EVERGREEN SRIDEVI - A LEGEND BORN TO ACT| In Memoriam - Page 100

Originally posted by: opsora2090

Sreedhar PillaiVerified account @sri50 6m6 minutes ago

According to an agency report #BoneyKapoor has arrived in Chennai enroute to #Rameswaram with the urn carrying #Sridevi's ashes to be immersed in the sea near there.

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Originally posted by: Empyreanism

Already one week since she left and it's still difficult to register she's no more and we won't be seeing her again. Really unfair that she has been snatched away from us so suddenly and so tragically. She still had so much to offer to us...such a gifted talent. Like some of you pointed out, though I loved her as an actress and she's been part of my early childhood, I wasn't really a die hard fan as such guess because she wasn't active while I was growing up...it was more about Kareena for me as a fan. Strangely, her death has affected me a lot which has never happened for any star. Feels as if a member of my family has died. I didn't even feel like celebrating Holi yesterday and I didn't. On the day of her funeral, I kept checking the live updates at work only to catch a glimpse of her. Even while lying down there, she looked like a superstar. And I am glad that she was given a farewell befitting a queen because she truly is the queen of the silver screen. This past week has gone by watching her songs, scenes and interviews. I can't imagine what her family must be going through especially her daughters. May God give them strength to live with this.

The passing away of Sridevi for me is no less than a personal loss. With my friendship with Boney Kapoor having stood the test of time despite differences, arguments, tiffs, quarrels and even major fights over some of my reviews of films either produced by him or starring brothers Anil and Sanjay Kapoor and much later, son Arjun Kapoor we've been close friends.

Before Sridevi took on the Kapoor surname, she was just a great actress of Hindi and South cinemas for me. I had interacted with her only occasionally, and the interactions were purely professional. I remember my first meeting with her, years ago. She was already a force to reckon with, I was wet behind the ears, having joined my father in our business of publication of film trdae magazine Film Information. I had gone on a film set to interview her. She had spoken to me without a fuss and after the interview, I had asked her to share her address with me so that I could mail (there were no e-mails then) her "two copies of Film Information carrying her interview. Very gently, she had told me, "Just write Sridevi, Madras' on the envelope, it will reach me. There was no arrogance in her reply but I felt foolish for having asked her such a silly question.

After that, we kept meeting at shootings mostly but, as I said, the meetings were brief and strictly professional. Despite being close to Boney, I didn't realise that he was seeing Sridevi not until he told me one day that he was planning to marry her. It was probably because although Boney and I used to speak over the telephone at least five or six times daily, we only discussed films, box-office figures and trade talks, nothing else.

A couple of years passed. Sridevi delivered Janhvi first and Khushi then but I rarely saw her. My friendship with Boney continued. By then, we had had some fights but had become friends after brief spells of not talking to one another.

It was after a few years that I started meeting Sridevi with Boney as his better half. She must've known about our friendship because she once told me, "Komal, you know something. I've never seen Boney so much at peace with himself and with such a broad smile on his face as when he is talking to you on telephone. Tell me, what do you both talk that he is always so happy while talking to you! I had laughed out loud then and had replied, "Sridevi ji, trust me, we talk only trade, nothing but trade. The lady had continued, "Main Boney se hamesha poochhti hoon, how come, you don't have the same smile when you speak with me? I laughed even louder, and she joined me, laughing indulgently and innocently.

I remember another incident when Sridevi had made me laugh a lot. There was a time when we used to run annual quiz contests for actors in our bumper Diwali issues. I remember one such quiz contest. To corner the stars, we asked them trade-related questions, although very basic. Of course, many of the stars didn't know many of the answers, and Sridevi was among them. While I was asking her the questions, she had tried her level best to bribe' her way through because she didn't know the answers. "Komal, I'll feed you hot idlis and dosas if you increase my points or prompt me the correct answers, she had joked and gone into peals of laughter. She had realised the irony that Boney had trade matters at his finger tips while she was struggling for the correct answers. "Aie aie yo, she had wailed, "what will Boney ji say, when he sees my points? Komal, you have to help me, aap ko thoda toh help karna chahiye! It was this child-like quality which made her so different from the other top stars.

