DNA Edit: Sridevi will be missed

On Sunday, Indians woke up to the news of Sridevi passing away. Disbelief was a common reaction. A few even thought it to be a nasty rumour spreading wild and without any basis in fact. But that was not to be. The diva who acted and danced and charmed her way into the hearts of millions of Indians was suddenly no more. A Padma Shri awardee, Sridevi in her illustrious career captured many shades of the human experience. From a naïve village girl to a glamour goddess or a mother charting a complex course through the English language, she executed these roles with her brand of elan. 

One of the very few actresses to make a successful crossover from South Indian cinema, she gradually found herself at the top of the Bollywood pecking order and occupied the prime position for a long time to come. When her Hindi debut, Solva Savaan, in 1978 and later Sadma sank without much success at the box office, she reinvented herself in Rajendra Rao’s Himmatwala and bewitched a generation of men with her grace and beauty. 

After Himmatwala, came Nagina and Mr India, which cemented Sridevi’s position as the most sought-after leading lady of her times. However, it is her legacy in southern cinema that dwarfs the shadow she cast over Bollywood. It was the path breaker movie, 16 Vayathinile, in which Sridevi starred opposite Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth that catapulted not just her but also Haasan and Rajinikanth into the limelight. From thereon, she went on to act in 21 movies with Haasan and 20 movies with Rajinikanth, many of them major box-office hits. 

In 2012, in her comeback in English-Vinglish, she proved, to one and all, that her acting skills were second to none as the movie became a sleeper hit all the while gathering critical acclaim. The Tinseltown is all the poorer for her death.