Happy Brithday Sridevi- The Queen of Bollywood

Sridevi made a comeback with the critically acclaimed English Vinglish.

Actress Sridevi turned 50 on Tuesday. She still has the charm and curves that can give many leading actresses of the Hindi film industry a run for their money. What's more, her critically acclaimed English Vinglish last year has proved that her acting skills are yet to turn rusty.

On her birthday, here are Sridevi's top 10 films that made many go weak in the knees:

1. Jaag Utha Insan (1984): Though it was Himmatwala that launched her into stardom in Bollywood, it was this unsuccessful nugget of a film produced by Rakesh Roshan and directed by the inimitable K. Vishwanath where Sridevi shone as a temple dancer wooed by a Brahmin boy (Rakesh Roshan) and a socio-economically challenged underdog (Mithun Chakraborty). Sridevi danced and emoted as though there was no tomorrow. And as long as she did, we didn't care if there wasn't a tomorrow.

2. Sadma (1983): The true coming of age of one of India's finest actresses. As a girl, who after an accident regresses into childhood, Sridevi conveyed all the nuances of her character's predicament without getting over-cute. The performance is so accomplished and complete that it never ceases to astonish. Sridevi's formidable co-star Kamal Haasan thinks she did the character even better in the Tamil original Moondram Pirai. We could say the same about him.

3. Nagina (1986): An awful film, but what an impact! Sridevi as a snake-woman slithering on the floor dancing to Amrish Puri's music as Lata Mangeshkar sang the chartbuster Main Teri Dushman, Dushman Tu Mera. Does anyone remember anything else about this hideous Harmesh Malhotra creation? 4. Janbaaz (1986): It is strange how Sridevi's legendary reputation is built on songs and dances as much as her breathtaking performances. In Feroz Khan's Janbaaz, she had a brief role as Feroz's beloved. But her presence in the glowing orange chiffon sari dancing to the sound of Har Kisi Ko Nahin Milta, still lingers.

5. Mr. India (1987): A turning point in Sridevi's everlasting romance with the camera. Playing the perky journalist, who hates kids, the actress was just amazing. Shekhar Kapur made her do everything we always wanted her to. If Sridevi's comic timing in the Charlie Chaplin impersonation sequence was impeccable, she oozed sensuality in that iconic blue chiffon sari in the song Kate Nahin Kat Te.

6. Chandni (1989): With this film, Sridevi became a Yash Chopra heroine. Thinned down to a chiseled charmer, and sharpening her subtle emotive skills, Sridevi delivered a knockout performance, which straightway propelled her to the top position. The film was an extended show reel of her talent as she danced, sang, giggled and wept for the love of a tragically wheelchair-bound Rishi Kapoor. Seldom has any Yash Chopra heroine made such sumptuous use of the camera space.

7. ChaalBaaz (1989): The same year as Chandni, Sridevi wowed movie buffs with her double role as the docile Anju and the tomboyish Manju. Though Dilip Kumar and Hema Malini had done the same double role before, Sridevi brought an added zest to the role. Pankaj Parashar let the actress have all the fun that she wanted.

8. Lamhe (1991): Sridevi, as we all know, is addictive. After Chandni, Yash Chopra brought her back to the screen in this bold love story of a girl who dares to love a man old enough to be her father. Sridevi played both the mother and the daughter with such distinctive flair that we wondered, could the same actress do so many different spectrums of emotion in the same film?

9. Army (1996): It is the only film that brought Sridevi face-to-face with Shah Rukh Khan. In this film, there is a sequence where Shah Rukh, playing an army jawaan, is brought home dead. All through the film Shah Rukh plays 'I-am-dead' pranks on Sridevi, so she presumes this is also one of those sick jokes. The way she goes from giggling dismissal to shock and finally a breakdown in that sequence, is a textbook of pitch-perfect acting. Sridevi played a gender-reversed Amjad Khan's role in Sholay of a woman, who hires mercenaries to avenge the villain Danny Denzongpa. As it often happened, Sridevi was far superior to the material offered to her.

10. Judaai (1997): Her last hurrah before she bowed out to play real life wife and mother. Judaai is a crass melodrama directed by the late Raj Kanwar. It features Sridevi at her absolute best. The way she lifts the most mundane of scenes has to be seen to be believed.

