Chandni

<p>Chandni Mathur, a middle-class naïve girl, travels to 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 a 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 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 on a business trip and runs into Rohit, who is still undergoing treatment from professional therapists and physicians for his paralysis. Having recovered, he befriends Lalit, and they share their respective love-stories, unaware that they both love the same girl, Chandni. Back in India, Rohit visits Lalit’s house to meet him. Chandni opens the door; she and Rohit are surprised to see each other. Rohit reveals that 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 have become friends. Rohit and Chandni pretend to be 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. 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 (1988), an action film, he felt like he was not supposed to make films like this. Later he met with writer , who had achieved popularity after having written ‘s (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. The idea of a paralyzed lead was suggested by Rishi Kapoor who had seen the 1981 Hollywood movie and was inspired by the character played by . Initially, was approached to play the titular role; however, upon her refusal, Chopra offered the role to Sridevi who accepted the offer. With casting of , 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 soundtrack of was composed by and , known together as . The lyrics were provided by . In addition to the songs listed below, there was a recurring instrumental love melody, not part of a full song. That melody was further developed into the song “Kabhi Main Kahoon” for Chopra’s next film (1991), also scored by Shiv-Hari. The film’s soundtrack was a major success in India and sold more than 10 million copies, becoming the . It is believed that the soundtrack helped bring back the romantic musical genre, along with (1988) and (1989), with its songs and lyrics receiving major critical acclaim. According to , the soundtrack went 4× Platinum by the day of the premiere. The song was remixed and reused in the 2012 film 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 and rejuvenating the genre. The film emerged a blockbuster and the . stated that “the film opened to full houses and distributors had to drastically increase the number of theatres”. It was cited by as “one of the most-watched films of Indian Cinema.” 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.” consolidated Sridevi’s position as the top female star of the era. Describing Sridevi’s performance in the film, 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.” The scene where she confronts was ranked by as one of the “10 Best Scenes from Yash Chopra Films.” While Sridevi topped the list of Yash Chopra’s “Top 5 Heroines”, ranked her #1 on its list of ‘Yash Chopra’s 10 Most Sensuous Heroines’, saying that “Yash Chopra immortalized Sridevi as the perfect .” The titular character became one of the most famous characters of , with including it in its list of ‘Yash Chopra’s Iconic Characters’. listed it among ‘The Cult Characters Yash Chopra Created’, while 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.” Costume design in the film was done by and Leena Daru. Sridevi’s iconic Look’ revolutionized fashion in North India and became synonymous with the actress, with stating “A luminous Sridevi slips into every possible design in white for a major chunk of the romance and no one complains.” Speaking about the look, Chopra told film critic “While making , 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.” wrote “Leena Daru scored a winner again when she created the 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”, while reported “Leena Daru dressed Bollywood’s beauties for several years. But it was her simple white churidar and kurta with the dupatta for Sridevi in that gave the Southern belle an angelic image and caused the stores to hit the jackpot with thousands of copies.” 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 ( in (1993), in (1997), in (2004)), but none of them became half as iconic as Sridevi did after .” The Look’ was also highlighted in the film’s famous dance sequence by Sridevi, where said “the actress transformed into a mythical goddess in a white number.” Sridevi’s chiffon sarees became equally popular with writing “This film made the chiffon sari a must-have in every Indian woman’s wardrobe.” The music of became a multi-platinum success, with Sridevi’s famous dance number “Mere Haathon Mein Nau Nau Choodiyan Hai” finding a place in ‘s chart of ‘Bollywood’s Top 25 Wedding Songs’. Sridevi also lent her voice to the film’s popular title-track “Chandni O Meri Chandni” which featured among the ‘Top 5 Songs of Yash Chopra’ by . Talking about her role in , 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.”</p>