Zabaan Sambhalke: Remembering The 90s Sitcom

Zabaan Sambhalke was the Indian version of British sitcom Mind Your Language (1977). Zabaan Sambhalke was directed by Rajiv Mehra and aired its first 54 episodes on DD Metro TV Channel from 1993 to 1994. It was then discontinued from DD Metro and started airing in 1997 on Home TV and it continued till 1998. A total fo 52 episodes were aired in its 2nd run.

Before directing Zaban Sambhalke, Rajiv Mehra had directed SRK and Urmila Matondkar in Chamatkar, a horror comedy movie. After Zaban Sambhalke, Rajiv Mehra directed SRK again in Ram Jaane; the movie bombed at the box office. Rajiv did taste success later with TV Sitcom Office Office starring Pankaj kapoor.

Coming back to Zaban Sambhalke, Zaban Sambhalke featured Pankaj Kapoor (Shahid Kapoor's father) in the lead role. He played the role of Mohan Bharti, a Hindi Language Professor in the National Institute of Language (NIL), Shubha Khote played Miss Lata Dixit, the strict Principal of NIL, Chandu Parkhi played the role of NIL Peon - Chaturvedi.

Pankaj Kapoor was in charge of teaching Hindi to his naughty but dumb students. Bhavana Balsavar was cute and funny as a Vijaya, a Tamilian aspiring for roles in Bollywood movies. In the opening song of Zaban Sambhalke, she says "Acting meri acchi, but hindi meri kacchi". Tom Alter as Charles Spencers, a British writer living in India was just about okay. The writers didn't make his character that funny. His was quite a borig character. Just like him Simon Asoyo, who plays Mungwango Asoyo, an African from Congo, was equally boring and unwanted. The makers could have replaced them with some interesting characters. Barring them, all other students in the class were hilarious and made the series worth watching.

Rajinder Mehra played the role of Makkhan Singh, a Sikh govt employee, Tanaaz Irani played Jennifer Jones, an American Airlines Cabin Crew, Viju Khote was Vittal Bapurao Pote, a Marathi nautanki artist, Hosi Vasunia played a Russian diplomat and Keith Stevenson played Sheikh Ruslan, a rich Arab Sheikh.  Dinyaar Tirandaz played Keki Dastoor Contractor, A parsi with terrible poetry skills. Vivek Vasvani plays himself, a Sindhi rich but Kanjoos NRI.

 

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