Chandni (film)

''Chandni'' () is a 1989 Indian Hindi-language romantic musical 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 titular role of Chandni Mathur, a young effervescent woman torn between two suitors played by Rishi Kapoor and Vinod Khanna. Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher, Sushma Seth, Mita Vashisht, and Manohar Singh feature in supporting roles.

The eighties marked a professional setback in Chopra's career, After a series of failed action films, Chopra decided to return to his roots and make a romantic musical, a film with all the hallmarks of what has come to be known as the "Yash Chopra style" – heroine-oriented, romantic, emotional, depicting the lifestyle of the super-elite, with melodic music used in songs picturized in foreign locations. The film marked the first collaboration between Chopra and Sridevi; they would collaborate again for ''Lamhe'' (1991).

''Chandni'' was theatrically released on 14 September 1989 by Yash Raj Films. The film was a widespread critical and commercial success and became one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 1989, whereas its soundtrack became 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.

At the 37th National Film Awards, ''Chandni'' won Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. At the 35th Filmfare Awards, the film received 10 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Chopra), Best Actress (Sridevi), Best Actor (Kapoor), Best Supporting Actor (Khanna) and Best Supporting Actress (Rehman), and won Best Cinematography.

Plot

Chandni Mathur, a middle-class naïve 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 her at first sight with the beautiful Chandni and starts courting her. After his continuous attempts, Chandni accepts him and they eventually get engaged, though the Guptas dislike 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, hence paralyzing him below the waist. 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.

2 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, and they live happily ever after. Lalit and Lata share a brief sad moment upon seeing Chandni and Rohit leave.

Cast

* Sridevi as Chandni Mathur
* Rishi Kapoor as Rohit Gupta
* Vinod Khanna as Lalit Khanna
* Waheeda Rehman as Lata Khanna
* Sushma Seth as Armani Gupta
* Mita Vasisht as Kiran Chawla
* Anant Mahadevan as Brijbhan Chawla
* Achala Sachdev
* Beena Banerjee
* Manohar Singh as Nihaal Gupta
* Ram Gopal Bajaj as Shiv Prasad Mathur
* Lalit Tiwari
* Suhas Joshi
* Renu Arya
* Bharat Bhushan Bhalla as Dr. Aryamaan Das
* Anupam Kher as Ramesh Mehra
* Juhi Chawla as Devika Shastri

Production

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

Music

The soundtrack of ''Chandni'' was composed by Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, known together as Shiv-Hari. The lyrics were provided by Anand Bakshi. 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 ''Lamhe'' (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 best selling soundtrack album of the year as well as the decade. 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. According to Yash Raj Films, the soundtrack went 4× Platinum by the day of the premiere. By the 25th week, it went 25× Platinum, a new standard in the music industry.

Reception & Legacy

''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. According to ''iDiva'', ''Chandni'' was "more an event and less a movie. Even as its shooting rolled on the sets, the film was a constant subject of discussion in the press." ''Chandni'' emerged as one of the biggest blockbusters of 1989, with ''The Hindu'' stating that "the film opened to full houses and distributors had to drastically increase the number of theatres."' It was cited by ''Times of India'' as "one of the most-watched films of Indian Cinema." ''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."

The film consolidated Sridevi's position as the top female star of the era. Describing Sridevi's performance in ''Chandni'', ''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." The scene where she confronts Rishi Kapoor was ranked by ''Rediff'' as one of the "10 Best Scenes from Yash Chopra Films." While Sridevi topped the ''Hindustan Times list of Yash Chopra's "Top 5 Heroines", ''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''." 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'. ''CNN-IBN'' listed it among 'The Cult Characters Yash Chopra Created', 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."

Costume design in the film was done by Bhanu Athaiya and Leena Daru. Sridevi's iconic Chandni'' Look' revolutionized fashion in North India and became synonymous with the actress, with ''Rediff'' 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 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." ''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." 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." ''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''." 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." 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."

The music of ''Chandni'' became a multi-platinum success 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'. 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 ''Hindustan Times''. 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."

Awards

;37th National Film Awards:
* Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment – Yash Chopra & T. Subbarami Reddy

;35th Filmfare Awards:Filmfareawards

;Wins
* Best Cinematography – Manmohan Singh
Nominations
* Best Film – Yash Chopra & T. Subbarami Reddy
* Best Director – Yash Chopra
* Best Actress – Sridevi
* Best Actor – Rishi Kapoor
* Best Supporting Actor – Vinod Khanna
* Best Supporting Actress – Waheeda Rehman
* Best Music Director – Shiv-Hari
* Best Lyricist – Anand Bakshi for "Lagi Aaj Sawan Ki"
* Best Male Playback Singer – Suresh Wadkar for "Lagi Aaj Sawan Ki"

References

External links

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{{Yash Chopra

1989 films
1980s Hindi-language films
1989 romantic drama films
1980s romantic musical films
1980s musical drama films
Films directed by Yash Chopra
Films scored by Shiv-Hari
Yash Raj Films films
Indian romantic drama films
Indian romantic musical films
Indian musical drama films
Films set in Mumbai
Films set in Delhi
Films shot in Mumbai
Films shot in Delhi
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award winners
Films shot in Switzerland