On another occasion, we were in Delhi where Boney had taken a media contingent to cover the shooting of his Milenge Milenge. Sridevi had accompanied Boney and had narrated a rather cute incident about Janhvi who was a kid then. Sridevi used to often tell Janhvi that she should study hard and become a doctor when she grew up. Like any normal child, Janhvi had parroted the line that she would become a doctor. Recalled Sridevi in Delhi, "One day, we had guests at home. One of them asked Janhvi what she wanted to be when she grew up. Promptly, Janhvi replied, Actress'. I nudged her and showed my displeasure because she did not answer Doctor'. Realising my unhappiness, Janhvi tried to reassure me by saying, Mom, I'll play a doctor in one film.'

Sridevi doted on Boney whom she fondly referred to as Papa', probably because her daughters call him that. For Boney, she was Jaan'. Papa had asked Jaan to make a painting for my new house which he wanted to gift me at the griha pravesh ceremony in 2011. Boney had told me even while the interiors of the new house were being done, to keep a particular wall in a particular room vacant for Sridevi's painting. The house-warming ceremony saw the lovely couple come to wish me and my family but instead of the painting, Boney came with another gift. I had forgotten about the painting he had spoken of, till one day, very recently, Boney asked me if the painting was still adorning that particular room in my house. I told him that he had not gifted me Sridevi's painting. The perplexed look on Boney's face said it all he had been under the impression that the painting had reached my house. But it hadn't. "Where's the painting? he asked me. "I don't know, I never saw it, I replied helplessly. "But Sri made it for you, he emphasised, adding, "My God, where has it landed? Sri had made three paintings one for Salman, another for Satish Kaushik, and the third for your home. The worried look on Boney's face stayed for a while thereafter as he tried to desperately recall if he had given the painting to anybody else. As if to reassure himself, he added, "But how could I give it to any one when it was made for your home!

If Boney was unhappy about Sridevi's painting not reaching its correct destination, Sridevi used to be unhappy when Boney and I had differences which were, as mentioned earlier, rare but mostly over my reviews of his films. We must've fought around seven or eight times during the last 23-24 years when Sridevi and Boney lived as a couple. At least on a couple of occasions, Sridevi had told me, "Komal, please don't fight with Boney ji. He feels miserable when he stops talking to you. I used to reply, "But so do I. She used to shoot back, "Then why do you both fight? You both are so fond of one another... stop fighting, please. I never asked Boney this but I am sure, she must have advised him too to not fight with me ever.

Look, Sridevi ji, I didn't fight with your Papa' for having let you go away so soon although I had a good mind to do that! And do you know, Sridevi ji, what he told me when I met him at Celebration Sports Club where your mortal remains lay on 28th February? He said, "Komal, uss painting ko dhoondh. Search for Sri's painting. It was made for you!

Farewell, Sri...

Sridevi's life remains incomplete, like a book with the final chapters missing

Sridevi | Vishnu V. Nair

I will not take the usual tribute' route, and claim any special closeness to Sri over the years that we knew each other. Let me focus on her devastated husbandthe portly Boney Kapoorinstead. And, provide two comparatively recent incidents that might illustrate the scale of his devotion to the woman he fell in love with at first sight. A month or so ago, I was chatting with a mutual friend in the lobby of a posh Delhi hotel, when Boney walked in, spotted us, and came straight up to me with an accusatory expression in his eyes. "You did not like Mom,'' he declared. It was not a question. He had read my opinion on a blog. Before I could reply, he added, "Sri was so fantastic in that roleshe is the best! It was a flat statement and needed no response from me. I offered none. He was like a wounded grizzly bear, puzzled and hurt that anybody in this world could not see and appreciate what was so evident to himSridevi's perfection. He was obsessed with his wife, and made no bones about it. We exchanged numbers, and that led to a steady stream of images of Sri sent by her fida hubbySri in Russia, Sri at assorted events, Sri laughing, Sri rejoicing. Every single image was accompanied by a gushing description of Sri. I was touched and amused. I chuckled, "The man is besotted after so many years. Lucky Sri!

Soon after that encounter, I ran into Sri and shared the almost daily exchanges between me and Boney. She laughed indulgently, and said, "He also sends the same images to me, in case I have missed seeing them. I feel so embarrassed! Each time I dress up to go out, he clicks pictures and says, "Look! How beautiful you are! This colour really suits you! It may have been our last interaction. I did spot her at Tina Ambani's uber glam 60th birthday celebrations a few weeks later, but we were at opposite ends of the lawn. For a minute I didn't recognise the statuesque stunner, clad in a clinging red gown (with lipstick to match), glossy hair cascading on to her bare shoulders. She looked no more than 30 years old. That night, she was as she remained till the endaloof and silent, not moving around and greeting members of her fraternity. She left socialising to her more talkative husband. The same love-struck man who, according to media reports, had to suffer the ultimate misfortune of discovering his beloved wife's body in a bathtub, after allegedly breaking down a heavy bathroom door.

