Stunt coordinator turned director Raam Shetty’s Army is the only film that brought Sridevi face-to-face with Shah Rukh Khan. In this film, there is a sequence where Shah Rukh, playing an army jawaan, is brought home dead.
All through the film Shah Rukh plays ‘I-am-dead’ pranks on Sridevi, so she presumes this is also one of those sick jokes. The way she goes from giggling dismissal to shock and finally a breakdown in that sequence, is a textbook of pitch-perfect acting. Sridevi played a gender-reversed Amjad Khan’s role in “Sholay” of a woman, who hires mercenaries to avenge the villain Danny Denzongpa. As it often happened, Sri was far superior to the material offered to her.
Sridevi, playing Sanjeev Kumar’s role in Sholay, hires a bunch of unruly mercenaries to take revenge for her husband’s murder.It is a routine revenge saga lifted to incredible heights of dramatic velocity by the one-woman army. This is one Sridevi’s most under-rated performances.One of the many pleasures of watching Army is to see Shah Rukh Khan play her husband in their only film together. Shah Rukh was so keen to play Sridevi’s love interest in Army that he agreed to do a cameo and also agreed to sport a moustache for the first and last time in his career to look suitably matched with the Diva. This was the only film that brought Sri and Shah together. And this was the only time he agreed to paste a mustache on his face to look convincing as her spouse. “I would have stuck on a beard and five moles on my cheeks and pillow on my tummy to be cast opposite her,” he enthused.
I once asked her how she managed to so so in-it in potboilers like Justice Chowdhary, Jaani Dost, Mawaali, and Akalmand; she rewarded me with her girlish laughter and said, “I don’t think of it as good films and films. That is for you the audience and the critics to decide. For me, they are all equally important. I give the same level of concentration. If I am on the sets I completely block out all thoughts of what my daughters must be doing or whether Boney has eaten his lunch.”
This explains why a film like Army, reeking of retro-rancidity was so remarkable. In the feverishly fatuous film, Sridevi played Sanjeev Kumar from Sholay. A prettier version, and with hands intact (hence arm-y, get it?) Sri was stunning as she led a five-man … errrr…. army of avengers seeking to annihilate villain Danny Denzongpa for murdering Sri’s husband played by Shah Rukh Khan.
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