Spotlight on Sridevi : Chandni

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 CHANDNI [1989]

Starring: Sridevi, Rishi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Waheeda Rehman

Screenplay by Sagar Sarhadi, Kamna Chandra, Arun Kaul, Umesh Kalbagh & Direction by Yash Chopra

Language: Hindi


The third installment of the Sridevi series, I have really seen her progression throughout the years. Radiant, warm, and full of life in joy and in sorrow, Chandni's trademark demeanor is the reason why she is so popular today. These characteristics really came to the forefront in Chandni. Determined to watch the movie just for the sake of finishing the series (which I had not finished), I found myself completely distracted from my revision. 

With a failed suicide attempt, oddly placed and strangely worded songs, and of course a disproportionate level of family drama, Chandni was a strangely exhilarating mess. Considering the time period in which it was written and performed, to say that the movie was ahead of its time in certain aspects would be a massive understatement. 

The way which Rishi Kapoor, or Rohit's, character was written was slightly trite, I guess. It was quite a typical story of love and loss: a character falls madly in love, an accident happens (a staple of Indian movies, by the way), the character will fall out of love, and will eventually regret his decisions. Rishi Kapoor's character was supposed to come off as happy-go-lucky, but the way his character was written and performed made him come off as quite stupid and idiotic rather than romantic.

Conversely, Vinod Khanna's character was typical in a separate way. It's textbook: a headstrong man is haunted by the past, and his past love haunts him and controls his decisions. He will eventually fall in love, only to get heartbroken by the girl. Do you feel like you've seen or heard of this character before? Because I definitely have. 

I realise that I should be more lenient with judging screenplays of this time: it was written more than 30 years ago, after all. I may have seen too many Bollywood/Romance movies. 

Even though I said that the music was oddly placed and strangely worded, that is sort of true for all Bollywood movies pre-2005. I will say this much though, the songs were QUITE addictive. There's one thing that I actually realised about this movie which was different to those that came before it. There was a different type of dance in this movie - the dance was reflective of a character, especially Sridevi's, actions. Normally, Bollywood is known for super choreographed 'spontaneous' dance numbers, but that was not the case here. Describing it is difficult, so you'll just have to watch the movie for yourself to understand what I mean.

Do I have to talk about Sridevi's role? Despite the shortcomings, Sridevi pretty much saved the movie. I think I've glorified her so much over the past few reviews that you'll know how I feel about anything Sridevi is in. There was definitely a feminist aspect to Sridevi's character, and it always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside when a woman in a Bollywood movie stands up for herself, and looks after her own interests despite the regressive nature of the Indian society at the time.

Overall, this movie was something Bollywood really, really needed. After almost a decade of 'angry young man' action films, some romance had to come eventually. 

7.5/10

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