A Phenomenon called ‘Sridevi’

News Article by:
Manas Mishra
Assistant Professor,
AAFT School of Cinema

A still from Chandni (1989) Directed  by Yash Chopra

As a kid, I still remember when my mother used to run after me holding a glass of milk and how, like a wrestler carefully plans his next move and an artist uses his brush to carefully stroke the finest details in his painting, I used to plan new ways of avoiding milk. But after all, being a mother, she knew all the tricks of the trade. When I'd thought that I succeeded once again in averting the entire milk-drinking process, the sound of "zu, zu, zu.. Na jaane kahan se aayi hai" caught hold of me and just like a serpent submits itself to the charmer, I stood spellbound in front of the television holding my glass of milk and watching Sridevi's antics and frolics. The film was 'Chaalbaaz' and for me it was Manju's (name of her character) film or you can say she was the hero for me. That was the power of Sridevi.

 

Most critics generally write off the 1980's saying that it touched the new "low point" in Indian cinema. The rise of the VCR coincided with the decline of cinema halls. Movie theatres became run down places where only unemployed youth went, not 'respectable' families. As a result, most of the content started becoming cheap and sleazy, mainly to allure the front benchers in cinema halls. But it was mainly power packed performances from Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor that provided some entertainment between not-so-entertaining stuff. Amongst females, it was either Madhuri Dixit who had just started or Sridevi, which was already a big name especially after ‘Sadma’, ‘Himmatwala’, ‘Mawali’, ‘Tohfa’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaaga’ and of course ‘Mr. India’ (I fondly used to call her Miss Hawa Hawai as I found it difficult to pronounce her name as a 4 year old).

Born and brought up in a cinema-crazy city of Kanpur, where cinema page in newspaper was bigger and colorful than the front page, I was fascinated looking at micro film posters of films around movie halls in Kanpur. Out of approx. 60 single screen halls back then, 4-5 were such where Sridevi films were screened. She was the dominant figure on that page as every second film had Sridevi in it and perhaps the only actress name I knew back then. Her face covered the 3/4^th of the posters, be it ‘Nagina’ or ‘Nigahein’, ‘Sherni’, ‘Waqt ki Awaaz’ (It came the same year as QSQT, Shahenshah, etc) ‘Ram-Avatar’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaga’ (This film had three superstars Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Anil Kapoor including Sridevi but my sole reason to watch the film was Sridevi). One more film ‘Main Tera Dushman’, had a catchy song ‘Jugni disco disco’ featuring Sridevi and as I heard that song, I wanted to see the film.

One of the major influences on me as a kid were some scenes which according to me are just outstanding and I even feel that none of today’s actresses can pull it off or even come close to it. One such scene is the Charlie Chaplin sequence from ‘Mr. India’. Today, even after three decades, this scene is as hilarious and iconic in the annals of Bollywood history, as it was meant to be. This is certainly a testament to the fact as to why Sridevi is one of the best actresses of Indian Cinema.

Another scene that comes to my mind instantly is the ‘Amba make-over scene’ from the film ‘Chaalbaaz’. Whenever the film came on television, this scene had my not-to-be-missed tag instantly. What really made this scene hilarious was the anticipation that one would associate with Spielberg films where you get to see the ‘reaction’ first and ‘action’ later. For the entire duration, we get to see Sridevi’s expressions doing make up like a pro and trust me you wouldn’t blink your eye even for a second. That was the power of her expressions, her emotive eyes, her immaculate comic timing and that mischievous smile that was highly visible in most of her works including Mr. India, Chandni, Gurudev and Lamhe. 

Yash Chopra’s ‘Chandni’ and ‘Lamhe’ gave her iconic status and crowned her standing as the biggest female actor of the 80’s and 90’s. Apart from the songs, the romantic saga was mostly about Sridevi in her ethereally-white, salwar kurtas. ‘Lamhe’, a film too ahead of its time, made her a star in overseas market. When ‘Lamhe’ got released, I was just 6 year old and remember my family taking me to watch the film in ‘Roxy’ (now Sapna Palace) theatre at Kanpur. I had no idea what the film was about as I was too young to apply my mind whenever the film had bulk of emotional scenes. But, I was fascinated by this 15 feet cut-out of Anil Kapoor and Sridevi doing grape-stomping (I think it was the first time that such grape stomping became a part of the Indian cinematic oeuvre). Another moment where Sridevi’s graceful expressions steal the limelight is the Medley song in ‘Lamhe’ which again reminds us of her versatility.

Sridevi was also one of the very few actresses or I should say the only one who shared screen space with the famous superstar trio of Rajnikanth (Chaalbaaz), Kamal Haasan (Sadma) and Amitabh Bachchan (Aakhree Raasta, Khuda Gawah, etc)- a rare combination which not many actresses have achieved in the past. 

After her death, my entire childhood appeared in a montage of sorts in front of my eyes. All her songs resonate in my mind making me want to watch her films once again, her eyes full of expressions, her mischievous smile, her dance moves and then I realize what I have actually lost- as a fan. Today, I have a 2 year old son who, just like me, hates drinking milk but unfortunately we don’t have Sridevi around to catch his attention, we just have her memories.