44 - R.I.P Sridevi

This blog is dedicated to the fan in me and others like me who have grown up watching her movies during our childhood days.  Some of the movies that she did are still so vivid in my mind that it still gives me goosebumps when I think about the scenes in those movies. 

According to me, her key attraction was her eyes.  The way she used her eyes to convey anything from childish pranks to love to anger to comic timing, it was just ethereal. I have still not seen any other actress even coming close to her impeccable timing of conveying any emotion at the drop of a hat, just with her eyes. 

Though she has acted in over 300 films, I will just write on the 3 movies that I fondly remember her by.  These are Mr India, Chaalbaaz and Moondram Pirai (Sadma in Hindi).

I still vividly recall that I had gone to see Mr India with my school friends at Delhi’s Liberty theatre, having just completed my 12^th standard.  When the song “Hawaa Hawaai” came on screen, my friend Subbu was literally jumping on his seat.  I was rooted to my seat as I am not used to poring my emotions outside, but I could see that the entire crowd in the theatre were jumping and dancing on their seats!!  And when she began her Chaplin’s act, the laughter was simply so loud that we could not listen to the dialogues in the movie during that scene.  It was another matter, that the scene didn’t have much dialogues!! The way she was clowning around was simply hilarious and would have made even Chaplin proud. Her facial expressions in the Parody song, or in the “Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr India Se” song, was simply too enjoyable!! 

The next film is Chaalbaaz.  I had seen Hema Malini’s Seeta aur Geeta earlier, of which Chaalbaaz was the remake.  But after seeing Chaalbaaz, there was no doubt that Sridevi was a far seasoned performer than Hema Malini.   The entire film was carried on her shoulders even though her other co-stars were Rajnikanth, Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi!!  According to me, it was the movie where Rajnikanth and Sunny Deol played second fiddle to her.  Such was her performance in the movie that both these stars looked like extras in the movie.  There is one song in the movie “Naa Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai”.  I came to know today that while performing for this song she was running a temperature of 103!!  Her facial and body expression in this song is seen to be believed.  I would have watched this song alone more than 50 times!! Also her expression on “Socha Tha Kya, Kya Ho Gaya” song is simply magical.  I can see this movie umpteen number of times just for her mannerism.  She simply rocked in this movie!!

The last film is Moondram Pirai.  Kamalahaasan and Sridevi’s acting were so natural in this movie that it looked like a real life being seen on the silver screen. Kamal got the National Award for his performance.  It was rumoured that Sridevi also would have got the National Award.  But since you can’t have both the hero and heroine to get National Award for the same film, the award that year went to Shabana Azmi.  I don’t know how true this rumour is.  The song “Kanne Kalaimaane” (Surmai Akhiyon Mein) is picturised so beautifully that it brings sheer joy-cum-happiness to oneself.  There are 3 scenes which are so childishly cute that it brings smile to one’s face.  One is when Kamal pats her cheek, she uses her tongue to lick his hand!! Second is when she sleeps with her thumb in her mouth and Kamal tries to put her head down, she grasps at his shirt and keeps sleeping with her thumb in her mouth!!    And third, for rubbing some wrong answer in a paper she uses her saliva to wet her hands to rub it.  When Kamal admonishes her and he rubs the paper with a napkin, she simply cleans her hand on his shirt!!

A couple of months back I again saw Mr India and Chaalbaaz with my daughter.  It was good to see that her taste also matched mine 😊 as she too had similar expressions on her face as mine when I first saw these movies.  I have told her that I will show her Moondram Pirai after her exams finish.

Rest in Peace, Sridevi!!