The songs and dances she made immortal are being watched over and over again, as admirers strive to deconstruct the Sri magic. That is going to be a near impossible challenge. Sri was enigmatic and mysterious. Not by design, I might add. I believe she was painfully shy and extremely diffident in reality. Always guarded, always watchful. It was only when the cameras were rolling that she actually came to life. She had a magic switch within, perhaps. A switch she activated exclusively to perform on film. It was only the reel life she gave herself to sans inhibition, sans filters. This dual identity may have been the biggest unresolved issue in her life.

Final journey: Sridevi's funeral procession in Mumbai. Anil Kapoor (bottom left) and Boney Kapoor (top) | Amey Mansabdar

Such is the irony of Sridevi's story that she remained lonely in life and lonely in death. Surrounded though she was with all the trappings of wealth, she may have been completely emotionally bankrupt within. If one can rely on speculative accounts of film industry people, especially those who knew her as a frightfully young child actor down south, she lived and died in isolation. A trapped, fragile bird. I looked at a photograph of a prepubescent Sri, sitting bare-chested on [former Tamil Nadu chief minister J.] Jayalalithaa's lap, and my heart broke. She must have been six or seven at the time. And, already working full-time in an exploitative industry. We know very little about her as a person, what she went through, what she felt... she preferred it that way. She barely opened her mouth on the sets, and stayed away from parties altogether. When she arrived in Bollywood, it was with a highly controlling, domineering mother in tow. Producers accepted the package deal reluctantly. Journalists keen to crack through her expressionless, stony facade, came away frustratedher standard response to any question was, "Ask mummy. After mummy died, Sri seemed lost for a while, as if she were looking for some straw to cling on to. Well, she found a large rock instead. Boney appeared on the scene and took total charge of her life. It must have been an exceedingly hard period for her, as she was labelled the other woman' who broke up a loving marriage. Sri, unwittingly, was following in the footsteps of her predecessors from the Southgorgeous stars like Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini, Rekha and Jaya Prada, all of whom had fallen for married heroes after coming to Bollywood. Her meteoric career was pretty astonishing, and hugely successful. This, for a reserved, secretive girl who spoke not a word of Hindi, but was willing to work hard and make it, no matter what it took. Well, Sri certainly made it. And, how! Hema Malini in her tribute said, "Sridevi was born to act. Too true. One superhit followed another, and she became the unchallenged darling of the masses. Some of her item numbers' are iconic today. But when you watch the clips, it is obvious that Sri was bringing something extra to the table that the others didn't possess. Call it the X factor. Or, plain oomph. I call it Sri-ness'an irresistible combination of sexuality and innocence. A voluptuous body with a child's wide-eyed face.

What could possibly have gone wrong in her carefully scripted fairy tale? She bagged the man, married him and produced two lovely girls. The film industry treated her with utmost respect, which she had rightfully earned over the years. In retrospect, perhaps it was too perfect a life! Who knows what demons haunted her, once the make-up came off, and she stepped out of the elaborate couture garments and heavy jewellery that had become her trademark of late? She had no known friends in Bollywood, even though everyone claimed to like her. Did they even know Sri? Did she know herself ? Or, had she inadvertently become a prisoner of her own image?

Someone sent me the link to the last commercial she shot. It will be released posthumously. It shows Sri playing a super cool', happening' mother. She is animated and vivacious, as she dances to rap tracks, her mobile face and expressive eyes, delighting and charming audiences once more, reminding them painfully of the star they had showered unconditional love on for thirty-odd years. The void Sri leaves behind will be hard to fill. Like [Marilyn] Monroe. Like Whitney Houston... she will be deified in death. And, glorified forever. This is how it works for very beautiful, very gifted, very fragile stars who die under mysterious circumstances, and die early. Though, one wonders: what is early'? Would we have responded differently had she passed at 64, and not 54? Most certainly. Sridevi's life remains incomplete, like a book with the final chapters missing. Her young daughters have a gigantic legacy to take forward. Her death has certainly acted like an overdue wake-up call for thousands of women who have been trying desperately to cling on to unrealistic self-images of youth and perfection. Maybe we are all guilty for Sridevi's untimely death. We never wanted her to age. And, she tried a bit too hard not to disappoint us..