11. English Vinglish (2012): Sridevi's comeback film proved once again that Sridevi is indeed irreplaceable.

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Sridevi was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012.

In a film industry of heroes who don't age beyond 30 and heroines beyond 25, comebacks are hard to pull off, especially if you are female and have crossed into the twilight zone of 40 plus. Last year, Sridevi changed that by starring as a decidedly middle-aged homemaker, low on glamour and grammar, in English Vinglish. 15 years away from the arc-lights have not dimmed Sridevi's talent or herstar quality and now, at 50, she is a bona fide star once again, a feat last achieved by a 58-year-old Amitabh Bachchan whose career was resurrected by Mohabbatein in 2000.

It all started with 1967's Kandan Karunai in which a four-year old Sridevi starred in Kandhan Karunaiopposite Tamil great Sivaji Ganesan. Little Sridevi, who was born into a lawyer's family in Sivakasi, then appeared in a number of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies. Her performance in 1971's Poombatta won her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist. In 1976, 13-year-old Sridevi scored her first role as leading lady in Moondru Mudichu, opposite two men who would become Tamil cinema's biggest stars - Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. By the time Sridevi made her Bollywood debut as a leading lady in 1979's Solva Sawan, she was a name to reckon with down South. Sridevi continued to appear in Tamil and Telugu cinema well into the Eighties, after becoming a Bollywood superstar.

Solva Sawan, which co-starred Amol Palekar and flopped at the box office, was not Sridevi's first Hindi outing. In the hit 1975 film Julie, Sridevi played the heroine's younger sister. Her Bollywood breakthrough came four years after Solva Sawan in 1983 with Sadma, a remake of Moondram Piraistarring herself and Kamal Haasan, and the blockbuster Himmatwala opposite Jeetendra. Despite the critical acclaim Sadma received, it was Himmatwala, with its peppy dance number Naino Mein Sapna, that made Sridevi a star. In 1986, Sridevi appeared in Nagina as a shape-shifting snake-woman, a role that had been turned down by many actresses including Sridevi's reported rival Jaya Prada. Nagina was a surprise hit and made Sridevi the undisputed queen of box office charts, a position she occupied for the rest of the Eighties and late into the Nineties.

In the wake of Nagina, came a guest appearance in Janbaaz that all but eclipsed lead actress Dimple Kapadia's performance. The next year, in 1987, Sridevi delivered another scene-stealing performance as a journalist in Mr India. Her comic take-off on Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp and the songs Hawa Hawai and Kaate Nahi Katate ensured that Sridevi held her own against Anil Kapoor's protagonist and Amrish Puri's megavillain Mogambo.

In 1989, Sridevi starred in two very different but hugely successful films. She played a double role inChaalbaaz, a remake of Hema Malini's famous Seeta Aur Geeta, and set the benchmark for "the Yash Chopra heroine" in Chandni. A second Yash Chopra movie followed in 1991 with Lamhe, an inter-generational love story co-starring Anil Kapoor that has been cited by the late director as a personal favourite film. Lamhe was a box office flop but cleaned up at the Filmfare Awards, including a Best Actress win for Sridevi.

In the next six years, Sridevi starred in films like the ill-fated Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja and crime thriller Gumraah, ending with her last hurrah, 1997's Judaai opposite Urmila Matondkar and frequent collaborator and now brother-in-law Anil Kapoor. The previous year, Sridevi had married producer Boney Kapoor, Anil's brother. After Judaai, she quit movies and settled down to being a wife and mother. She and Boney Kapoor had two daughters named Jhanvi and Khushi. She would not return to a starring role for the next 15 years, in rookie director Gauri Shinde's English Vinglish. English Vinglishwas made with a cast of mostly unknown actors with the sole exception of Sridevi as an under-confident mother-of-two who takes English lessons and discovers a sense of self and identity as she does so.

At her peak, Sridevi was considered unique because, in a celluloid era dominated by heroes, masala movies and gender stereotypes, she had roles written for her and starred in films like Nagina, ChaalBaaz, Chandni and Lamhe, all of which centred around her character. Despite stiff competition from actresses like her contemporary Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi is considered the first real female superstar in Bollywood. She won five Filmfare Awards across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu cinema. In 2012, she was awarded the Padma Shri.