When any endeavors to review and analyze it’s phenomenal popularity are made; one has to do it on various parameters and taking into account several preconceived opinions. The sacred reverence which is accorded to Ramayana and related scripts in the country, the absolutely Divine personification of Ram and Sita in the Hindu psyche, the staunch and total involvement of many of our populace with anything even remotely connected to religion were definitely decisive factors in the serial’s popularity. But this is not the least to deprive the credit from where it is due; the man, who dreamt, conceived and executed it all – Ramanand Sagar.

The importance and reach of Television as a medium was never in doubt after the colors invasion in 1982. Soap operas like ”Hum Log” and ”Buniyaad” had well established the effectiveness of TV as a versatile medium, if explored and exploited tactfully. The banner of Sagars was a sunset brand in Bollywood with a string of box office flops. What Ramanand Sagar may have initially desired was to use the tube to being the popular and sacred epic in a well packaged and presented form to both, resurrect his popularity and may be enhance his bank balances in the process. Both his wishes were duly fulfilled but in gigantic proportion to the dream. The response was supernatural as were the characters of the epic.

If the serial ‘Ramayana’ is reviewed only on its merit as a TV serial, without any preconceived opinions regarding the epic, bouquets and brick bats can be both used aplenty. Some every fine performance by Arvind Trivedi, , Nalin Dave, Sanjay jog, Arun Govil (partially) and many others shall remain etched in memory for long. The playback scores by Ravindra Jain, particularly the lyrics and the music (though too cacophonous and imposing at times) and a very well written and researched script by Ramanand Sagar were largely instrumental in glueing millions to their TVs.

But some very poorly done battle scenes, the unimaginative special effects of Ravi Nagaich and the unnecessary dragging and repetition of shots (as if it was unable to pass time justifiably) left a lot to be desired.

It must be put to the credit of the producers that they did their homework well. After all, how could they risk hurting the religious feelings and sentiments of the masses. After going through many versions of the epic, and keeping in mind the present socio-economic conditions prevalent, they made what we saw. In spite of all these efforts, controversies could not be totally averted. Of The three appearances that Ramananad Sagar himself made as an epilogue, two were only to explain his point of presentation and interpretation of certain episodes.

The news on the tube flashed a sullen and grief-stricken picture of Mrs. Smita Patil ‘Babbar’ – noted film actress. Grief stricken indeed – Smita was in a virtual comatose following severe internal hemorrhage and bleeding, she was clinging to life through the most slender of threads. And the morning papers announced the chilling news ‘Smita is no more’.

The events occurred abruptly giving no time to react or reconcile. There she was, dressed in black salwar-kameez, participating zestfully in the film industry walk as protest march, despite being in a late stage of pregnancy. Harmful and may be inadvisable it was. But that was the way Smita liked it – courageously standing up for a cause and doing her bit.

Her marriage with actor Raj Babbar last year was big news. Despite murmurs from all corners, she went ahead with it. In Smita’s own words. “A lot of things are not easy to understand. Besides, I’m not worried about the society’s hostile remarks.”

And it was not too long back that Smita was again in news; she delivered a baby boy in the previous month. But she never recovered after that. Things changed from bad to worse and in Jaslok Hospital, Smita breathed her last.

Smita was only 31 when she died – that’s the age when people start feeling the ground under their feet but Smita had already carved a niche in the film world, especially art cinema.

Though God had not bestowed Smita with a chocolate face, it had been more than compensated with her sharp features, her penetrating eyes with an immense depth and sensuousness that could convey a lot more than said.

Smita Patil the youngest of the three daughters of former Maharashtra Minister Shivaji Rao Patil and Vidya Patil, was born on the 17th of October 1955 in Pune. After her schooling in the Renuka Memorial Girls High School, she entered the hallowed Ferguson College of Pune for her graduation in Philosophy and Psychology. It was then, that she made her debut in celluloid. Her friend, Arun Khopkar cast her in a documentary ‘Teesra Madhyam’.

Soon she was appointed as a newsreader in the Bombay Doordarshan and this was where the renowned Shyam Benegal spotted her. Her very presence on the screen made me stir-‘I could feel the possibilities of immense histrionic talent in that newsreader’.