Do you remember her ability to play the petulant heiress in Ladlaa? (“you understand? You better understand!! She snapped) The hassled wife in Judaai who agrees to sell her husband after years of poverty? How she played those greys so easily. The absolute ease with which she pulled off those costumes in Tohfa? The vulnerability in Gumrah? The grandness of the heist of Roop Ki Raani Choro Ka Raja? How she basically gave India a “Naagin dance” of its own? Her best dance duets were with Amrish Puri, Bob Cristo in HawaHawai and Sunny Deol in Chaalbaaz! How she channeled Charlie Chaplin even better than Raj Kapoor? How she straddled Indian and western dance? How in HawaHawai she could make fun of formal dancing and still be the best dancer? I wish we had appreciated her more when she was alive instead of focussing on her personal life, and judging her choices. I wish we had told her what she meant to us when she was around. I wish all these exuberant actresses of 80s / 90s are told how much we loved them and the effort they put in, in terrible conditions to build a “Bollywood”, instead of clubbing all of 80s and 90s as regressive and the worst cinema. I wish they are told that it’s easier to pull off author backed realistic cinema, cut down on makeup, wear cotton saris of now, than what they were expected to do. I wish we’d told Sridevi we appreciated the energy she put into dances including the gibberish: Gadbad ho gayi, seeti baj gayi. And how nothing was lovelier than her sarcasm dripping “Balmaa” to Shakti Kapoor.
Let us all pray her soul rests in peace and incarnated for more useful cosmic role and responsibility. Though 54 was not an age to go but perhaps this costume for soul in this life was only for the intense experience she gained and flutter she created in the life around her. God Bless her soul.
Do you remember her ability to play the petulant heiress in Ladlaa? (“you understand? You better understand!! She snapped) The hassled wife in Judaai who agrees to sell her husband after years of poverty? How she played those greys so easily. The absolute ease with which she pulled off those costumes in Tohfa? The vulnerability in Gumrah? The grandness of the heist of Roop Ki Raani Choro Ka Raja? How she basically gave India a “Naagin dance” of its own? Her best dance duets were with Amrish Puri, Bob Cristo in HawaHawai and Sunny Deol in Chaalbaaz! How she channeled Charlie Chaplin even better than Raj Kapoor? How she straddled Indian and western dance? How in HawaHawai she could make fun of formal dancing and still be the best dancer? I wish we had appreciated her more when she was alive instead of focussing on her personal life, and judging her choices. I wish we had told her what she meant to us when she was around. I wish all these exuberant actresses of 80s / 90s are told how much we loved them and the effort they put in, in terrible conditions to build a “Bollywood”, instead of clubbing all of 80s and 90s as regressive and the worst cinema. I wish they are told that it’s easier to pull off author backed realistic cinema, cut down on makeup, wear cotton saris of now, than what they were expected to do. I wish we’d told Sridevi we appreciated the energy she put into dances including the gibberish: Gadbad ho gayi, seeti baj gayi. And how nothing was lovelier than her sarcasm dripping “Balmaa” to Shakti Kapoor.
Let us all pray her soul rests in peace and incarnated for more useful cosmic role and responsibility. Though 54 was not an age to go but perhaps this costume for soul in this life was only for the intense experience she gained and flutter she created in the life around her. God Bless her soul.
Sach main aisa bhi koi karta hai lost a part of my childhood