Katha Sagar
Katha Sagar (translation:"A Sea of Stories") is an Indian television series that aired on DD National in 1986. The series featured a collection of stories by writers from around the world, including Katherine Mansfield, Guy De Maupassant, Leo Tolstoy, O. Henry, Anton Chekov etc.[2] Each episode was directed by one of eight well known Indian directors, including Shyam Benegal, Kundan Shah, Ved Rahi and Satyen Bose. Most of the stories in the series were one-episode long.[3]
| Katha Sagar | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama/Literature |
| Directed by | Shyam Benegal |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 44[1] |
| Production | |
| Producer | Cinevistaas |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | DD National |
| Picture format | 480i |
| Original release | 1986 – 1986 |
Many years after its original run, the series was again produced by Prem Krishen Malhotra and Sunil Mehta, founders of "Cinevista Communications Limited".[2]
Plot
The series included about 37 stories based on different subjects like "Fear" by Guy De Maupassant, "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol, "A Cup of Tea" by Katherine Mansfield, and Tolstoy's "Where Love Is, God Is" (Pratiksha) and many others. Some of the stories were adapted to fit an Indian context but the adaptation embodied the essence of the original story very well.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Based on | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pratiksha" | Krishan Sethi | "Where Love Is, God Is" by Leo Tolstoy | |
| Cast : Saeed Jaffrey, Jayant Bhatt, Beena, Sulabha Deshpande, Abhi Bhattacharya | ||||
| 2 | "Karz" | Kundan Shah | "The Clarion Call" by O. Henry | |
| Cast : Deepak Kejriwal, Rajendra Gupta, Rama Vij | ||||
| 3 | "Teen Sadhu" | Satyen Bose | "Three Holy Men" by Leo Tolstoy | |
| Cast : Satyen Kappu, Anup Kumar, Brahmachari | ||||
| 4 | "Ek Bhool" | Kundan Shah | "The Lion's Share" by Arnold Bennett | |
| 5 | "Sannata" | Ved Rahi | "The Father" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 6 | "Roti Aur Pyar" | Anil Ganguly | "Love And Bread" by August Strindberg | |
| Cast : Ashok Kumar, Kitu Gidwani | ||||
| 7 | "Kalakriti" | Shyam Benegal | "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry | |
| Cast : Neena Gupta, Supriya Pathak | ||||
| 8 | "Bahut Der Kar Di" | Kundan Shah | "The Grasshopper" by Anton Chekhov | |
| 9 | "Dard" | Anil Ganguly | "The Father" by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson | |
| 10 | "Musafir" | Krishan Sethi | "On The Journey" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| Cast : Ajit Vachani, Shashi Puri, Sanjana Kapoor | ||||
| 11 | "Qaidi" | Anil Ganguly | "The Long Exile" by Leo Tolstoy | |
| 12 | "Nandu Ki Chitthi" | Shyam Benegal | "'Vanka" by Anton Chekhov | |
| 13 | "Ward No. 6" | Shyam Benegal | "Ward No. 6" by Anton Chekhov | |
| 14 | "Sahara" | Narendra Nath | "Simon's Papa" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 15 | "Sunheri Yaadein" | Krishan Sethi | "The Cripple" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 16 | "Sauda" | Shyam Benegal | "The Little Cask" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| Cast : Waheeda Rehman | ||||
| 17 | "Bhulava" | Kundan Shah | "Hearts and Crosses" by O. Henry | |
| 18 | "Ek Khula Hua Darwaza" | Shyam Benegal | "The Open Window" by H. H. Munro | |
| 19 | "Saboon Ki Tikiya" | Shyam Benegal | "Dusk" by H. H. Munro | |
| 20 | "Chai Ka Ek Cup" | Shyam Benegal | "A Cup of Tea" by Katherine Mansfield | |
| Cast : Sharmila Tagore | ||||
| 21 | "Nayi Fasal" | A. Salam | "The Story of a Farm Girl" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 22 | "Do Raaste" | N/A | "The Trimmed Lamp" by O. Henry | |
| Cast : Radha Seth, Pallavi Joshi, Ajit Vachani, Lalit Tiwari, Mangal Dhillon, Sanjana Kapoor | ||||
| 23 | "Girgit" | Shyam Benegal | "The Chameleon" by Anton Chekhov | |
| 24 | "Gehra Zakhm" | Kundan Shah | "The Invisible Wound" by Károly Kisfaludy | |
| 25 | "Pachtava" | Krishan Sethi | "The Adopted Son" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 26 | "Tarannum" | Krishan Sethi | "Lulu's Triumph" by Matilde Serao | |
| 27 | "Zameen" | Krishan Sethi | "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy | |
| 28 | "Dushman" | Kundan Shah | "Squaring the Circle" by O. Henry | |
| 29 | "Woh Ek Ladki" | Anil Ganguly | "The Girl Who Changed Her Mind" by Baldere | |
| 30 | "Chahat" | Shyam Benegal | "A Service Of Love" by O. Henry | |
| 31 | "Nayi Sherwani" | Shyam Benegal | "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol | |
| 32 | "Anjam" | Ramesh Gupta | "The Inn" by Ivan Turgenev | |
| 33 | "Do Tasveerein" | A. Salam | "The Debt" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 34 | "Maria" | Kundan Shah | The Fury by Paul Heyse | |
| 35 | "Parvarish" | Krishan Sethi | "The Godson" by Leo Tolstoy | |
| 36 | "Zamana" | A. Salam | "The Marquis de Fumerol" by Guy de Maupassant | |
| 37 | "Sabse Bada Darr" | N/A | "Fear" by Guy de Maupassant | |
Cast and crew
The series featured some of the best actors of Indian TV & cinema at that time like:
- Sharmila Tagore
- Shammi Kapoor
- Om Puri
- Saeed Jaffrey
- Tiku Talsania
- Ashok Kumar
- Utpal Dutt
- Waheeda Rehman
- Moushumi Chatterjee
- Marc Zuber
- Kulbhushan Kharbanda
- Anjan Srivastav
- Kiran Kumar
- Kitu Gidwani
- Archana Puran Singh
- Mangal Dhillon
- Shashi Puri
- Vijayendra Ghatge
- Vikram Gokhale
- raza Murad
- Parikshit Sahni
- Beena
- Neena Gupta
- Suresh Oberoi
- Pallavi Joshi
- Supriya Pathak
- Bindu
- Rohini Hattangadi
- Vishnu Sharma
- Radha Seth
- Satish Kaushik
- Bharat Bhushan
- Satyen Kappu
- Benjamin Gilani
- Lucky Ali
- Ajit Vachani
- Harish Patel
- K. K. Raina
- Iftekhar
- A. K. Hangal
- Anjana Mumtaz
- Irrfan Khan
- Ravi Jhankal
- Pankaj Berry
- Rajendra Gupta
- Lalit Tiwari
- Sulbha Deshpande
- Dina Pathak
- Sulabha Arya
- Rama Vij
- Naresh Suri
- Urmila Matondkar
- Shreeram Lagoo
- Meera Madhuri
- Suresh Oberoi
- Directors
- Shyam Benegal
- Kundan Shah
- Ramesh Gupta
- Ved Rahi
- Satyen Bose
- Krishan Sethi
- Anil Ganguly
- A. Salam
References
- "Cinevistaas - Library of Programmes". Cinevistaas.
- "There is lot of confusion". Indian Express. 11 August 2003.
- Awaasthi, Kavita (16 May 2016) A touch of class: Shyam Benegal remembers the stories of Katha Sagar in Hindustan Times. Retrieved 26 July 2020
External links
- Katha Sagar at IMDb