Sunday, 27 April 2025

Will Karthik Aryan's Film Compete with Vyjanthimala, Reena Roy and Sridevi's Legacy?



MovieYearLeading Lady
Nagin1954Vyjayanthimala
Milap
Nagin
1972
1976
Reena Roy
Reena Roy
Nagina1986Sridevi
Naache Nagin Gali Gali
Nigahen: Nagina Part II
1989
1989
Meenakshi Seshadri
Sridevi
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; 

An abridged history of popular (and not so popular!) snake films in Bollywood, the trend was set by the OG leading lady of Hindi cinema, Vyjayanthimala in Nagin. The original female superstar*, famed actress and dancer of note set the blueprint for snake-themed movies. There was an aspect of suspense and thrill, with a dose of great pungi/bansi/been-based music and dance, Nagin was the biggest Hindi hit of 1954 beating out popular movies like Dilip Kumar's Amar and Dev Anand's Taxi Driver released the same year. If anyone, it was Vyjayanthimala's hit as it was her song and dance routines that charmed cine-goers, more than the box-office power of her male co-star Pradeep Kumar.  


Decades later, Reena Roy tried her hand at the genre with a career-defining, wildly successful turn in the homonymous Nagin and the forgettable flop Milap. I'm sure not many of you even remember the Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy snake film Milap that came and went in 1972, but the all-star cast led Rajkumar Kohli film Nagin had a stellar role-call that included Sunil Dutt, Feroz Khan, Jeetendra, Sanjay Khan, Rekha, Mumtaz and Kabir Bedi. And yet, it was relative newcomer Reena Roy who stole the show. Despite being the biggest hit of 1976, snake films were on pause yet again for a few more years.  

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--and how! The film wasn't expensive to make--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, even though he had been in the Bollywood belt longer. 

The 25+ week run of the thriller meant an onslaught of formulaic snake-films followed, including four dreadful released in 1990 alone; Naag Nagin, Doodh ka Karz, Tum Mere Ho and the comically over-the-top Sheshnaag led by (an otherwise capable-) Rekha and her excessive costume and makeup. With the same musicians and choreographer, Re' couldn't recreate the success of Sridevi at the turn of the decade when Indian cinema was unsheathing itself of predictable films and the 90s were bringing to the big-screen, more believable narratives. The saap-sapere, jantar-mantar did not work and the shoddy special-effects did not provide magic to the jaded audience. 

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. 

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. 

Sridevi in gold


Sridevi in gold. From the mid 90s. 

 

Sridevi fan collage

 

Sridevi on the sets of Zameen: The Village Belle look

 

Sridevi on the sets of Zameen: The village belle look that she had in several movies. 

We have quite a few pics of Sridevi from the Ramesh Sippy film in the archive here.

Saturday, 26 April 2025

Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja: Sunday magazine cover: The Ten Crore Gamble

The Roop ki Rani... pre release publicity was next level. The two stars covered every media outlet in the early 90s be it the usual film magz like G magazine, Filmfare, Stardust etc and Hindi tabloids of Mayapuri magazine and even serious political magazines like Sunday! Obv we have the entire series of shots and features in the archive here.