“Ramdas Padhye on ZEE5; can’t believe it,” exclaimed an elated husband a few weeks back. He keeps scanning & shortlisting new shows which the entire family can watch together.
I failed to understand the excitement in his voice. With the clueless look on my face, I asked him about Mr. Padhye.
He was bewildered that I wasn’t aware of the world-renowned ventriloquist & puppeteer Mr. Ramdas Padhye. He explained to me that Mr. Padhye is India’s one & only one professional Ventriloquist, Puppeteer and Puppet maker featured on a variety of digital platforms – radio, television, feature films etc. in India and abroad. He is a second-generation ventriloquist and has been featuring on India’s National Channel Doordarshan since 1972. He was the first from India to perform ventriloquism and puppet-based shows on NBC, ABC and CBS television in America and BBC’s Channel Four. His character “Ardhavatrao” is very famous in the country. He has not only performed but also upgraded the puppets to international standards maintaining the traditional looks.
Well, I was surely taken aback at this introduction and felt a bit abashed that I wasn’t aware of such a big personality.
Mr. Husband added that Mr. Ramdas Padhye and his family will entertain us with his ensemble of puppets with a new show – “Gharaat Basle Saare,” starting June 8th on ZEE5/Zee Marathi from Monday to Friday at 7 pm daily and we should watch this as it would surely be a laughter riot and something different to watch.
Today I can proudly say we have been watching this complete family entertainer for more than 3 weeks and I am glued to the show. Something unique about this show is that it has been completely shot at home, great right? The famous character of Ardhavatrao Shahane with his father, wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandson is introduced in the first episode and they come to know about the ‘Adarsh Kutumbh’ competition in their society. The following episodes show the daily lives of a joint family. It’s a light-hearted enjoyable show which will take away your mind from the daily chores and work.
As you watch the show, you feel a part of the family like any other show. There is a story to look forward to in each episode which is very relatable. At no point I got a feeling that’s it’s been shot completely at home, it’s so well conceptualised and made. If you ask me I won’t mind seeing it on the weekends too. I haven’t watched such a show on any other digital platform, I am glad ZEE5 launched it on its digital platform. I haven’t regretted my decision to subscribe to ZEE5 one bit, it has great content across genres and languages and users get the entire content library access on 5 screens simultaneously. If you haven’t subscribed to ZEE5 then do it today.
One more unbelievable information about Ardhavatrao – the character turned 100 yrs. in mid-2017 as it was originally created by Mr. Y.K.Padhye (father of Mr. Ramdas Padhye), a pioneer Indian Ventriloquist who started the art of Ventriloquism in India around 1916. Keep thinking that!
If you have watched this show; do share your experience. If not do check out, you won’t regret – I bet ☺
References –