Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Celebrating 37 years of Mawaali: Sridevi, Jeetendra, Jaya Prada's mega hit

 

Released on 4 November 1983, Mawaali was the sixth biggest hit of the year. 

The critics could not make sense of the film and it was absolutely pelted with bad reviews - the audience had the exact opposite reaction. The Jeetendra - Sridevi - Jaya Prada combination with catchy songs, melodrama, competent performances, the usual masala mix of a classic Bollywood potboiler, the producers were laughing all the way to the bank. Like Salman Khan movies of today, Jeetendra movies were critic-proof. 

Known as a sex symbol in the early 1980s in Bombay (it wasn't Mumbai yet!), Sridevi didn't get great write ups for the film either, however, she was saved from poisoned ink that year as it was Jaya Prada who got maximum critque for the song Oi Amma Oi Amma.  Why? Well, her sari flies off and she's dancing around undraped - albeit fully dressed - in the gardens of Mauritius. It is so tame and innocent now - but the social mores of the time were very different and in several interviews the actressed seemed horrified by the response and criticism. Jaya Prada vowed never to do such a "vulgar" song again. And she didn't. 

The movie is "time pass" as they say and Sridevi looks super cute in it - even though she's barely in the movie. Shot in a record 28 days by the Bollywood dream machine factory, the movie made stupendous return on investment; triggering innumerable Jeetendra Sridevi and Jeetendra Jaya Prada movies. These films were not loved by the typists of their time - but the Jeetendra mansion is emblematic of the money-spinners the movies were. 

We have an archive of images from the film here for a scroll back memory lane. 

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