Being Sri

Despite being 300 films old, Sridevi’s every single new release feels like her first…

- Vinay Agrawal

Sridevi, fondly called Sri in the circles, was born to act. She entered the industry very young as a child artiste, beginning her career with regional cinema, before landing up her first Bollywood break with Julie. The film sealed her destiny as a Bollywood star. Sri had arrived, and she was here to stay for long. Many child stars before and after her had faded into oblivion, but not Sri. She wasn’t exactly cut out for obscurity even after reaching adulthood. She was different—in a league of her own. With age, she shone radiantly, at times brighter than the arc lights she faced on a daily basis—the lights that were her ally, a source of her bread and butter.

Her audience laughed, sympathised and danced with her. They longed for her, men wanted to marry her. Be it Chalbaaz, Mr India, Nagina or Sadma, Sri essayed those characters with a flourish, filling them with the required subtleties, bringing them alive on screen with finer nuances. Who else, but Sri, could make an innocent powder blue sari look more sensual than a bikini? She had mastered the art of emoting without uttering a line, saying a lot with her eyes and expressions.

On the one end was her scorching sari-number, Kaatey Nahi Katey from Mr India and on the other was her intense performance as a girl woman in the Kamal Haasan starrer, Sadma. Sri owned these contrasts, and exceedingly well too. In fact, her close to real performance in Sadma triumphed Haasan’s intense performance in comparison. Years later, after a long gap, she chose to come back in a de-glam role of an under-confident housewife clad in plain cotton saris suffering from poor language skills. The film was English Vinglish—one of the finest women centric films Bollywood has produced. It was a path breaker and outright Sri’s film, earning her accolades after accolades. 

Sri had done it again.