Chandni Film

[Odon Irving]

ChandniMoonlight) is a 1989 Indian Hindi-language romantic musical drama film directed and co-produced by Yash Chopra from a story written by Kamna Chandra with a screenplay by Umesh Kalbagh, Arun Kaul, and Sagar Sarhadi. The film stars Sridevi in the title role of Chandni Mathur, a young effervescent woman torn between two suitors played by Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor. Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher, Sushma Seth, Mita Vashisht, and Manohar Singh feature in supporting roles.[2]

Chandni was theatrically released on 14 September 1989 by Yash Raj Films. The film emerged as a widespread critical and commercial success, ranking as the third highest-grossing Hindi film of the year, with its soundtrack emerging as the best-selling album of the year as well as the decade, with more than 10 million copies sold. The massive success of the film and its soundtrack were instrumental in ending the era of violent action films in Indian Cinema and rejuvenating the romantic musical genre. The success of film further reinforced Sridevi's position as the top female star of the era. Over the years, Chandni is hailed as one of Chopra's finest films.[2][3][4]

Chandni Mathur, a middle-class nave girl, travels to Delhi with her parents to attend her cousin's wedding. There she meets Rohit Gupta, her cousin's friend. Rohit instantly falls in love with the beautiful Chandni and starts courting her. After his continuous attempts, Chandni accepts him and they eventually get engaged, though Gupta's family dislikes Chandni due to difference in their social status. One day, Rohit calls Chandni and asks her to come on the roof of her home where he is waiting for her in a helicopter to shower rose petals on her. While doing that, his helicopter crashes, paralyzing his right side. The Guptas blame Chandni for the mishap and mistreat her. Thinking he cannot be a good husband, Rohit lets Chandni go. Heartbroken, she leaves Delhi and travels to Mumbai and finds work at a travel agency. Lalit Khanna, the head of the travel agency, and a widower, falls for Chandni and asks her to marry him, and she accepts the proposal hesitantly.

Two years later, after much contemplation, Chandni agrees to marry Lalit and meets his mom Lata, who likes her instantly. Lalit visits Switzerland on a business trip and runs into Rohit, who is still undergoing treatment from professional therapists and physicians for his paralysis.

Recovered, he befriends Lalit and they share their respective love-stories, unaware they both love the same girl, Chandni. Back to India, Rohit visits Lalit's house to meet him. Chandni opens the door; she and Rohit are surprised to see each other. Rohit reveals he is no longer paralyzed. They get keyed up with tears, and he seizes this chance to propose to her.

However, Chandni tells Rohit that she is engaged to marry Lalit. She also reminds him what the Guptas did to her. He leaves regretfully. Lalit invites Rohit to his wedding as they became friends. Rohit and Chandni pretend as strangers. On the wedding day, he mumbles and stumbles down a flight of stairs in a drunken stupor. Out of panic Chandni runs towards him, hugs him and starts crying. Upon seeing this, Lalit realizes Chandni loves Rohit. In the hospital, Rohit regains consciousness. Lalit sacrifices his love for Chandni, and she marries Rohit after. Lalit and Lata share a brief sad moment upon seeing Chandni and Rohit leave.

Speaking about the film with Karan Johar, Yash Chopra recalled when he was making Vijay (1988), an action film, he felt like he was not supposed to make films like this. Later he met with writer Kamna Chandra, who had achieved popularity after having written Raj Kapoor's Prem Rog (1982). She presented the story of a social romantic musical film to Chopra who liked it and started casting the stars. However, at the launch party, Chopra had a change of heart and decided to change the second half of the script, wherein originally Chandni was supposed to marry Lalit and have a son.

With casting of Vinod Khanna, distributors started demanding an action sequence in the film to which Chopra refused. Originally, the script required Khanna saving Sridevi from a fire incident. However, upon watching the completed film, Chopra felt that it did not feel like a part of the film, so he called Sridevi and Khanna back for a day's shoot to re-film their first meeting sequence.

The film's soundtrack was a major success in India and sold more than 10 million copies, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of the year as well as the decade.[7] It is believed that the soundtrack helped bring back the romantic musical genre, along with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), with its songs and lyrics receiving major critical acclaim.[7][8] According to Yash Raj Films, the soundtrack went 4 Platinum by the day of the premiere.[7] By the 25th week, it went 25 Platinum, a new standard in the music industry.[citation needed]

Chandni received widespread critical acclaim upon its release, with many critics highlighting the film's impact in being instrumental in bringing an end to an era of violent action movies in Indian cinema and rejuvenating the romantic musical genre. The film emerged as the third highest-grossing Hindi film of the year.[9] The Hindu stated that "the film opened to full houses and distributors had to drastically increase the number of theatres".[10] It was cited by Times of India as "one of the most-watched films of Indian Cinema."[11] Hindustan Times featured the movie in its list of 'Yash Chopra's Greatest Hits' saying "it was instrumental in ending the era of violence in Bollywood and bringing back the romance into Hindi films."

