It is a well known fact that filmmaker Sandeep Malani has been a die hard ‘Sridevi’ fan since his childhood days. The filmmaker remains grateful to Boney Kapoor because of whom he has been able to live his dream of meeting the diva not just once or twice but umpteen times.
A true fan of hers Malani runs a Sridevi fan page and writes articles, posts pictures, videos and details about her filmography as Sridevi Film Festival in social media, which has a million followers.
And, as a filmmaker, Sandeep Malani has always lent a Sridevi connection, (‘Sridevi touch’ as he calls it) to one or other scenes in his movies, at times as a reference or her poster in a sequence from the very start of his career as a director. For example in ‘SMS 6260’ he had his actress Janu giggle like Sridevi does in Sadma; his actress Sowmya dress up in half sarees with flowers in ‘Miss California’, and was referred to Sridevi; his heroine Kalpana Pandit do a Tandav in Jo Jo Laali, with that apsara costume similar to Sridevi’s in Chandni with a change in color and an entire film dedicated to Sridevi songs, costumes and the Nagina flavor in ‘Janleva 555’.
And now, Malani has made his wife Reshma enact facial expressions that usually Sridevi does, in his latest film, Yeh Cinemaa Hai. In the film, shot entirely on an iPhone camera Sandeep has shot a romantic song on Reshma titled “Heeriye”. As also, some shots and sequences reminds of Sridevi from Chandni.
The Song Sequence
The song is titled ‘Heeriye’ and it is about the character Salman (played by Vishal Digani) who expresses his love for his beloved, Sonali (Reshma Malani) and dedicates this song that he sings as a playback singer/live singer at a concert in later sequence. The sequence begins with Sonali’s aunt Jaya (Meena Malani) and mom (Deepali Khambadkone) asking their son in law Salman, how is Sonali doing and he replies, Sonali is doing fine and will always be in his heart. And in the song, she is shown to be very simple, love for nature, love for kids, animals, always smiling with positive attitude being happy.
The Sridevi look!
Says the Sridevi fan; “When I had six heroines in my film-series ‘Yeh Cinemaa Hai’ this time especially, when my wife was playing one of the lead; I had thought of picturising a song on her, that I always feel should be something like a Sridevi from Chandni, the freshness and her mannerisms. So when the song was ready, I visualized a few shots in mind and asked Reshma to act, walk, smile in her manner and she did it on her own! Although she is very shy, it was surprising for me, that though she faced the camera for the first time and she was impressive in the song! So in some places, she was just like herself and some places she gave me the Sridevi look!
Cast and Crew
The song is sung by Ishan with music composed by him, featuring Reshma Malani, Vishal Digani and a lot of children from the NGO titled Reaching Hand. Some portions of the song have been shot at Leh and Ladakh and a few in Bangalore and Delhi. Editing has been done by Vignesh Thanupillai and is coproduced by Ranjeet Jha, Santosh Chawla, Edward Dsouza and Sundeep Malani for RKJ Productions, The Studio Agency and Malani Talkies. Concept, screenplay, iPhone camera and direction by Sundeep Malani.
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