Zabaan Sambhalke

Cast and characters

Mohan Bharti, played by Pankaj Kapur, is an engineer forced to teach Hindi at the National Institute of Language (NIL). He hates his job but has no choice. Like Barry Evans as Jeremy Brown, he is charming and handsome and is shorter than all the girls in his class. The girls in the class and the receptionist flirt with him. He constantly complains to Miss Dixit about increasing his salary, often loses his temper, yells at students, and walks out of class. Snehlata Dixit, played by Shubha Khote and referred to as Miss Dixit, is the obnoxious principal. She is poked fun at for her weight and miser attitude, is a shrewd businesswoman 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, Anatoli Molatov. Archana, played by Meenakshi Shukla, is Miss Dixit's secretary. She has a small role but appears in almost all episodes, seems to have a crush on Mohan Bharti, and often teases him. Prem Prakash Chaturvedi (PP Chaturvedi), played by Chandu Parkhi, is the peon whose job is to serve tea; he is often seen sharing jokes with Archana. Vijaya Southeast (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 recently transferred to Mumbai from Punjab. Jennifer Jones, played by Tanaaz Irani, is a flight attendant for American Airlines and plays the stereotype—wearing short skirts and high heels. Mungwango Asoyo, played by Simon Asoyo, is from Congo and 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 drama and often comes to class in play costumes. Anatoli Molatov, played by Hosi Vasunia, is a Russian diplomat and 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, an oil magnate quite rich, wears a white robe and typical sheikh headgear, has many cars, and his jerrycan for spare fuel is made of gold. His Hindi is the worst in the class, and his last name 'Sulaah' was often heard as 'Salaa', a derogatory remark in Hindi. Keki Dastoor Contractor, played by Dinyaar Tirandaz, is a Parsi with a laid-back attitude and really bad poetry. Vivek Vaswani, played by Vivek Vaswani, is a Sindhi, an NRI who is rich but a penny pincher, often paranoid about people tricking him and stealing his money. Dimple Shah played the character of Rupali, a highly talkative Gujarati girl. Mr Mukherjee, played by Anant Mahadevan, is a Bengali magician often getting into arguments with Ruslan. Guest characters include Rock Patel (played by Javed Jaffrey, seen in two episodes, an NRI rapper whose catchphrase 'YO!' annoys Mohan Bharti), Seema Stallone (played by Moon Moon Sen, seen in one episode, an NRI from Texas who has a crush on Mohan Bharti and calls him 'Honey Bun'), Praful Popat Dalal (played by Deven Varma, seen in one episode as a street vendor selling assorted goods from a suitcase on wheels), Johnny Uttolandand (played by Johnny Lever, seen in one episode as a local gangster who wants to learn Hindi because he is standing for elections), Paplu (played by Rakesh Bedi, seen in 2 episodes, gifts a car to Mohan Bharti), and Rajjo (played by Ahmad Harhash, has been in a car accident).