As I was browsing about Sridevi on my mobile phone while returning home from my office in a Mumbai local train, the lady sitting next to me peering over my shoulders said, “Back in our Tamil Nadu, Sridevi was popular as she acted with all the top actors. But she became an icon only when she entered Mumbai films.”

My co-commuter had summed it up aptly. Sridevi, or Sri as she came to be known in the Hindi film industry, may have acted in 200-odd films in South Indian languages (namely Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada) and was fairly well known in these states till the mid-1980s, but she became a powerhouse performer only when she danced in insanely garish clothes and make-up with the Jumping Jack Jeetendra in the Hindi film Himmatwalaa.

In fact, I still remember, while in college, we never copied her clothes or mannerisms. Instead, we aped the then popular Kannada actors such as Manjula and Aarti. As far as Hindi films went, in those days we girls were fans of ‘Guddi’ Jaya Bahaduri-Bachchan. We loved draping our saris with a long pallu pulled over our shoulders. We sported the forehead fringe haircut like the older actress Sadhana or adorned our hair with white mogra flower gajras like Aarti … but never emulated Sridevi.

Indian actress Sridevi died on Feb 24 in Dubai. In her death the Indian film industry has lost a superstar who paved the way for Bollywood’s female stars of today

Even when she moved over to the Hindi film industry and was transformed into a glamorous doll by directors Yash Chopra, Pankaj Parashar, Feroz Khan and Shekhar Kapur in films such as Chandni, Lamhe, Chaalbaaz, Jaanbaaz and Mr India, fans rarely tried to be like her. Yes, they did get awestruck by looking at her transforming overnight into a diva, but they never emulated her.

This was the difference between Sridevi and her other fellow actors. When she hadn’t attained stardom, she appeared very ordinary, as if she were one of us. She delivered lines in movies in her unaffected voice.

In South Indian films, she was herself. Though many from the Northern parts of the country watched her Hindi film Sadma with Kamal Hassan and loved humming the lullaby Surmayee ankhiyon mein sung by Yasudas, the film didn’t work at the box office. One of the reasons was that Sridevi was herself: a simple girl attired in her rustic clothes communicating with her audience with child-like innocence.

What the Indian audience failed to see or to make sense of was her hold over her performance. She was 20-something in the film but portrayed a character who, having lost her memory, behaved like a child. She remained in the character of a small girl without sliding out of it even for a second. That was her talent.

A huge credit has to go to Sridevi for taking away the focus from heroes to women in an otherwise highly male-dominated Indian film industry. So much so that stories were written keeping her in mind as the central character.

In that context I can recall a scene from Chandni. In the film, a group of friends staying in a Mumbai flat rented out illegally by the owner, a government employee, is thrown out by the cops during their routine nocturnal raids. It’s raining but Chandni (Sridevi) and her friends are shown enjoying the downpour on Juhu beach eating their bhelpuris. Her employer, Lalit Khanna (Vinod Khanna), on seeing her stops his car and asks her what she’s doing on the beach on a rainy night. Drenched in a red sari, happily laughing, shielding her eyes from the pouring rain, she turns to answer him. That scene was so naturally done that every newcomer coming to Mumbai in search of a job and home became Chandni (including yours truly); and thus the diva entered the hearts of millions not only in India but also of those who are admirers of Hindi films all over the world.

The camera was her toy. She became one with it and used it to her advantage. She was great in both romantic and emotional scenes. But I personally liked her more in comic roles. To date, I can’t imagine any female actor, or for that matter any male actor, essay the Charlie Chaplinesque scene in Mr India with such aplomb as Sridevi did, or her role of Anju in Chaalbaaz. In fact, I feel that Sunny Deol never looked as loving in any other film as he did acting as Suraj opposite her nor did Rajinikanth look as helpless in any other film, trying to handle Anju’s mischievousness. Sridevi’s comic timing was unmatched.

What made her unique was that she was at ease with any actor cast opposite her, even if he were 40 years older than her, such as the Telugu actors ANR (Akkeneni Nageshwar Rao) and NTR (N.T. Rameshwar Rao). Even Jeetendra, with whom she did 15-odd films, and Amitabh Bachchan, with whom she was paired in three films, were senior to her by 20 years. She was equally at ease with younger actors such as Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Nagarjun (son of ANR). For her, only the camera mattered.

A huge credit has to go to Sridevi for taking away the focus from heroes to women in an otherwise highly male-dominated Indian film industry. So much so that stories were written keeping her in mind as the central character.

She took a long break from films following her marriage to producer Boney Kapoor and to bring up their two daughters (Jhanvi and Khushi), but when she made her comeback on celluloid, she returned with a bang. Her film English Vinglish directed by Gauri Shinde proved that Sridevi hadn’t lost her touch.

The only hindrance she encountered in Hindi films was the language barrier. Most South Indians speak Hindi with a heavy South Indian accent. Initially, former child actor Baby Naaz (Boot Polish, Devdas) became her voice. As Baby Naaz had a squeaky voice, it became the trademark Sridevi voice. It was with the film Lamhe that Sridevi mastered the Hindi language and started dubbing for her own movies.

In Sridevi’s death, the Indian film industry has lost a superstar because she ruled the industry during a period when it had become completely male-dominated and female leads only played whiny, decorative characters — unlike even the ’50s and ’60s which had female superstars such as Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Vyjayanthimala. Today things have changed. There are many female actors (Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Vidya Balan etc) who don’t accept such one-dimensional roles. And they should be grateful to Sridevi for that.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 4th, 2018