Hearts of Stone
“Only love can break the hearts of stone…”
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Or so was the theme song of a certain German TV serial, broadcast by Doordarshan (DD) in 1989 (and probably again in 1992 on DD Metro), India’s state broadcaster and the only one then. The serial was about computer crime (yes it was 1989) and it used to come on Sunday’s at 4:30pm. The opening sequence showed a dog running towards the screen. I used to wait for and avidly watch this serial. I guess that must have been primarily for the theme song, as I was quite young then, and I doubt if I would’ve been able to make sense of the serial itself. Nevertheless, it was the song, the tune and few sketchy details of the serial that I remembered, and kept looking for. I couldn’t locate it anywhere and most people who had posted comprehensive lists of Doordarshan serials on the Internet didn’t remember it at all. Then, in 2005, I was telling Ramjee about this serial and how I couldn’t find it on the Internet. I was pleasantly surprised when he mentioned that he saw it too and he too has been searching for it. 😉
Ramjee and I did yet another round of search on the Internet, still nothing turned-up. I also left a post about it, on a DD related board, but nobody there seemed to remember anything about it. Then couple of years passed.
Couple of weeks back, I was talking to my friend Yogi about it. As with Ramjee, this topic came up as we were discussing how almost everything is available on Internet these days and yet how I couldn’t find the “hearts of stone”. Two days after this conversation, I got an email from a certain asif_n asking about this particular serial (synchronicity?). He, apparently, was searching for it too and saw my post on the board and sent me an email. He remembered it better than me and filled-in a few more details but nothing of significance.
Some googling later, I realized that couple of more people are/were looking for it. A certain “Neeraj A” posted about it on Yahoo! Answers and there’s another bloke. A random search on Google for “hearts of stone” TV german mp3 listed Domain – hearts of stone on the 3rd or 4th page. I listened to the sample and it was a Eureka moment.
After this locating the IMDB entry Bastard, Der and the song preview mp3 was pretty easy. The full song is available on Tradebit for $0.99 or the full CD can be bought from CDBaby.com.
If a DVD/VHS of the serial can be located it would be pretty nice. If you have some information please contact me
[Originally posted: 2008-02-28]
Update
A few more people have emailed me about it, since (probably after landing on this page). In July 2008, Nilesh R asked for details of the band, music company etc. In November 2008, Abrahim Sabir mentioned that the serial was broadcast on DD originally and again, much later, on Metro channel, and that it was called “a program for crime.” He also sent a link to the music video of Hearts of Stone on Youtube. The video has some footage from the serial too. In December 2008, Mangesh Khot mailed and sent the quicktime version of the music video. Abrahim, Mangesh – thanks!
[Originally posted: 2009-01-13]
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