighter.

Indian advertising was trying to stand on its own feet now…Surf and Lalitaji were names that glued themselves to consumer's brain. Yet consumer's brain had space for more names, names like Amul, Nirma, Dabur, Favicol and Dalda. Bata was a biggest footwear name, Action, Liberty came later. People drank Campa Cola or maybe GoldSpot using straws, straws that later littered the floor of Halls hosting marriage receptions.
Vicks ki goli lo…People were popping in Vicks lozenges after smoking a Cavanders. If that didn’t get rid of the smoky smell, they considered brushing the teeth using Ajanta tooth ‘burush’ and white Colgate toothpaste, or may be just chew on some toothpowder sold in red headed white tin containers. Mouthwash! sellers and buyers had no need for it yet. Raju was content with Dabur Lal Dant Manjan that guaranteed pearly white motiyo jaisay daant.

Deodorant! Who needed them when we had Vaseline hair oil, the smell didn't offend anyone yet. Vaseline, the perfumed hair oil may be they were competing against Bengali Cantharidine.
Deodorant! Who needed them when we had Nycil ‘powder’. However, Nycil had no perfume to talk of, it was unperfumed, but it worked magic on scratchy Indian backs.

Khaitan gave common man something that only the White man of pre-Independence days could easily afford: Cool air without manual labor - Air Power. Hand Crafted Hand-held fans retired to some corner of the house, but were retrieved every time electricity went dead, and that happened just as often as it happens now. Kerosene lamp was still kept in some corner of the house, a back up. When electricity was on, most houses were lit yellow by incandescent Surya light bulbs. Bulbs controlled by big black Knobs. However Tube light (sorry; I couldn’t resist remembering ECE bulbs and tubes TVC) with its pure white light had arrived illuminating the freshly Nerolac painted walls.

Kerosene stove slowly made way for the LPG stove. Food cooked in a Hawkins pressure cooker ‘looked’ good, with Hawkins came along ‘Prestige Pressure Cooker’ for the people who really loved their wives, as its positioning line uttered ‘Jo biwi se kare pyar. Woh prestige se kaise kareiN inkaar’.
We suddenly got introduced to a whole new world of shelve names from MDH, Ashoke, Badshah masala, to Cadbury éclairs to Pan Parag to Kayam churan. Hajmola or Sawad ki goli was to be popped in after eating at the in-laws. For some of certain age, Isabgol was the laxative husk to be mixed in milk and to be drunk just before going to bed at night. Tin cans like the one of P mark oil, Lipton tea etc. were used to store sugar, salt, garam masala, pepper, tea, nuclear waste and other useful things. In homes, a Singer sewing machine was the ruler of women's gadget world.

Girls wanted Lacto Calamine to get that rosy tone. Boroline was the antiseptic creamy answer to skin problem under the shirt. For ‘under the innerwear problems’ of men, we had B-Tex lotion. Lifebuoy made life a lot less messy for pure-impure-unpure conscious, right-handed middle class Indians. Rosy pink Lux for aging beauty queens had competition from Lemony green Liril for girls who enjoyed frolicking under waterfalls….for the first time Indian women had a chance to fantasize outdoor bathing, that to under waterfalls…..well ‘waterfall’ reminds me of -Mandakini under a waterfall wearing just a transparent white sari. Some men I know still watch her bathe...keep googling her ‘ram maili’ image up. Some smart people liked Smita Patil, but she too had to dance in the rain. Some people were kept busy by Bo Derek. While some were kept busy by Rambo…, many wanted to work out and get those muscles.
The other thing that kept men busy was the newest gadget. During the later part of the 80s, The ‘Chal meri Luna’ call was fading away and ‘Hamara Bajaj’ was becoming the national pride and ride - model was Chetak. Besides it we had LML Vespa. Casio calculator with LED display was Pure technology. Also, Wrist watch that could do mathematical calculation was the in gadget. It was again a marvel from the house of Casio. I you had a VCP in 80s- you were rich, if you had VCR you were Super Rich. Radios in leather bound covers became a dying breed but they were still around with old men who clung to them. Vinyl Cassettes were the revolution. Portable cassette players along with a stereo speaker set were pure indulgence for music fanatics who swore by Boney M and then ‘pet shop boys’, Wham etc.

What did people hear?

