An enigma called Sridevi: Bollywood's first female superstar would have turned 60 today

Nonika Singh

The eternal screen goddess and for some the first female superstar Bollywood has seen, Sridevi continues to charm and enthral, long after she ceased to exist in flesh and blood. Her charisma endures onscreen in 280-odd films. Her fandom stays intact and even includes makers of repute, like Ram Gopal Varma (RGV). Biographies on her life and cinema are trying to decode her enigma.

Born on August 13, 1963, to a Tamilian father and a Telugu mother, she was named a mouthful Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan. Sridevi, whose film career began at age four, literally grew up on the sets. Amborish Roychoudhury has authored the book ‘Sridevi: The South Years’ primarily centred around her innings in the South Indian industry in four major languages. “It laid a solid foundation for her dazzling career in Bollywood,” he says.

Among her countless films, ‘Sadma’ stands tall. As Roychoudhury reminds, in her outstanding career in the South, such films were not an exception but a rule. She went on to ace several nuanced, complex characters. “In 1976, she was only 13 when she played the female lead in ‘Moondru Mudichu’,” adds the author. Apart from being directed by the legendary K Balachander, the maker of the iconic love story ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’, ‘Moondru’ starred Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth who, like Sridevi, were to become a phenomena. Though she never went to an acting school, she found her mentors in her co-actors and directors. Whenever quizzed about her method of acting, Sridevi was usually clueless. Had she not imbibed it all unconsciously? As critic Baradwaj Rangan says in Roychowdhry’s book, “The film industry was a university for her.”

Director-writer Gauri Shinde, who brought her magic alive again in the actress’ comeback vehicle, ‘English Vinglish’, recalls, “She was an intuitive actor but was as much a director’s actor. Here I was a debutant director and she had a solid career behind her. Yet, she surrendered herself completely to me and the script.” Sumeet Vyas, her co-actor in the same film, remembers her fondly: “There are actors who go to town about their method of preparation. But I feel how an actor prepares is a very personal journey and I am sure Sridevi, too, had her own process. Not once did she fumble or forget her lines.” He recalls one particular shoot that epitomised her proficiency as an actor. “In the last bit, where she delivers a speech in English, there were so many interruptions while shooting as construction was going on in the neighbouring house. Her monologue was interrupted several times just when she would gain momentum. But trust Sridevi to pick up exactly the same rhythm every time.” He feels that while a lessor actor would have created a fuss, she didn’t. In fact, the first time he met her, he was surprised that there was no starry entourage around her and she was sitting quietly, all by herself.

Most co-actors or people who knew Sridevi at close quarters insist that she was not exactly a people’s person. Jackie Shroff had once shared that on the sets, she would be sitting quietly in a corner, immersed in a book.

Adil Hussain, who matched her talent in ‘English Vinglish’, has a different take. “She may have been an introvert but she was receptive and a great listener and would respond immediately when asked for her point of view. Inhibited yes, but not locked in an ivory tower. Rather, she was open and hence vulnerable,” he says.

Gauri, who came to know her rather well personally, found Sridevi incredibly warm. She recollects how freely she would mingle with co-actors and had fun on the sets once she got to know them. “She may have been shy, but she was equally considerate and would get dabbas of food for me.”

However, there is no denying that the actor who was pure magic on screen was never at ease during her public outings. At IFFI, Goa, in 2017, as camerapersons went berserk, she would smile shyly, never posing like the prima donna that she was. Actually, she spoke little in public and was always her reticent self. Roychoudhry feels, “As opposed to her onscreen avatars, her public image, perhaps, had a touch of artifice.”

Was she unhappy in her personal life, as claimed by RGV, one of her biggest self-confessed fans who dedicated an entire film, ‘Mast’, to Sridevi? Though Roychoudhry does not care to dissect her personal life, he does wonder, “Who knows with certainty what was going on in the mind of the woman for whom cinema was her world.”

Her love for her daughters Janhvi and Khushi and husband Boney Kapoor, insists Gauri, was her biggest strength. Forget the conspiracy theories following her death by accidental drowning in a bathtub in 2018, Boney was smitten from the word go and later left his wife and children to marry her. He was always by her side. In her moments of glory, too, he chose to remain in the shadow. Rather, he took pride in her achievements, especially her ability to adapt, learn Hindi and even trying to understand Punjabi. No mean feat for a South Indian, he would often say.

In his autobiography, Rishi Kapoor, who worked with her in blockbusters ‘Nagina’ and ‘Chandni’, lauded her for singing a Hindi song (‘Chandni, O Meri Chandni’) despite it not being her mother tongue.

An effortless actor, malleability was indeed her strongest suit and she would reinvent herself time and again. After her breakout hit ‘Himmatwala’ in 1983 and a number of southern remakes, like ‘Tohfaa’, she emerged in a yet new avatar in the iconic ‘Mr India’. Director Shekhar Kapur explored the impish, naughty facet of hers as she played a goofy journalist and etched a memorable character. Her performance was so overpowering that critics joked that the film should have been called ‘Miss India’.

In Yash Chopra’s ‘Chandni’, her diva status was affirmed even more as she became the nation’s heartthrob. Her ‘Chandni’ look and chiffon sarees became an emblem of beauty and fashion. While every fan may have a personal favourite, ‘Chaalbaaz’ and ‘Lamhe’ figure prominently. Hailed as the female Bachchan, grapevine has it that she even dared to dictate terms in a Big B film and landed a double role in ‘Khuda Gawah’. As long as she acted, she ruled the marquee. After she embraced domesticity, a 15-year hiatus followed after the superhit ‘Judaai’. Whether the hibernation was a satisfying period or not, “she was always at home on sets”, says Sumeet.

For her swansong, ‘Mom’, she received the National Film Award for Best Actress posthumously. While the film did not find much favour with critics, no one could cast aspersions on her acting prowess or say that she did not deserve the award. Adil asserts, “She would have won international honours had she got scripts of the mettle that could truly explore her talent.”

Good films or bad, her talent was never in doubt. She was honoured with Padma Shri in 2013. As Sumeet puts it, “Ultimately, the camera captures the soul of an actor. Today, we can relate to all her roles and this speaks volumes about her craft.”

But when the world lost her in 2018, had it seen the best of her? “Certainly not,” says Adil. “We only saw glimpses of the beauty of her acting.” Sumeet echoes similar thoughts for her nuanced portrayal in ‘English Vinglish’. It only proved that actors mature like wine. He would have written a role especially for her, maybe something like Meryl Streep’s in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. And that’s exactly how she was described at the Toronto International Film Festival (2012) — ‘Meryl Streep of India’. But epithets can hardly describe the wonder that Sridevi was. Unknowingly perhaps, but she did rewrite the rules for female actors in a male-dominated industry and emerged as a game-changer.

Her daughter, actress Janhvi Kapoor, breathes her inspirational presence around her and feels closest to her when she is facing the camera. During her ‘Dhadak’ days, she confessed to have seen only five of her mother’s films. Actors like Alia Bhatt, too, consider her an idol. When Karan Johar tips the hat to his favourite filmmaker Yash Chopra, it’s also a homage to the chiffon-draped image of Sridevi oozing sensuality. The actor, whose passion apart from acting was painting faces and figures, has left behind vignettes of images from her films which may well be a muse for many. The oddball, the zany, child-woman, lovelorn beloved, diffident housewife, femme fatale… Sridevi could shape-shift into any character and yet remain a child at heart. On her 60th birth anniversary, we need to paraphrase Lee Strasberg’s words, “An actor’s tribute is in his/her work.”

Hope future writings/books cherish the actor she was and grieve for the one she could have been.

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