Divya Bharti : Sridevi

 

Sridevi's first film with Sanjay Dutt wasn't Gumrah or Khuda Gawah: It was this 1984 flick

Its almost comical how many films are launched in Bollywood that fail to take off beyond announcement and hype. Here's another one to add to the long, long list; Yeh Kaisa Milan! 

A never-made/unreleased Bollywood film from the mid-1980s (announced around 1983–84, with a planned release in January 1984 according to the poster!). 

With Producer: S.R. Productions (Madras), under the banner Godha, the main cast was supposed to have Sridevi, Sunil Dutt's son Sanjay Dutt and Raj Kapoor's youngest song Rajeev Kapoor! With director/screenplay writer S.A. Chandrashekhar, the film had maestros Laxmikant–Pyarelal for music, (common for many Sridevi films of that era). Thankfully... the movie was never made. S.A. Chandrashekhar might have made many successful Tamil films, but his Hindi films have all been pretty much awful; Jeevan Ki Shatranj (1993) - a remake of the Tamil film Rajanadai and Azaad Desh Ke Gulam (1993) - a remake of the Tamil film Sudhanthira Naattin Adimaigal come to mind!). 

The Hindi film was promoted as a big multi-starrer with "Star Pairing of the Year" hype. This was during Sridevi's peak commercial phase in Hindi cinema (post-Himmatwala, Tohfa, Mawaali, etc.), when she was frequently paired with top heroes - so these relative newcomers (and OG nepo babies!) seems like a surprise. The film was ultimately shelved and never completed or released - we don't know exactly what went down, hence it doesn't appear in standard filmographies, IMDb lists, or Wikipedia entries for Sridevi, Sanjay Dutt, or Rajeev Kapoor. There are several false-start or failed to finish movies in Sridevi's archive (in all Indian celebrities' in fact). 

Old posters and announcements like this one occasionally surface on Instagram/Facebook fan pages (especially Sridevi tribute accounts), but there's no finished movie, songs, or features on many. There's a lot written about Garajna, Zameen, Sridevi's Telugu home production... and so on but on this film, we've found very little. 

Sridevi and Sanjay Dutt actually did collaborate later (their only film together was the 1993 Mahesh Bhatt-directed, Yash Johar produced Gumrah, and a brief shoot during Khuda Gawah), but this earlier project fell through.  

If you're a Sridevi fan, these "lost" posters are fun collector items from the era when she was dominating the industry with multiple releases per year. The hodge podge poster with cut outs from other films (I mean look at the image of Sanjay Dutt, and the Sridevi pic from her Tamil film Adutha Varisu, and Rajeev from another movie as well - the trio didn't even do a shoot together!). 

Sridevi's list of shelved films;

1. Garajna
2. Teerandaz
3. Bodyguard
4. Zameen
5. Raasta
6. Maharaja
7. Ram ki Sita, Shyam ki Geeta
8. Bus Conductor 
9. Govinda
10. Khabardaar

Jeetendra and Sridevi

80s icons of Bollywood! Superstars Jeetendra and Sridevi.

As a businessman - part of 'show biz' - the most enduring, long-lasting career was that of Jeetendra. He hasn't been given his due for his contribution to Hindi cinema. The man was an industry onto himself; so many jobs, so many families, so many workers were employed because of his churning out of movies that the critics dismissed, but the masses loved. 

A film unit comprises of nearly 200 people, think of the technicians, camera crew, lighting crew, spot boys, dancers, costume designers, makeup artists, catering, fashion team, along with the cast and crew of the film - that lengthy scroll of credits at the end of a movie, all those pople got a paycheck because of the success of formulaic feel-good movies Jeetendra led. 

And some of those art-house films made on a shoe-string budget with minimal crew, that didn't change cinema as much as they would like to believe - or elevate the lives of the working people in industry. Making 12 critics happy and boring audiences, box-office figures were a stunning indictment of the art-house cinema movement. 

It's easy to be dismissive of pop art and pop culture cinema, but lets list their merits too.  It's equally easy to praise art films for the reflection on humanity, a slice of life in contemporary India...but let's also critique its slow pacing, its poor cinematography, its shoddy lighting! Was watching Bazaar the other day and the first painful minutes are just completely unnecessary shots of Smita Patil getting ready - a decent editor could have cut that to a few seconds. For the longest time was waiting for the story to kick off. And the dialogues were... well, who talks like that? Sure the film covered painful reality and subjects unspoken of, but as an entertainer, falls short. There are several documentaries that have faster pace and make the point in fewer minutes... 

Today's rant ends here. Let's give Jeetendra his due credit. In local parlance, give him his flowers now. The man is 84. His legacy is feeding new stars and new gen till date. The seeds he planted that's become this television behemoth, Balaji, runs the kitchens of many a home. 

Sridevi and her peacock feather

 

Sridevi's golden dance costume for Nigahein

 

A behind the scenes, on set image from 1989. Sridevi's golden dance costume for Nigahein: Nagina Part II

Think this is the only sequel Sridevi has ever appeared in, Nigahein (with the one note co-star Sunny Deol), opened phenomenally... and then plummeted at the box-office.

 Released just days before Chandni, Sridevi was her slimmest and trimmest in the movie and looks and dances phenomenally. She was all of 25 when she shot the film and peak prowess... 

Her finale dance number could have been a pale version of the original Main Teri Dushman song and dance routine, but it had far more difficult steps and she looked dazzling. 

It's a personal favourite of mine for....no reason other than, Sridevi looking her finest. It's also of-the-time fashion rich; Sridevi's outfits are peak 1980s style - all of which has been archived painstakingly here. 

Power of Three: Sridevi on set with Salman Khan< Yash Chopra, Vinod Khanna, Mithun, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and others

Power of Three: Sridevi on set with Salman Khan< Yash Chopra, Vinod Khanna, Mithun, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and others

Sridevi

We follow Boney Kapoor's social media handles only in hope he'll post rare images of Sridevi from his private collection of family pics. On occasion, he'll do a golden drop, ie release a rarely seen picture of "the great Sridevi" and have us all gushing.