Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Sridevi was a National Star' that was published in Newsband

Sridevi was a National Star

Sridevi Kapoor Ayyappan passed away on Saturday, Sridevi as a child artiste and Amitabh Bachchan, more than 20 years her senior, faced the camera for the first time at the same time. She packed into her short life of 54 years almost 300 films and a career spanning five decades. She is known for the diversity of roles she played not restricted by linguistic or territorial boundaries. She acted with several generations of heroes.

Her first adult role happened at the age of 13, opposite Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. The Hindi remakes Solva Sawan (1979) and Sadma (1983) forced the Hindi film industry to take note. She managed to display her enormous range in Hindi films too. She comfortably swung between parallel streams of critical and commercial hits in Hindi. Chandni, Mr. India, Chaalbaaz and Lamhe showed her versatility — drama, emotion, dance, comedy, even action. The only sad thing is that she could not cross over to international projects.

She was an excellent artist and good entertainer. No other actor has dominated both Tamil and Hindi movie worlds. Her demise is a great shock to her fans all over the world. She was a versatile artist. But her talent, specially in the 'art ' movies has been under-utilised. Her performance would have been at the peak under more intensive directors like Shyam Benegal or Mrinal Sen.

Sridevi is called a National Star. She did not have a normal childhood. She grew up hopping from one set to another, closely guarded by her mom and lawyer-father. In an era when actresses could not vouch for author-backed roles or choose between the parallel cinema wave and mainstream cinema Sridevi’s career encompassed a healthy mix of both. She didn’t complain about the damsel in distress-parts in films The poorly crafted roles that are often written off as ‘commercial’ ones enjoyed new sheen when she essayed them. Her personality was a director’s dream — the mettle, the dances and her comic timing.

What is appreciable is the sincerity with which she played her roles, her live-wire self on screen was a treat to watch. She was a woman assured of her space, stardom and a pay cheque that matched male stars’. She had set a standard that no other heroine could match.