She has what it takes: Sridevi's comeback with English Vinglish has broken a stereotype, proving age is no factor for a heroine's comeback
By VINAYAK CHAKRAVORTY
PUBLISHED: 21:15 GMT, 12 October 2012 | UPDATED: 21:15 GMT, 12 October 2012
Look who's back with a bang: Sridevi
This has probably never happened in the history of Bollywood. A 49-year-old mainstream actress, absent from the limelight for almost 15 years, makes a comeback in a starring role.
Her role in English Vinglish has won over the fans all over again. What's more, contrary to what was normally seen in her heydays of the eighties, this time critics as well as the cerebral crowd are loving it too.
But then Sridevi has always been an enigma, a departure from all that has forever defined stardom for the average Bollywood heroine over the years.
The press would recall her as a star who avoided giving interviews or resorting to convenient antics to hog off-screen spotlight even in the days when she reigned as Hindi cinema's undisputed number one female star.
Fans would vouch for her innate ability to smoothly mix sex appeal with a peculiar streak of innocence.
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As Mr India director Shekhar Kapur once famously said, Sridevi was almost a 'child woman' on screen - her face seemingly unaware of what her body was doing to her legions of male fans.
English Vinglish was, of course, different. Gauri Shinde's film demanded Sridevi wholly rid herself of the cutesexy charm of yore.
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She plays a middle-class Marathi homemaker draped in the whole nine-yards, conscious of her self-complex of not knowing spoken English in a world that laughs at her ignorance of the language, and yet driven by the steely resolve to prove a point in her own quiet way.
Mainstream superstars are known to be shackled by the very image that takes them to the top.
In Sridevi's case, you cannot think of many instances ba
rring Yash Chopra's Lamhe in 1991 where a script offered her the scope to break free.
If English Vinglish is the season's surprise hit, it is because debutant director Shinde bravely created room for her lead star to move beyond the trademark Hawa hawai image.
You would say that at 49 it was impossible for a senior actress to turn on the formula that worked for her when she was 20.
In an era when every other PYT actress is gunning to score with the oomph quotient, Sridevi had to do something different.
That she has managed to impress despite moving away from the image that made her a phenomenon is itself an achievement in Bollywood, where stars are not encouraged to experiment.
Shinde has said Sridevi is a star who 'is completely there when she faces the camera', describing her as 'a director's actor'.
Uncanny, how her description echoes what Shekhar Kapur said 25 years ago after Mr India became a blockbuster.
He called her a 'switch on, switch off actor' - one who would come alive as soon as she was in front of the camera, only to return to her reclusive self after a shot.
The enigma about Sridevi also makes itself obvious if you consider the actress never really made an effort to stay in the news in the years in between Judaai - her last notable role in 1997 - and English Vinglish.
She belongs to the old school, where glamour is supposed to do the talking instead of wanton media-friendly antics.
Moving away from the limelight, she has after all devoted her entire time to family - husband Boney Kapoor and daughters Jahnvi and Khushi.
She did try a comeback on television in the early 2000s with the sitcom, Mrs Malini Iyer, but not without much impact.
She would tell you she was being patient, waiting for the right role worthy of a comeback.
If English Vinglish has been a triumph, it is probably because Sridevi still takes to the camera as an eager newcomer, best underlined in what she said in an interview recently:
'It's only when people remind me that I am coming back after 15 years that I realise it's been that long. Otherwise, I don't see any difference. People are still warm and there has been no change.'
Sridevi's professional graph has always been marked by a certain cool. When she was on top, she never made a big deal about it.
Today, when she is asked if English Vinglish will open up a second innings in her career, she modestly tells you she would love to face the camera with new projects only if the audience wants to see her.
The audience has given the signal, going by the positive response that English Vinglish has garnered.
For Sridevi to come back, though, she has to be first convinced about the role that is offered to her.
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