New Delhi: Starring actors Pankaj Kapur, Sushmita Mukherjee and Archana Puran Singh, karamchando It was one of the first and iconic detective series to be aired on Indian television.
launched on Doordarshan In 1985, the show was produced by Pankaj Parashar and Alik Padamsee, and written by Sudhir Mishra. The music and title track for the series was composed by renowned duo Anand-Milind Srivastava.
The series gained massive fan following soon after its launch and became one of the cult classics.
Kapoor, who played the title role of the witty carrot-munching detective ‘Karamchand’, received his theater training from the National School of Drama in Delhi. it was hesitation at first To do television shows. But it was a huge success and earned Kapoor recognition as well as critical acclaim.
Kapoor breathes life into the character of Karamchand with his goggles and prodigious investigation skills.
The series follows the lives of detective ‘Karamchand’ and his assistant ‘Kitty’ (played by Mukherjee) as they help the police solve murder, robbery and other crime mysteries.
People liked his style. Karamchand halwa and carrots are being sold like hot cakes. Goggles with his name on it were sold,” Kapoor said in a Interview with Hindustan Times,
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pop culture references
The cult status of this show has been such that even after three decades its popularity has not diminished. One of the main characters in the hit American sitcom big bang theory, Raj Kuthrapali (played by Indian actor Kunal Nayyar), mentions about ‘Karamchand’ in season 11.
Karamchand’s frequent jokes with his assistant Kitty were also quite entertaining and popular among the audience. One of Kitty’s jokes, where she says “Sir, you are a genius” and Karamchand’s saying “Shut up, Kitty” became cult dialogue.
Accidental cast and unstable start
While both the lead actors became popular for their performances in the show, Kapoor was not director Parashar’s first choice. It was actor Alok Nath who played the lead role for the pilot episode of the show. But later a rift between Parashar and Nath facilitated Kapoor’s entry in the show.
However, the first few episodes of this detective series were a disaster. People found the new concept, “flying cameras and an out-of-the-box idea”, hard to stomach.
in an interview to ForbesParashar described how Kapoor was broken and even wondered if his decision to work on the series was wrong.
However, the audience soon learned to like Karamchand and Kitty’s antics, and many veterans of the film industry praised them for the show. “People like Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar appreciated our efforts. Manoj Kumar was very supportive, Kamal Haasan used to call and Kishore Kumar said he wanted to work with me. Parashar, who directed films like ‘You have created history,’ says Saeed Mirza Jalwa And gimmickis quoted as saying by Forbes.
Season 1 of the show was a delightful blend of comedy and logic. Unlike most other detective series, the protagonist in karamchando Doesn’t rely on hi-tech gadgets or forensics to solve cases. Instead his approach has a more bizarre cut and sometimes a stroke of luck.
Season 2 and why it failed
The trendsetter series made a comeback after 20 years when it aired Sony in 2007. But it did not live up to the expectations of the audience. The show had lost its charm, and Sucheta Khanna replaced Mukherjee as Kitty.
Karamchand had nothing but indifference to it – and that was not enough.
The second season was called off after a few early episodes and did not complete its full run. Nonetheless, the show remains in the hearts of thousands of viewers as one of the best detective series of the 80s.
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