Remembering Sridevi

With her sudden death, cinema has lost one of its most luminous lights forever. Instep remembers the iconic star.

The case so far

This past Saturday, actor par excellence Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, better known as Sridevi, 54, was found dead in her hotel room at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai. Though it was reported earlier that the cause was a massive heart attack, it has now been ruled out. On Monday, Dubai police concluded that Sridevi had died of ‘accidental drowning’ in her hotel bathtub after losing consciousness. The case was been handed over to the Dubai Public Prosecutor for further investigation, to try and determine the exact circumstances that led to the sudden and untimely death of the megastar.

Arjun Kapoor flew to Dubai to be with his father Boney Kapoor while legal formalities were being completed. Sridevi’s mortal remains were finally released by Dubai police yesterday around 2pm for embalming and the remains arrived in Mumbai last night.

Sridevi’s manner of death does bring to mind the death of another iconic woman, the American singer Whitney Houston who was found face-down in a bathtub with drug paraphernalia nearby. Her report also mentioned ‘accidental drowning’ as a cause of death. Sridevi’s blood report also indicated traces of alcohol in her system.

The media has been in overdrive since Sunday morning, as everything from her drinking habits to her cosmetic surgeries have been the subject of discussion. A number of television shows have virtually alluded to murder as the cause of her death without waiting for the official statement from the Dubai Prosecution. News channels have stooped so low that one of India’s top channels last night had a host standing next to a bath tub with a glass of wine on top with hashtag #MautKaBathtub.

But the person in question was so much more than the sensational coverage that is following her, even in death. As one of her biggest fans, I’d like to remember the star and her meteoric rise to fame.

First interaction

Having spent half of my childhood defending Sridevi as the number one heroine and the ultimate idol ahead of Madhuri Dixit, even though the nineties were not kind to her, I finally had the opportunity to meet Sridevi in the year 2014.

I had just moved to the U.A.E. and started writing for local papers when I learned that Sridevi was coming to Dubai to attend an annual South Indian Awards ceremony. I knew that the time had come when I would finally get to see her. I found out details about her hotel and flight, which was expected to arrive past midnight. Sitting in the lobby for more than an hour, news came that one of her bags was misplaced. Hence, it was taking a while for the diva to arrive. I checked at the counter and they assumed I was part of the ‘receiving team’. The Lebanese staff that was supposed to give the bouquet of flowers to Sridevi had to leave and as luck had it, out of nowhere the hotel manager requested if I could present the bouquet instead.

She arrived with her family in style, and softly said, ‘Thank you’ when she saw the flowers in my hand. I did not want to shake hands with her. She was my superstar, my Demigod. I did not want to accept that she was real. I asked if I could drop her to the room and she said ‘Haan please!’ She was staying in 707 then, and on the way she said to Boney Sir in the elevator, ‘Thank God it is not 007’. I got the courage to ask for a picture and all the way from the elevator to her suite, I tried to tell her just how much it meant to me to be able to walk with her. I also told her that the Charlie Chaplin scene from Mr. India to me was an apex in comedy. She thanked me again by joining her hands and I left the room. The thought of that interaction still gives me goosebumps.

Last December, I met her again at the Masala Awards in Dubai. She seemed very excited about her film Mom and the appreciation it was getting and was equally happy to learn that several Pakistani stars had joined her at the event.

“I don’t believe in divides for art, I loved working with Sajal and Adnan, there should be no boundaries…” she said at the event and won many more fans for saying it during such politically divisive times.

As soon as she received her award, she was taken backstage where a number of Pakistani stars such Mahira Khan, Mawra Hocane, Saba Qamar and Meera were present. This is where the iconic pictures featuring her with Pakistan’s leading stars were taken and through it all, she greeted every Pakistani star with utmost respect. I wanted to ask her more questions but she politely said, “Bhaiyya boht questions pooch liye aapne.” I knew the queen was not in the mood to hold court now.

The actor, the star and the unprecedented stardom

The reign of Sridevi has been a record of sorts in the heroine sweepstakes. She had been at the top for the longest spell among the Indian screen’s queen bees. She successfully stormed the bastion of Hindi films with Himmatwala and became part of Jeetendra’s Madras machinery, which regularly cranked out formula films. With Sadma, she won her first National Award.

The advent of Sridevi coincides with the end of the Hema-Rekha era. The Rati-Padmini brigade simply did not have impressive star value and the 5’7’’ tall Sridevi soon dwarfed all competition. She was the highest paid actress of the ‘80s which earned her the tag of ‘Female Amitabh Bachchan’ and in the patriarchal age of Indian cinema to consistently deliver strong performances and box office successes was a singular achievement that few can manage even in this day and age. Though so many of us remember her for her work in Hindi films, it is true that she had tremendous works to her credit in Tamil and Telugu films and some in Kannada and Malayalam cinema, making her a truly versatile Indian actor.

In the late ‘80s, in films like Nagina, Chaandni and Chaalbaz, she played with an awesome array of expressions, winning the audience and critics alike. But films like Lamhe, Khuda Gawah and Gumrah though running testaments to her talent, proved to be economic non-performers. In 1997, after her last super hit Judaai, she bid adieu to films and settled into a new phase of life.

After a hiatus of 15 years, she decided to come back with English Vinglish and what a comeback that was! Hers was the most successful comeback as her film received a very positive response (internationally as well) from the audience, so much so that Sridevi was being hailed as the Meryl Streep of India. Her film Mom, in which she was paired opposite Adnan Siddiqui as per Karan Johar should be studied at acting schools on ‘how an actor should perform the scenes where they have to break-down’.

The final bow

Sridevi, who had lavished 50 years on films, continued her single-minded pursuit of the superlative till her last breath. Her rich legacy of work will ensure that she is remembered in reverence whenever somebody will mention that one magical word – Sridevi.

– Sadiq Saleem is a Dubai based entertainment journalist. He is also an Instep & Something Haute correspondent and can be contacted on his page fb/sidsaidso.