Culture

Remembering Sridevi : India's Eternal Dancing Queen

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You think of Sridevi, the first thing you conjure are her big eyes as she aptly described them as shatranj ki goti. I sat still as I heard the news of her being no more. Her tutting, her pirouettes, and that perkiness flashed in my mind trying not to register the truth of her absence. A bit of my childhood, a bit of my growing up... And, as I tried to relive the memories of Sridevi, all my favorite movies came to my mind. So, though writing about movies is not my domain, I just couldn't contain myself sharing my personal memories associated with her name.

Mr. India was the first Sridevi movie I watched at my mamu's (uncle's) place along with all cousins. Those days movie watching was a group activity as only a few people had video cassette players. As children, we were really enamored by this pretty and smart tenant of Mr. India. And, Hawa Hawaaii made it to our hearts. We jumped and rollicked on this song and watching Mr. India became a routine whenever we visited our nani's place.

There was one classmate who did real justice to Main teri naagin, tu hai sapera . She would roll and swing on the floor like Sridevi and we would clap. Sometimes, for fun, we told her, "zara naagin pe naach ke dikha naa, pleeeze (please dance on the nagin song)",..and, the teacher's podium in the classroom became a stage and she would jump on it rather happily to showcase her snake dance.

One night, I must have been 16 or something. I happened to play TV for background noise as I studied. Sadma had just started playing. I saw this young girl with some mental problem. And, I couldn't resist watching the movie, I wasn't mature enough to understand the movie though, but young enough to get really affected. I cried and cried. I wouldn't share with my mother for fear of being scolded. The memory haunted me until I watched it again and cried out once more.

I remember, we ( me and my cousins) would close our room, made our duppattas turn into lehengas, didn't mind moms loose bangles and we would just dance on mere hathon mein..chooriyan of Chandani umpteenth number of times. One cousin could really dance like Sridevi, made eyes like hers and brought in some naughtiness to perk up the song. I just coouldn't manage that. Chandni brought in the romance. All girls who would refused to wear anything but suits were suddently donning colored dupattas over their white kurtas with pride. I got one too. And, I haven't yet seen a wedding sangeet complete wothout this number.

Dancing in the desert is difficult, but Sridevi's feet refuted Jaisalmer's cold dessert at night on morni baagan mein naache adhi raat ma and stole Viren's (Anil Kapoor) heart instantaneously. This was my favorite number too, for years. I always wondered how could one dance with so much ease, so naturally. Dancing was in her bones.

Sridevi's characters were unforgettable, invincible. Each character was strong and she breathed life into it with her versatility. Each character was a good dancer too. For long, I wasn't aware of the fact that she became no 1. Only thing I knew was that she had a special place in my heart. It must've been her uniqueness, her ingenuinety that brought her to fame. Now she is no more. Everyone is talking about how she died. But, I know that she will live forever as the No 1 dancing queen of India.