Neem Ka Ped

Neem Ka Ped
Genre	Drama
Directed by	Gurbir Singh Grewal
Starring	Pankaj Kapoor, Arun Bali
Country of origin	India
Original language(s)	Hindi
Production
Producer(s)	Nawman Malik
Running time	approx. 25 minutes
Release
Original network	DD National
Picture format	480i (SDTV),
Original release	1991
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Neem Ka Ped (English: The Neem Tree, Hindi: नीम का पेड़) is an Indian television drama-series that was The series was edited and directed by Gurbir Singh Grewal and Produced by Nawman Malik.The series was written by famous writer Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza. Famous actor Pankaj Kapur played bonded labourer "Budhai Ram" who lives in a village with a Muslim Zamindar (landlord).The title song for this serial is written by notable Urdu poet Nida Fazli & sung by famous singer Late Jagjit Singh called Muh ki baat sunah har koi......

Neem Ka Ped first aired in 1991 on the Indian state television channel DD National, which is owned and operated by Doordarshan network.first broadcast on Doordarshan (Indian public television) in 1991.

Making

The serial is based on a short story by Vilayet Jafri, who was the station director in Doordarshan Lucknow. He handed over the story to Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza who developed it into a full fledged TV series. Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza died in 1992. Till that time he had penned 26 episodes of the series. Later the series when approved for Doordarshan's National Network, the serial was completed in 58 episodes by Vilayet Jafri. Although the name of Vilayet Jafri appeared in additional writing only.

Plot

"Neem Ka Ped" tells the story of a "asami" i.e. tenant/serf and labourer and his landlord master, story starting in pre-independent India and ending in post independent India, showing the vagaries of both the feudal and democratic systems in India with its darker side. The main protagonist is a landless labourer who is very faithful and obedient to his master and dreams only of making his only son an educated person. Fortunes dwindles in landlords home and he is sentenced to jail for murder of an upcoming leader of congress because of manipulations of his cousin who is also a landlord but nurses a grudge against the landlord. After independence son of labourer becomes a member of parliament and son of landlord his trusted aid and advisor but as the saying is "power corrupts" the son of labourer who had now became an M.P. gets corrupt and selfish and in that is destroyed.

Highly popular T.V. serial in which Pankaj Kapoor marvellously depicted the landless labourer.

Cast

• Pankaj Kapoor
• Arun Bali
• S. M. Zaheer
• Vijay Mishra
• Preeti Khare
• Vijay Vastava
• V. N. Mishra
• Surendra Sharma