Sridevi, Superstar Who Redefined Contours Of Hindi Cinema
Sridevi, a superstar who redefined contours of new age Hindi Cinema, and whose range of characters represented hues of their age and times, left a unique legacy.
She was born in south, a hindi averse region with its own standards of stardom and glammour cosmos, navigated easily, and was also sought after widely amongst high profile directors from the Cinema heartland, and who by her choice, wit and talent created a nationwide sensation in a career that spanned nearly forty years.
Her impact was so deep that entire generation of actors, from Madhuri Dixit to Kajol reflected an imprint of hers in their acting.
From Sadma To Mr India and from Himmatwala to Mom, her ability to influence cross generations of audiences, directors and critics kept her position and charisma solidly fixed in a highly competitive and often brutal Bollywood. She is often therefore referred as the only female superstar.
Sridevi had extraordinary ability to embody the characters she played with more than just the hint of cinematic truthfulness and genuineness such that the line became as much thin as possible, and eventually characters would then get in turn defined by Sridevi, who'd have enlivened them from reel to real. Often this journey took time, and slowly this would pass on to generations, making her an indisputable star. That was her strength in all her performances : from acting to dancing, with large expressive twinkling eyes carrying those moments in multitude of emotions to audiences so effectively.
And yet, an engima often surrounded her. There was a certain restraint too -- a wall built -- that just stopped short of expressing the real soul inside. That was her personality -- a character embedded in so fiercely maintained privacy about her own self. A performer who just shied away from dethroning the innerself to keep the fortress.
She was a queen who not only dictated the characters she did, but also what others should perceive of her. In those guarded moments of hiding, perhaps somewhere she also yearned for expression for a true moment and person in life.
Very few moments in cinema came close yet they were not so except for one, fleetingly enough, where she submits herself, in words and gesture, outside and inside, acting, dancing and expressing through eyes: "i wish i could give my life to you, my dreams in your heart, oh my love, i wish i bring entire world to your feet " freedom , perhaps, that often escaped her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTuDgmN5cWo&list=RD-klQkGJEsIg&index=5
