Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja
Director: Satish Kaushik
Music: Laxmikant/Pyarelal
Year: 1993
Rating: 7/10
Length: 190 minutes
I watched this
Bollywood film in memory of Sridevi who passed away at 54 a few months ago.
In the 1980's and 90's she was one of Bollywood's biggest female stars -
unlike any that had come before her. Until she came along most female heroines
were either mother figures or perfect well-behaved demure women or on the
other side of the coin vamps or women gone wrong. Only Zeenat Aman was able
to straddle the center. Then along came the bubbly effervescence of Sridevi
with her huge expressive eyes, long nose and full figure. Not classically
beautiful by the standards of Bollywood actresses but just enormously entertaining,
never afraid to make fun or herself, able to change her facial expressions
faster than a speeding bullet and she captured a nation with all her charms.
India I expect is in mourning. They don't get much bigger than Sridevi.
By nearly every cinematic measurement known
to man this is a bad film but I thought it was an absolute hoot. I loved
it. The last 30 minutes are just so wacky that I was grinning all the way.
It was apparently the most expensive production ever at its release in 1993
and was a gigantic flop. IMDB rates it a 4.9 which makes me worry about the
world I live in. I think by 1993 it just felt too corny and old fashioned
- a much better fit if it had been in the 1970s when they threw everything
into a film.
But if you watch it now and understand
and sympathize with Bollywood conventions it is just so much fun. It has
everything - comedy, action, revenge, family ties, coincidences like you
only see in Bollywood films, the awful comedy of Johnny Lever, Bob Cristo,
a vat of acid and our heroes hanging by a thread, three extravagant huge
musical numbers (one being done to position themselves for an assassination)
and the smartest pigeons you will ever see. Maybe the budget went to the
pigeons.
An evil mastermind played by of all people
Anupam Kher who most of us know from portraying loving fathers in many many
movies kills a cop and a doctor and gets away by also killing his twin brother
and taking his place. In fact, the fake twin and the bad guy live in the
same house - he is the good twin in the front and then when he wants to be
himself he goes through one sliding hidden door after another until he gets
to his lair where his minions and hot girls in silver sleek dresses await
him.
Now is where the coincidences kick in like
a mule on hooch. The son of the cop and the daughter end up at the same orphanage
and become good friends without realizing that they want revenge on the same
man. At some point the girl is adopted and the boy runs away. They both grow
up to be thieves - he a basic cat burglar and she by using her wiles and
dance moves. They are both entertainers too it seems. Fate and a crazy script
bring them (Anil Kapoor and Sridevi) together as fellow thieves and working
them both is none other than Kher who they don't realize killed their parent.
One more coincidence to go - it turns out Kapoor's older brother (Jackie
Shroff) has become a cop and his assignment is to track down the thieves.
It is absurd. It is silly. Pigeons save
the day three times. Anyone who came to this from a serious film background
would start having fits. Nobody apparently likes this movie but I thought
it was tremendously fun and that was enough.
RIP Sridevi. You were great in this film.