Chandni consolidated Sridevi's position as the top female star of the era.[12] Describing Sridevi's performance in the film, Indiatimes wrote "True to her screen-name, she was an epitome of radiance, warmth and vivacity. She effortlessly introduced us to the powerful streaks, her classic, angelic character was laden with."[13] The scene where she confronts Rishi Kapoor was ranked by Rediff as one of the "10 Best Scenes from Yash Chopra Films."[14] While Sridevi topped the Hindustan Times' list of Yash Chopra's "Top 5 Heroines",[15] CNN-IBN ranked her #1 on its list of 'Yash Chopra's 10 Most Sensuous Heroines', saying that "Yash Chopra immortalized Sridevi as the perfect Chandni."[16] The titular character became one of the most famous characters of Hindi cinema, with India Today including it in its list of 'Yash Chopra's Iconic Characters'.[17] CNN-IBN listed it among 'The Cult Characters Yash Chopra Created',[18] while NDTV featured it in its list of 'Yash Chopra's Greatest Creations' stating that the film established Sridevi "as the nation's sweetheart" and "reinforced her position as the reigning actress in Bollywood."[19]

Costume design in the film was done by Bhanu Athaiya and Leena Daru.[5][20] Sridevi's iconic 'Chandni Look' revolutionized fashion in North India[21] and became synonymous with the actress,[22] with Rediff stating "A luminous Sridevi slips into every possible design in white for a major chunk of the romance and no one complains."[23] Speaking about the look, Chopra told film critic Rajeev Masand "While making Chandni, I had a vision of who I wanted this girl to be. I told Sridevi that most of her costumes in the film would be in white."[24] The Tribune wrote "Leena Daru scored a winner again when she created the Chandni look for Sridevi. Every street corner sold the salwar-kameez and dupatta that gave the heroine a refreshingly understated look, rarely seen on the Indian screen",[25] while Mid-Day reported "Leena Daru dressed Bollywood's beauties for several years. But it was her simple white churidar and kurta with the leheriya dupatta for Sridevi in Chandni that gave the Southern belle an angelic image and caused the Chandni Chowk stores to hit the jackpot with thousands of copies."[26] BizAsia described the effect of the look saying "Chopra never quite got over his Sridevi hangover and almost always chose to present his future lead heroines in similar outfits (Juhi Chawla in Darr (1993), Madhuri Dixit in Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Preity Zinta in Veer-Zaara (2004)), but none of them became half as iconic as Sridevi did after Chandni."[27] The 'Chandni Look' was also highlighted in the film's famous tandav dance sequence by Sridevi, where Rediff said "the actress transformed into a mythical goddess in a white number."[28] Sridevi's chiffon sarees became equally popular with Indian Express writing "This film made the chiffon sari a must-have in every Indian woman's wardrobe."[29]

The music of Chandni became a multi-platinum success,[21] with Sridevi's famous dance number "Mere Haathon Mein Nau Nau Choodiyan Hai" finding a place in Rediff's chart of 'Bollywood's Top 25 Wedding Songs'.[30] Sridevi also lent her voice to the film's popular title-track "Chandni O Meri Chandni"[31] which featured among the 'Top 5 Songs of Yash Chopra' by Hindustan Times.[15] Talking about her role in Chandni, Sridevi said it was "a lively and vibrant girl in the first half (who) becomes quiet and goes into a shell in the second half. I loved that transformation and when you have a director like Yash Chopra at the helm, you can be sure that he will make the best out of everything."[32]

Scrolling through my Twitter timeline this past Saturday, I saw someone had tweeted a picture of the Indian actress Sridevi Kapoor at a wedding she had attended a couple of days earlier. Always glamorous, I admired her haute couture mint green lengha, a traditional Indian skirt, paired with an especially fashionable large dupatta or shawl. It was a matter of seconds before I realized the timeliness of the posting and my eyes teared. Less than an hour before, at age 54, the actress had died of a heart attack in Dubai. Soon, all my social media feeds were rife with mentions of Sridevi coupled with GIFs and photos of her from her most famous scenes. As a Pakistani-American, classic Bollywood is an instant dose of home away from home, no matter where my life takes me.

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