Naino Mein Sapna [Himmatwala] 🎶

The song that went on to create history was 'Naino Main Sapna', featuring fifty dancers, a hundred feather dusters, a thousand pots, and amidst this phantasmagoria, Sridevi striking Khajuraho postures. Dressed in Amrapali, she moves like a sea nymph, making the track erotic yet elegant. Her ample curves throb with the tempo, her voluptuous frame celebrates every beat as she dances like a goddess in love. Even her lip-syncing is flawless despite the alien Hindi. But if she was divine on-screen, she was humane off it. Jeetendra gives a glimpse of the compassionate co-star she was:

"Sri would rehearse just once or twice and would be ready to shoot. I on the other hand needed multiple rehearsals. Such was her graciousness that she would not leave me to rehearse on my own with the dance master. She would keep rehearsing with me again and again for my sake until I got the steps right."

The song topped almost every music chart of 1983. Over the years, it would emerge as an iconic anthem for the 1980s in Hindi cinema. The track also announced Sridevi as a Dynamo dancer. As she erupted into national consciousness, a friend of acclaimed choreographer Saroj Khan rushed to her house and urged her to check out this new girl from Madras with deadly moves. Saroj recalls watching Sridevi for the first time on big screen:

"The crowds were whistling like mad. I had never seen such hysteria for any other actress. As I watched her dance, I kept telling myself that I wish I could get to choreograph for her. As soon as I returned home, I got a call from Subhash Ghai that he was planning to sign Sridevi; the literally fell from my hand."

The legendary Lata Mangeshkar, who had lent her voice to the song, was equally fascinated. 

"Sridevi's moves were something else. I was surprised when I met her and she told me that she had never trained in any dance form. She said that whatever she knew was what she had picked up from watching others dancing on sets or in films. It just shows what an accomplished artiste she was."

A zany chorus of 'Tathaiya Tathaiya Ho' blared from the speakers. A bunch of garishly dressed dancers bopped before the camera. Sridevi twirled, Jeetendra whirled, surrounded by pots, feathers and arches. While Jeetendra was comfortable in his shoes, Sridevi pirouetted barefoot on that scorching sand. As the sun climbed higher, the beach burned whitter, blistering her soles. But she was indomitable, her footwork turning even more exquisite as she generated one magical move after another. The actress was perhaps determined to conquer Bombay now. Given how smooth sailing her career had been down South, the collapse of her Hindi debut had perhaps kindled that first spark of ambition. Jeetendra Marvel's at her threshold of pain during this song:

"Some shots required her to stand still on a leg, and she would calmly hold her posture for as long as the cameraman needed her to. Sometimes I had fumbled, she would have to give a shot again. Her feet must have been burning like hell but not once did she complain."