Hum, Hum Log ke baad
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Hum Log, the middle class family saga that held the serial watching population of this country in thrall in the 80s, is all set to make a come-back, in a different packaging, of course. It is likely to reappear on Doordarshan as Hum.
Its launch in 1984, when Doordarshan was the only channel, attracted substantial audience nationwide. Hum Log was listed as one of the 50 best television shows during the commemorative reflection on the eve of the golden jubilee of introduction of television in India.
The plot of Hum Log, launched on July 7, 1984, revolved around a lower middle-class family living in Delhi. The characters included a perpetually sloshed father who loved to sing, a long-suffering but hard-working mother, their three daughters and a son. Then there were the grandparents and the NRI cousins too. The eldest daughter, Badki, was a feminist while the second daughter, Majhli, wanted to be a singer and enjoy life. The youngest, Chhutki, was still in school. The son wanted to make quick money and got involved with a rich girl. The soap also had Ashok Kumar, the veteran actor, who played the sutradhar, summarising each episode at the end and leading on to the next one. Hum Log also introduced the dynamics of particular kind of programme production and in a way spawned a culture of outsourcing by the national broadcaster. The report of the producer of Hum Log being persuaded to get back to television to produce a follow up serial is doing the rounds of the entertainment media. Reports however indicate that the focus this time will be on village life.
How the serial is going to unfold and whether it will enhance DD’s rating in the entertainment scenario is difficult to gauge but its possible developmental context can be established by introspecting upon the background of Hum Log. The precursor to satellite based expansion of television in India was the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), 1975-76, rooted in the philosophy of using the mass media’s instructional and developmental potential, especially that of television, for modernisation. The well intentioned goal of using television as a transformative medium in the earlier models has not worked out and critiques have held that reposing faith in this medium rather than addressing the structural - political, social and economic - issues has not paid the expected dividends.
The unintended consequences of the "Developmental" school advocacy has been the exponential growth of television in India that now boasts of optimum number of channels catering to a large audience base. The nature of programming has changed and the development orientation has moved to infotainment and other newer forms of content. Besides, the fact that there will be innovative delivery of content to the ever expanding users of mobile phones is likely to challenge television as we understand and follow today.
A perspective that recognises this reality is needed as we nostalgically herald the "revival" of Hum Log. The immense popularity of the serial and the comprehensive set of relationships that made it happen became a text book example for discussing pro-development soap operas. Rogers and Singhal institutionalised Hum Log further by their research that was widely reported and is still used to provide the background. The research observed: "Pro-development television soap operas in Third World nations are quite different from television soap operas in the United States. A. pro-development soap opera is a melodramatic serial that is broadcast in order to entertain and to convey subtly an educational theme to promote development. "
Tail Piece: The return of Hum Log to Doordarshan was a sign off news item on CNN-IBN. IBN live also reported the introduction of two vocational courses that included media for class 11 and 12 students in about 16 CBSE schools on a pilot basis. The course is being offered through collaboration with Whistling Woods. Had it been 1984 and the Hum Log syndrome ruling us, the same course would have been conceived in collaboration with a development oriented institution. Recall our academic fascination with Kheda and Jhabua television projects.