Dabur Laal Dant Manjan

To a kid in India in the 1980's, the television was not an idiot box. It was a magic box. Add to the magic box some color and you had a color television - even more magic!

The kid. That was me.

Not that I didn't love the outdoors. I did. A lot. Heck, I was one of the naughtiest kids around, if I can say so myself. But the television was something else.

Then was not the days of DTH or even cable television. Then was not the age of 500+ channels waiting to be viewed. Then was the time of the one and only Doordarshan. And how we revered it.

We would gape, unashamed, at a musical which would magically transform a moon into the channel's logo. We would lap up all the silly cartoons that they would show on Sundays, especially for kids. We would fight to sit closest to the television when it was time for "Street Hawk" or "Knight Rider". And not one of the advertisements in between would be spared.

One particular ad that I remember till date is the Dabur Laal Dant Manjan ad. The ad was for, believe you me, tooth powder which probably doesn't even exist today (or maybe it does, I haven't seen it anywhere though!). It went something like this:

The scene: A very standard classroom. The teacher, Masterji, is busy pretending to draw a diagram of the human teeth on the blackboard.

Masterji: Yeh rahi hamari daaton ki banawat. (English: "So this is the structure of our teeth")

[Masterji turns around to face the class. Camera pans and zooms in on a boy who is smiling away to glory. He has teeth so white that it makes the Masterji remark]

Masterji, to the student: Arrey Raju, tumhare daat toh moti jaise chamak rahe hai! (English: "Oh Raju, your teeth are shining like pearls!")

A very cocky Raju : Kyon na ho Masterji, main Dabur ka Laal Dant Manjan jo istamal karta hoon! (English: "Why not Masterji! After all, I use Dabur's Laal Dant Manjan tooth powder!)

[Masterji showers accolades on Raju for using Dabur's Laal Dant Manjan - this is the part where my memory fails me to remember the exact dialogues in the ad. However, after listening to Masterji's praise for Raju, a sidekick student stands up and says..]

Sidekick student: Lekin Masterji, aapke daant? (English: "But Masterji, what about your teeth?")

[Peals of laughter in the classroom as an embarrassed Masterji realizes that he does not have pearly whites like Raju because he doesn't use Dabur's Laal Dant Manjan himself!]

Music:
Daaton ki suraksha karey,
Moti sa chamkaye,
Dabur Laal Dant Manjan se,
Mookhra khil-khil jaaye!

Man, that was something! It was silly, I know, especially if you compare it to today's super cool ads. But then, it was what the audience wanted those days - no English, no Hinglish. Pure Hindi, direct communication of the product. Simple. Period.

Aah - sometimes those Doordarshan days need to be relived. And guess what, I ain't the only one in the blog-o-sphere who has written about such old adverts. Google's your friend - just try it and you will be amazed by the number of results you get!

Anyways, so long. I got a long day tomorrow so I got to crash now. But here's another old ad for the road. And aptly dedicated to all workaholics like me! ;-)

Yeh bechara kaam ke bojh ka maaraa.... Inhe chahiye, Hamdard ka tonic, Cinkara~!

PS: This also marks the 100th Post in this blog! Took about 3 years and 3 months to get there!