Must Watch Films of Sridevi During Lockdown!

5 Films Where Sridevi Proved Her Comic Aptitudes

When it came to  range, Sridevi was  in  league of her own. She could play anything, from  a martyr  in  Nazrana to the super-bitch on Judaai,  from the  child-woman in Sadma  to the protective  mother in Mom.  But that apart I  think no one in Indian cinema could match her comic  skills . Check these out to see what I mean.

Bhagwan Dada: Who  but Sridevi  could  play a  hooker who plays hooky  on  duty. Sridevi  entices  potbellied lechers  into  hotel rooms and then gets them so  drunk that they pass out  before they can do her any damage.  Then she wacks their  money and flees. Sridevi was a  scream as  the pseudo-seductress blindly  in love with Rajinikanth who played  the title role.  Bhagwan is okay,  But the real Dada  of the  film is Sri. I remember  mentioning how  funny she  was  in this film to Sridevi and  she  had laughed  over the fact that I  actually remembered  her in this  film.Yeah , we remember every  moment of yours even in your worst film Himmat Aur Mehnat.

Chaalbaaz:  Playing the twins, or rather  playing WITH the twins  was  child’s play for Sridevi and  she made the  sprightly twin a load of fun, drinking,  gambling, and  swindling everyone in sight and  reducing the poor upright Sunny Deol  to a speechless bundle of  starry-eyed nerves.   Kissike haath na aayegi yeh ladki was  the  goofiest comedic song  since Mr  India. The trick, said Sridevi,  was   to create  a  double  role that won’t be compared with  Hema  Malini’s Seeta Aur Geeta. Bang-on , Sri!

Mr India: Keep the  rest of  the  film to yourself. Just give me  the whole Cha rlie  Chaplin in  Mogambo’s  den  sequence.  Sridevi as Charlie Chaplin  was  infinitely  funnier than  Taika Waititi’s  Adolf Hitler in  Jojo Rabbit(point of comparison  : the  moustache). Shekhar Kapur  told me  about  the sequence:  “It just happened. I thought of Sridevi in a moustache and I immediately thought she’d look nice in a moustache. When I told her about the Charlie Chaplin sequence she picked up all the Chaplin films and watched them all night. She did a perfect replication of Chaplin. I challenge any actress to do that sequence the way Sri did.”  Another classic  of comicality  was  the celebrated Hawa Hawaii song-and-dance where she turned gibberish  into an art form.

Roop Ki  Rani Choron  Ka  Raja: It may  have  been a  boxoffice disaster. But watch her in the song and dance Chai mein  chini. She is  funnier than  she was in  Hawa hawaai. And there is this whole sequence where she played a paan-chewing Marathi  woman  shouting expletives  on  the road.That character had a life of its own. Sridevi had shared, “We worked  as hard on this as  Mr India,  if not more.  Chai mein  chini  had me  in  Chinese  makeup. Everyone was  in splits on the set.”

English Vinglish: Though hers was  a deeply melancholic part  of  a neglected  housewife who  sets out on a journey  of  self-discovery , Sridevi was exceptionally funny  in the sequence where she does a   Michael Jackson takeoff  for  her demanding little son.  From Charlie Chaplin  to  MJ, for Sri the  sky  was  not the  limit.