Zabaan Sambhalke

Zabaan Sambhalke
Genre	Sitcom
Directed by	Rajiv Mehra
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 24 minutes
Release
Original network	DD Metro/Home TV
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Original release	1993 – 1994 (season 1) 1997–1998 (season 2)
Chronology
Followed by	Office Office

Zabaan Sambhalke (Hindi: जबान संभाल के) is a Hindi sitcom directed by Rajiv Mehra. It is the Indian version of the British sitcom Mind Your Language (1977). The show followed Dekh Bhai Dekh, another popular sitcom on DD Metro, in prime time in 1993. The show ran successfully for two seasons, first in 1993–1994 with 54 episodes on DD Metro Channel, and later in 1997–1998 with another 52 episodes on Home TV. The show featured actors Pankaj Kapoor, Viju Khote, Shubha Khote and Tom Alter.

The show also reruns on SAB TV and later on Bindass channel.

Overview

Mohan Bharti(Pankaj Kapoor) is an engineer who is forced to teach Hindi in a language school. His students are people from all corners of the country as well as the world. Along with them is the obnoxious principal Miss Lata Dixit (played by Shubha Khote) of the (National Institute of Language, aka NIL). It had the "I-hate-my-job", "lost-in-translation" and culture shock situations.

Major characters

The staff

• Mohan Bharti, played by Pankaj Kapoor, is an engineer who is forced to teach Hindi in the National Institute of Language, NIL. He hates his job but has no choice. Unlike Barry Evans as Jeremy Brown, he is not charming nor handsome and is shorter than all the girls in his class. The girls of the class and the receptionist flirt with him. He constantly complains to Miss Dixit about increasing his salary. He often loses his temper, yells at students and walks out of class.
• Lata Dixit, played by Shubha Khote, is referred in the show as Miss Dixit. She is the obnoxious principal who is poked fun at for her weight and miser attitude, a 'tried-to-copy' of Zara Nutley as Ms. Courtney in Mind Your Language. She is a shrewd business woman, who has never married and often dreams of being a Bollywood actress. Later in the show she has a romantic interest in a Russian Student, Nikolai.
• Archana, played by Meenakshi Shukla, is Miss Dixit's secretary. She has a small role but is shown in almost all episodes. She seems to have a crush on Mohan Bharti, and she often teases him.
• Chaturvedi, played by Chandu Parkhi, is the peon. His job is to serve tea, and he is often seen sharing jokes with Archana.

The Students

• Vijaya Southeast aka Miss Vijayadurai from Madurai, played by Bhavana Balsavar, is a Tamil actress aspiring for roles in Hindi films.
• Charles Spencers, played by Tom Alter, is a British writer living in India. He is later shown married to an Indian woman, played by Asawari Joshi.
• Makkhan Singh, played by Rajinder Mehra, is a Sikh government employee who recently got transferred to Mumbai from Punjab.
• Jennifer Jones, played by Tanaaz Irani, is an airhostess for American Airlines. She is a bimbo, wearing short skirts and high heels.
• Mungwango Asoyo, played by Simon Asoyo, is an African from Congo. He is probably the best student when it comes to Hindi. He once bought kebabs for Miss Dixit on her birthday which were made of snakes; he said they were "Snake Kebab" which because of his pronunciation were taken as "Seenkh Kebab".
• Vittal Bapurao Pote, played by Viju Khote, is a Maharashtrian who works in a local "Nautanki". He often comes to class in play costumes.
• Anatoli Molatov, played by Hosi Vasunia, is a Russian diplomat. He is the romantic interest of Miss Dixit. He carried a bottle of vodka which was often mistaken as water by his classmates.
• Sheikh Ruslan-Al-Sulaah, played by Keith Stevenson, is an Arabian sheikh. He is an oil magnate and quite rich, and wears the white robe and typical sheikh headgear. He has many cars and he is so rich that even the jerrycan for keeping spare fuel in the car is made of gold. His Hindi is worst in the class, while his last name "Sulaah" was often heard as "Salaa" which is a derogatory remark in Hindi.
• Keki Dastoor Contractor, played by Dinyaar Tirandaz, is a Parsi. He has a laid-back attitude and really bad poetry.
• Vivek Vaswani, played by himself, is a sindhi. He is an NRI and rich, but he is a penny pincher and often paranoid about people tricking him and stealing his money.

Added in season 2

• Dimple Shah is a highly talkative Gujarati girl.
• Mr. Mukherjee, played by Anant Mahadevan, is a Bengali gentleman who is also a Magician, often getting into arguments with Ruslan.
• Rock Patel, played by Javed Jaffrey, is only seen in two episodes He is an NRI and rapper, his catchphrase is YO!, which annoyed Mohan Bharti.

External links

• Zabaan Sambhalke at IMDb