Soon to appear as a Queen in Tamil film Puli, we found this film in the archives where young, oh-so-gorgeous Sridevi acted as royalty in the film Adutha Varisu (1983).The Tamil film directed by SP. Muthuraman, had Rajinikanth and Sridevi paired together. Southern siren Silk Smitha also had a role in this remake of the Hindi film Raja Jani (which itself is a re-telling of Anastasia).
In this fictional account of what happens to a royal family, a King and Queen (of a fictional land) meet a tragic end when they are attacked while visiting a temple. Only their child, a young princess, survives by managing to escape the attack and falling into a river - the villains presume her dead as the body is never found. The last remaining royal, the Queen mother remains ever-hopeful to find the princess and 25 years after the tragic incident, a striking young woman (Sridevi, looking every bit the part!) arrives at the doorstep. But is this really the princess? Or an actress brought on by the Machiavellian uncle, coveting the royal treasures?
Perhaps an Indian-ised version of Anastasia (never officially stated as such!), this lovely film had wonderful songs by the Tamil maestro Ilaiyaraaja. Released on July 7, 1983, the chemistry between the two superstar leads Rajnikanth and Sridevi is one to watch, along with the stellar performance of the young leading lady.
Viewing this and several other films where Sridevi essayed the part of royalty, we are reminded of actor Kiran Kumar's famous quote on the screen-diva; "Sridevi looks like an angel, walks like a queen and behaves like a princess."
Hear, hear.
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