Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (literal meaning: 'Such is Life') is a sitcom that aired on DD National in 1984. It was written by comedy writer Sharad Joshi and directed by Kundan Shah, S. S. Oberoi and Raman Kumar.[1][2]
The episodes revolved around funny happenings in the lives of Ranjit Verma and Renu Verma, who play a married couple along with Renu's unmarried and unemployed younger brother Raja and then Chachi's daughter who plays the character of Rashmi. Other characters were Ranjit's boss, his Bengali neighbours etc.
The first 24 episodes of the show has focus on Ranjit, Renu and Raja and their neighbours Mr. Bhattacharya and Mandira, with various characters played by Satish Shah.
Shafi Inamdar (who played Ranjit) left after Episode 24 due to his film commitments. Episode 25 to 44 had focus on Raja, his aunt and her servant.
Ranjit and Renu return from Episode 45 onwards and act till Episode 55 of Raja s marriage with Rekha. The characters played by Satish Shah were constant factor from Episode 1 to 55. The second season retained the fame of the first season. Raja's love life and affair with Rekha (Nivedita) was the new center of activity. The third innings had a reasonably shorter run from episode 55 to 67. It focused on the household life of Mr Gupta, Raja and Rekha after marriage.[citation needed]
The alumni of this show went on to have chequered careers in Indian and other cinema over the years.[3] In few episodes from 40, Anjan Srivastav, Avtaar Gill, Pawan Malhotra, Ashok Pandit played different characters.[4]
In a retrosepctive review, Chandrima Pal of Scroll.in wrote, "Long before comedy shows on Indian television became an excuse to pimp slap-stick and bawdy humour, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi gave millions of Doordarshan viewers a taste of a truly indigenous sitcom that was decidedly middle class, replete with generic tomfoolery and yet retained an irreverent and gentle heart."[5]