Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi

''Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi'' (literal meaning: 'Such is Life') is a sitcom that aired on DD National in 1984. It was written by comedy writer Sharad Joshi and directed by Kundan Shah, S. S. Oberoi and ''Raman Kumar''.

Plot

The episodes revolved around funny happenings in the lives of Ranjit Verma and Renu Verma, who play a married couple along with Renu's unmarried and unemployed younger brother Raja and then Chachi's daughter who plays the character of Rashmi. Other characters were Ranjit's boss, his Bengali neighbours etc.

Cast

Main

* Shafi Inamdar as Ranjit Verma, the husband
* Swaroop Sampat as Renu Verma, Ranjit's wife
* Rakesh Bedi as Raja, Renu's brother
* Satish Shah as different character in each episode.
* Sulbha Arya as Mandira Bhattacharya, Bengali neighbour
* Vijay Kashyap as Tarun Bhattacharya, Bengali neighbour (season1–2);

Recurring

* Aanjjan Srivastav as Various characters
* Jatin Kanakia as Rekha's Uncle
* Pavan Malhotra as Various characters
* Kishori Ballal as Groom's Mother
* Avtar Gill as Various characters
* Salim Ghouse as Mr Venkat
* Rekha Sabnis as Mrs Venkat
* Ravi, Raja's Brother-in-law (season 3)
* Tiku Talsania as Raghuwan Kailash Gupta a.k.a. R.K. Gupta, Ranjit's boss and later Raja's father in law.
* Farida Jalal as Ranjit's aunt (season 2)
* Javed Khan Amrohi as Jhumru the servant (season 2)
* Reena Wadhwa as Rashmi, the daughter of Ranjit's Aunt (season 2)
* Nivedita Joshi-Saraf as Rekha, Raja's Wife (season 3)
* Kiran Juneja as Ranjana, Ravi's Girlfriend (season 3)

Production

The first 24 episodes of the show has focus on Ranjit, Renu and Raja and their neighbours Mr. Bhattacharya and Mandira, with various characters played by Satish Shah.

Shafi Inamdar (who played Ranjit) left after Episode 24 due to his film commitments. Episode 25 to 44 had focus on Raja, his aunt and her servant.

Ranjit and Renu return from Episode 45 onwards and act till Episode 55 of Raja s marriage with Rekha. The characters played by Satish Shah were constant factor from Episode 1 to 55. The second season retained the fame of the first season.
Raja's love life and affair with Rekha (Nivedita) was the new center of activity. The third innings had a reasonably shorter run from episode 55 to 67. It focused on the household life of Mr Gupta, Raja and Rekha after marriage.

The alumni of this show went on to have chequered careers in Indian and other cinema over the years. In few episodes from 40, Anjan Srivastav, Avtaar Gill, Pawan Malhotra, Ashok Pandit played different characters.

List of episodes

Reception

In a retrosepctive review, Chandrima Pal of Scroll.in wrote, "Long before comedy shows on Indian television became an excuse to pimp slap-stick and bawdy humour, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi gave millions of Doordarshan viewers a taste of a truly indigenous sitcom that was decidedly middle class, replete with generic tomfoolery and yet retained an irreverent and gentle heart."

See also

* List of Hindi comedy shows

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0294230

Hindi comedy shows
Indian television sitcoms
DD National original programming
1980s Indian television series
1984 Indian television series debuts
1986 Indian television series endings