Queen of Comedy: Sridevi in Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja:

As a fan who has studied Sridevi for the past two decades, the one title that's constantly assigned to Sridevi that gets on my craw is the dismissive nature of simply calling Sridevi - the queen of comedy. She was. No doubt - but she was so much more. To me, its the calling card of staggering ignorance when critics, writers - and the bloggers - look just at that side of Sridevi, forgetting the years of hard-work she did before that. It's like reviewing a book by reading just one chapter.

Bollywood never used Sridevi's full potential, mostly focusing on her glorious looks, gifted comedic skills and relying on her song and dance routine - fair enough, it had the cash registers ringing at the box-office. But for fans, we urge you to watch her oeuvre in Tamil films in particular. We are constantly finding new (to us!) movies from the south, with subtitles, that are blowing our mind. She had such range, depth, ability. She had so many gifts... sigh...

But what stands out of course, the colours and capers; eg Sridevi and Anil Kapoor in Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge 

Left: Pre-release feature on the film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja published in 1989 - the film was released four years later!! 

Excerpt:

This is the story of two con people who first hate each other, go through a phase of one-upmanship and finally come together to accomplish their common mission, in the process falling in love. Anil Kapoor and Sridevi play the leads with Jackie Shroff in the role of the policeman on their trail. Anupam Kher plays the villain, a man with a split personality, shades of good and evil. At the end of the film good naturally triumphs over evil. 

The film is an out-an-out entertainer. It's Satish Kaushik's first directorial venture and if advance reports are to be believed, he has a complete grasp of the medium. Produced by Boney Kapoor, the film has music by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lyrics by Javed Akthar.