Sunday 30 October 2011

Sridevi in and as Chandni (1989): "Chandni is a figure of idealised beauty."


"...Chandni is an ideal woman, seen through the eyes of her two lovers. Rohit photographs her from the moment they meet, and decorates his room with these pictures, which he whitewashes when he claims the relationship is over. He remembers her through her bangles, also a reference to the song she sings when they first meet: ‘Mere haathon mein nau nau chriyaan hain/I have many bangles on my wrists’. 

Lalit has a screen at work on which he watches her (similar to one Yash has in his office for monitoring his reception area). Many scenes show still images, or fragmented sequences of her as she is imagined by the men; similarly, Lalit’s former partner is also shown only through his imagination. 

Chandni is unable to return the man’s look, but remains its object to an almost obsessive degree. Yash tend to keep the same names for his heroines, with Chandni being the names given to his heroines in Silsila and Faasle. In this film, she is shown as a figure of idealised beauty, dressed in white outfits, occasionally in yellow, in a style which created a whole new fashion craze across India - ‘Chandni-look’..." 

Excerpt from "Yash Chopra, Fifty years in Indian cinema" by Rachel Dwyer.

Yash Chopra in an interview, "While making Chandni, I told Sridevi that most of her costumes would be in white. I reassured her that I wouldn’t make her look like a widow, but her features would be enhanced in white..."


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