The most comprehensive fan blog dedicated to India's most beautiful and greatest actress of all-time (in our humble opine!), Sridevi. Sridevi aka Sreedevi, ruled Indian cinema (with awesome performances in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films) in a career spanning 50 incredible years featuring 266 films. Born in Sivakasi on August 13 1963, her untimely and tragic death on February 24, 2018 left a nation in mourning. In our hearts, she'll forever be, the eternal Queen of Bollywood.
39 years of an iconic film! Released on 28 November 1986, Nagina was a runaway success that baffled trade pundits. It firmly established Sridevi on top, cemented Amrish Puri as a character actor of note, gave agency to Saroj Khan as a choreographer, revived Rishi Kapoor's comme ci comme sa career, pushed Harmesh Malhotra as a producer/director of note and pioneered a genre that continues to sway box-office; the desi thriller and Naagin motif. An iconic finale song and dance routine, the outfit, look, the highlight of the film proved to be irresistible as many tried to replicate, few succeeded.
(L) Rare pic of Sridevi on the sets of Nagina in the mid 1980s. More in the archive here.
(R) Sridevi's iconic pose, dance, outfit, finale number in the same film.
| Movie | Year | Leading Lady |
|---|---|---|
| Nagin | 1954 | Vyjayanthimala |
| Milap Nagin | 1972 1976 | Reena Roy Reena Roy |
| Nagina | 1986 | Sridevi |
| Naache Nagin Gali Gali Nigahen: Nagina Part II Tu Nagin Main Sapera | 1989 1989 1989 | Meenakshi Seshadri Sridevi Sonika Gill |
| Naag Nagin Doodh ka Karz Tum Mere Ho Sheshnaag | 1990 1990 1990 1990 | Mandakini Neelam Kothari Juhi Chawla Rekha |
| Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani Hisss | 2002 2010 | Manisha Koirala Mallika Sherawat |
Four days ago, the first-look and digital poster of Kartik Aaryan's upcoming film, Naagzilla, was released, and created a buzz online for the unexpected choice of film by the actor. What a twist! As a snake-turned-man-turned-snake entity, ie a shape-shifting being on the big-screen, the actor has to balance the fine act of believability, strength and vulnerability in an essential genre of Bollywood filmography, to make the expensive endeavor (special effects are not cheap!) work. One wrong turn and the film coils to a disaster. In fact, Kartik Aaryan's upcoming film joins a long roster of snake based thrillers that have found intermittent success. A retrospective;
In a film rejected by Jaya Pradha (she was afraid of snakes!), Sridevi (and Saroj Khan's choreography) brought the genre back to the forefront a decade later in 1986--smashing box-office records! The film wasn't expensive to produce--apart from Sridevi's famed unshakable remuneration--and made the most return-on-investment (Karma technically was a bigger hit of '86, but that movie was also ten-times as expensive to make) that firmly entrenched Sridevi in the top slot of pan-Indian cinema. The mid-80s, you couldn't escape the dance routine, the costume, Sridevi's sensuality and her power-house high-gloss performance. Even co-star Rishi Kapoor stated that she was a much bigger star than he himself was, even though he had been in the Bollywood belt longer.
Sridevi herself worked on her only sequel, Nigahein-Nagina Part II, but the film was a modest and moderate hit--nothing compared to the original. Its middling success meant producer/director Harmesh Malhotra had to shelve part III of the film, Nagme, as there were too many films that trampled the genre to death. Internet rumours are that Naagzilla is also planned as a trilogy, but all depends on the success of Kartik Aryan's first attempt in this difficult to toil field.
In a rather tragic and bank-breaking effort to relaunch his (talentless) son Armaan Kohli, producer/director Rajkumar Kohli made the most-memed Hindi film of all-time, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani, where Manisha Koirala had to pretend to be a snake-lady trying to entice the contact-lense wearing Arman. With a painfully repetitive title song, the worst special effects, script, editing, photography... you name it, 'twas bad... the movie somehow broke-even at the boxoffice courtesy of a heavy roster of cameos that included--take a deep breath--Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Aftab Shivdasani, Sonu Nigam, Aditya Pancholi, Sharad Kapoor, Manisha Koirala, Rambha, Pinky Campbell and Kiran Rathod! On the plus side, it helped ignite Pretentious Movie Reviews - for which we are grateful!
When you look closely at all these films, there's a rather bizarre trend of all the leads wearing lenses (we geddit, its the snake eye attempt; quick q; how many snakes have blue eyes?!). slightly hideous sparkling costumes, and rather predictable dance moves of slithering and palm-bending, back breaking steps to lure the audience.
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| Bit soon to put Shradha in the list as the film is... TBC! |
In an attempt to resurrect her flaying career that neither worked here [Bollywood], nor there [Hollywood], self-proclaimed legend Mallika Sherawat tried to translate the rural snake mythology in the English film Hisss; a film universally panned by every, single, critic. A mega budget compared to the other titles mentioned previously here and with a lot more nudity and body-reveal for the front-benchers, Mallika's powers of persuasion failed miserably and since 2010, there has been no word of a similar themed film.
What cinema couldn't do, Ektaa Kapoor's Naagin on TV has done since 2015; revamped the role of a leading lady with omnipotent agency and metamorphosis. It propelled Mouni Roy's career and provided steam to reawaken the genre in cinema as Dharma Productions sets forth with an expected trilogy-in-the-works.
Fact is, Karthik Aaryan's ambitious upcoming film has to fall somewhere between the high watermark of Nagin/Nagina and the nadir of Jaani Dushman/Hiss.
Do note however, in the serpentine listicle, there's a developing pattern that one can pinpoint easily when you follow the footprint of... flops! Look at the list above and compare with trade figures, the definitive listicle reveals that most movies didn't do well at the boxoffice with just three notable exceptions among the dirty dozen. And yet, here's another attempt to take a bite out of the box-office; will it be manah or poison?! We wait and watch.
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| 1989's forgetable release Tu Nagin Main Sapera |
Rare photograph: Sridevi on the sets of Nagina with Amrish Puri!
You can tell its not on scene as of course the two famously glowered at each other throughout Nagina as naagin vs sapera!
How many films did Amrish Puri and Sridevi work together in? We listed all eight in the archive here.
38 years of Nagina - lesser versions of the film have appeared on television and movies done by, quite frankly, lesser actors. There was an aura and magic to Sridevi that others have not replicated. They've tried to copy it... but nothing compares to the OG.
The costumes, the music, those lenses! Everything became iconic...
A fantastic thriller that holds up - purely based on the acting prowess and conviction of the A-list star/actors.
Sridevi absolutely stuns in this modern day Indian fable...