Gurdas Maan was a singing star with a dafli in hand. Runa Laila of Bangladesh found an audience in India and Lal meri was the song. Nazia Hasan of Pakistan was the new fresh sound. People were listening to comic lines of Moin Akhtar, the Pakistani comedian. Ghulam Ali, The Ghazal Maestro of Pakistan became a star in India. Everybody was listening to him chupke chupke or no chupke chupke….
Sports: India found Cricket in a new sense in 1983, but that is a whole different story. In addition, we can name P.T. Usha. One more name I would like to name is that of Sergey Bubka. When Sergey Bubka pole-vaulted to a record in 1983, we in India celebrated. Remember, India was still friends with Russia. That again is another story.
Movie: another Indian passion. Sunday movies on Doordarshan were a big draw. One day the Doordarshan people decided to show 'art' movie for some weeks. It didn't last. People hated the idea.
‘Adharsheela’, ‘Maisi Sahib’, ' Uski Roti’ ! ….
What! Nonsense! Kiski Roti..?
just telecast Rajesh Khanna ki ‘Roti’.
Black and white electron bugs screaming zzzzzzzzz and fight it out on the signal down blue screen. We would rather watch the multi- colored bars and listen to the single longest electronic beep....Peeeeeeeeeee!!!!
What the hell is Uski Roti! The slow churning of Doordarshan logo to the sound of some dying instrument, ta-ra-rara-ra, during the first early morning telecast is more interesting than Iski Roti. Uski Roti!
Arrre...! Kiski Roti! '

Along with the mainstream Hindi films, Ramsay Brothers were making Horror movies like Purana Mandir by the dozen and these films were, let’s use the bollywood term - Super Duper Hit. Besides Horror movies we had numerous celluloid versions of soap operas and these were called family dramas, Ghar ek mandir, sansar, mera pati sirf mera hai, to name a few.
Amitabh Bachchan was the Shahenshah and so he remains to this day. Mithun Chakroborty was super hit with his disco moves….and then there were his ‘Gun Master G9 films’.
As I mentioned ‘Om Puri’ earlier, serious people and Cinema had movies like Ardh Satya to catch.
Another star emerged during the 80s with films like ‘Ilzaam’ & ‘Love 86’ – GOVINDA….
Today if we take a peep into the bollywood history, we will find that this man stands strong as a superstar nominee during the post Bachchan & Pre SRK era. Govinda was a great source of fun then and he shook the country truly well with his thumkas for a long time.
Sorry the topic is - 80s…!!!
Lok Seva Sanchar started airing national integration films like – the Torch bearing one and then ‘Mile sur…’, shabana Azmi would often be seen on the small screen…spreading perspectives - ‘Chhoone se Aids nehi failta…is tarah se toh pyar failta hai…’ children would not know then what that ‘Aids Business’ was and the middle class grownups also would try to figure out ‘why’s and ‘How’s of the business.
Sai Paranjpe was experimenting with offbeat flicks: Sparsh (The Touch), was released in 1980, and it won five film awards, including the National Film Award. Sparsh was followed by the comedies, Chashme Buddoor (1981) and Kathā (1982).
At times things seemed like changing. But that’s another story.
Nothing changed.
Mr. India had everything…a super watch, a super invisible power, more than a dozen kids, a girlfriend that could sing-dance and look sexy in the rain wearing a synthetic sari, and he also had a super villain, a Mogambo to be blamed for all the troubles in life. It was the culmination of every male Indian fantasy.
Then Mansoor Khan & Nasir Husain made this film called ‘Quamat se quamat Taq’ which launched Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla. The film released in ’88…and the year became milestone in the history of Hindi films and the nation witnessed the Change…. (and of course no one knew at that point, that the change would be repeated after 12 years by the same man in a film called ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ where Aamir again would be a part of another Cult Film of our country which would change the paradigm of Hindi films).
Sorry again !!!
Coming back to the eighties…
Children, little children had other things on mind.
Owning a Hot Wheel Car or a Barbie was a dream for young boys and girls respectively, just as owing a Maruti 800 was for adults universally. Indrajal Comics brought with them syndicated comic books like The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Rip Carby and Buz Sawyer. Besides these it also had original graphic stories. Chandamama and Amar Chitra Katha introduced Indian Mythologies and tales from other cultures to the growing children of the 80s (today while I am writing this – its Anant pai’s Birthday, the great man behind Amar chitra katha and Tinkle). Target Magazine was the all time Best English Magazine for Children. It had the best feature stories and the best original content.
For children there were shows like Johny Soko & His Flying Robot, Spider man Cartoon, Different strokes, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Children had trouble understanding what the hell Nirodh was…why all the rain and the singing and the pink umbrella?
Grown ups had trouble understanding it too.
In spite of all the talks, wall paintings and films by the Family welfare department…’Hum Do, Humare Do’….and ‘ek ke baad abhi nehi…do ke baad kabhi nehi’, the population kept growing…..as it is still growing today….
But then again, that's another story.

Victor K Ghoshe
17-9-2011