Now and then: Sridevi with Saif Ali Khan: Khushi Kapoor with Ibrahim Ali Khan
About 31 years separates the two pics. Sridevi and Saif Ali Khan posed for a unique cover shoot for Filmfare, back in July 1994, a cover story about wealth and superstardom, familiar territory for the "superstarni."
Khushi and Ibrahim are about to release their first film together (Khushi of course appeared in the God-awful Archies--irredeemable, tried watching it again before I wrote this) Nadaaniyan, on Netflix - due for release later in 2025. About six years ago, we predicted (well, most Bollywood voyeurs guessed) that the two younglings would meander their way to the world of movies inevitably.
Releasing on Netflix of course rescues them from the pressure of do-or-die opening weekend box-office numbers, and since Netflix does not release viewership stats unless they want to (and how can we corroborate those figures?!), one will never know how well the movie does. Archies was universally panned by every critic but as the film had a tremendous curiosity value, clearly it must have done somewhat well during the first month of release. And then, Indian audience being what they are, plenty hate-watched it to pelt the film and its young stars on social media. The cast and crew who found the 'comments off' button on Instagram must have been relieved!
The stage show song and dance routine was... awkward. Like high-school kids showing their best moves to a rapturous audience filled with parents, and the sycophantic star-kissing papz (whose livelihood depends on selling the clips and images), all applauded and whistled on cue. The comments... tell us a different story.
Was a bit of a deja-vu like how the Archies cast danced and pranced around on stage... Which would be worrying except, of course, the Nadaaniyan trailer looks pretty good. Well, they both look pretty - but can either deliver? That remains to be seen.
We are "no longer holding space" for the argument that they're young, or its just their first/second film... The ticket-paying audience can smell BS from far, and has no time to indulge children with their hard-earned money. Indian cinema is dotted with stars who were exceptional from the get-go, at much younger ages. Look at Sridevi herself, who gave an award-winning performance at age six! Shobhana, Rekha, Aasha Parekh and host of others were teenagers when they started off, and early on showed signs of artistry the propelled their long, enduring careers. Hrithik Roshan in his first-film... well, need I type more?!
As one of two links to Sridevi (the other being first-born Janhvi!), we want to like the (potential) artist Khushi Kapoor as much as anyone else. We hope she delivers (as Janhvi did in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl). Let's see...
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