It is difficult for me to watch this song sitting still even today, over thirty years after I first watched it. That is the effect Sridevi had on your heart: she struck lightning into it. You believe her when she says, “Bijli giraane main hoon aayee". She added comedy to it."Īs the song begins, she improvises to keep up with the Hawa Hawai persona. And then she told us, ‘I am going to spoil it now’. I told her that learning break dance won’t be easy and that it will take a lot of time but she learnt it in fifteen minutes. She was aware that I knew that form of dance and wanted to do something different in the song to bring in more variety. Once, she called us in and asked us to teach her a few breakdance steps for the Hawa Hawai song. We would have dance competitions on set and play games she wanted to be part of our gang. “Sridevi was reserved at the start, but later very friendly with all the child stars in the film and she was so loving. Hawa Hawai in that sense is the quintessential Hindi film song at its best it is woven into the story and also works as a standalone number.ĭuring the Mr India shoot, there was no rehearsal hall, and in the manner of someone who always does her homework, Sridevi said to Saroj Khan, “I am willing to dance in the corridor." And that’s where Hawa Hawai was rehearsed.Ĭhoreographer Ahmed Khan, who was also one of the child actors in the film, remembers being called to the “doctor’s" cabin during the hospital sequence in the film. Because that triumphant moment was hers and hers alone the obliteration of any distraction, human or otherwise, was necessary. Only Shekhar Kapur could have had the ingenious idea of rendering the background dancers black-faced in Hawa Hawai. For Hawa Hawai she transitions from an all-gold ensemble (complete with head dress) at the start of the song to an off-shoulder white and gold outfit to the final black, white and red number in which she eventually gets caught and is chained up in the villain’s den. Is it good for your song?" If Khan didn’t approve, she would change everything.
She would call Saroj Khan to the make-up room and say, “Masterji, look! I am dressed like this. It seems that Sridevi would design her entire look for every song each and every thing about her get-up from top to toe, including her make-up. “Her mind doesn’t know what her body is doing," Kapur had said. When she danced, she danced with her whole body-so much so that Kapur felt even her toes were emoting. Such was her energy while shooting the song that director Shekhar Kapur wasn’t sure where to place the camera if he focused on her face, he felt he would lose out on her toes. Sridevi, of course, added a lot of her own style-her trademark trick-stumbles, eye rolls, a cross-eyed moment halfway through the song. Saroj Khan’s animated choreography, Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s upbeat tune and Javed Akhtar’s wacky lyrics were a prize cocktail.
HAWA HAWA E HAWA MOVIE HERO FULL
In the next frame, which begins with a close up of her derriere in a shimmering gold dress, she starts to sing in a nonsense “foreign" language, made up of the names of faraway cities of the world (of course Honolulu features prominently), then segues full on into Hindi, while trying to uncover Wolcott’s secrets-thereby creating the greatest chartbuster of the ’80s. She requests a room for her “costume changes" and gets to work. To gain entry into the smugglers’ den, she goes undercover as an exotic Hawaiian dancer(naturally called Hawa Hawai), making a grand entrance, wearing apples and grapes in her hair.