February 2018 brought with it devastating news. Sridevi was no more. An at-the-time inexplicable drowning incident in the UAE whilst the veteran acting legend was attending nephew Mohit Marwah's wedding festivities, left everyone baffled.
6 years on, her legacy only appears to be further cementing itself in the conscience of people. Daughter and actor Janhvi Kapoor for one, has been rather vocal about honouring her mother, one project at a time, through her craft. Carving women's worth in cinema Sridevi kickstarted her glorious career spanning decades at the tender age of 4.
While she of course initially catered to the templated, reductive tropes for women when it came to her choice in films, she soon enough wielded her stardom to catapult herself into the then-nascent era of women-oriented films. In a recent interview, remembering the legacy established by her mother and her peers, Janhvi highlighted how women-centric cinema did not necessarily need to be a masala flick to have audience pull. Waheeda Rehman's Khamoshi (1970), Rekha's Khubsoorat (1980) and Ijaazat (1987) and Sridevi's Sadma (1983) were a few examples cited by the actor.
It is worth noting here that Janhvi's second feature film was Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020). The film may have been severely panned, but it actually set the tone for the kind of films one could expect the young actor to put her time and energy into. To her credit, Janhvi has categorically attempted to steer clear of commercial tropes, trying to consistently give audiences a little bit more than the rest of her peers.
Romancing the female gaze Sridevi ensured that even in films which featured her as the quintessential love interest, she was taking the lead front and center with the hero essentially playing second fiddle. While this may not seem path-breaking as such in today's day and age, it made for quite the moment back in the decades. What could be more potent specimens of this than Yash Chopra's Chandni (1989) and Lamhe (1991)? Speaking of Janhvi, Sridevi was incredibly instrumental in signing off on how the former's acting debut Dhadak (2018) shaped up.
Though Sridevi never got to see the final cut, passing away a few months before the film made it to the theatres, it is safe to say Janhvi's role was more than that of a mere prop. Janhvi appreciably, has taken the effort forward. The most recent example of this happens to be one of her earlier releases this year — the Rajkummar Rao-starrer Mr and Mrs Mahi .
A post shared by Janhvi Kapoor (@janhvikapoor) 2022 direct-to-OTT release Mili also fits the bill, starring Janhvi in the lead with Sunny Kaushal essentially playing an ornamental supporting role. Giving purpose to comedy Circling back to Sridevi, it doesn't take much to see why she was dubbed 'the first female superstar" of Indian cinema. The late actor enjoyed a pan-Indian stronghold decades before 'pan-India' was even a concept.
One thing that accelerated Sridevi's journey to superstardom was undoubtedly her ability to pick scripts which struck a balance between letting the heroine shine beyond the ambit of male gaze while ensuring the final product was well-coated in infallible cinematic masala. Raj Kanwar's Laadla (1994) and Judaai (1997) hit home in this regard. In a hilarious twist, Sridevi played the 'man' in the film (in essence of course), with the actual male lead — Anil Kapoor in both cases — being subjected to objectification, in rather 'innovative' ways.
The sarcasm is implied here. Be it Judaai in which Anil's character is traded off by his wife for a better life or Laadla where he is chosen for marriage with the intention of being taught a lesson; it to-date, is amusingly refreshing to see early examples of the script being flipped on men for a change. Sridevi remained true to her legacy when she decided to resume her tryst with the camera.
In 2012 she made a much-applauded comeback with R Balki's English Vinglish . The film addressed feminism, casual misogyny, self-worth, and the subdued but never ending English versus Hindi debate, all neatly packed into arguably one of the most wholesome and feel-good films to have come from Bollywood in recent years. And Sridevi shone in it, through and through.
In the very same light, Janhvi has been immensely criticised for how much justice she has been able to do to the kind of roles she has signed on for. But there still is a lot to appreciate when it comes to the variety in range her filmography boasts of, also attempting to strike a balance between social-messaging and good old entertainment. Roohi (2021) and Good Luck Jerry (2022) come to mind here.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Almost 5 years after her comeback, Sridevi graced the screen once again, in what would be her last release. Yes, Mom (2017) flew under the radar. But the film which featured her in the role of a mother who would stop at nothing to bring justice to her step-daughter was a dead ringer for the experimental choices her on-screen legacy stands defined by.
Sridevi was also posthumously honoured with a National Film Award for her work in the film. More recently, daughter Janhvi starred in political thriller Ulajh which released earlier this month. Again, the film received criticism for lacking any entertainment value and being overwrought in it's writing.
Why Ulajh deserves a mention however, is that, beyond the flaws the film represents Janhvi's adamancy to persist on a path that is still less taken for an 'A-lister' like her, even when a plethora of regressive yet moneymaking scripts stand well within reach. A post shared by Janhvi Kapoor (@janhvikapoor) Shashi lives on through Nisha Janhvi isn't really one for posting fan-made edits to her social media handles. This one time however, she probably couldn't hold back.
She kept mum through the storm Bawaal (2023) was facing over its disproportionate references to the Holocaust. However, in a small sign of support for her film, Janhvi at the time had shared an edit to her Instagram stories which professed 'Shashi would have loved Nisha'. Shashi was Sridevi's wildly popular comeback role in English Vinglish .
The video went on to mirror scenes from the film which when stripped off their contexts, just featured 2 wide-eyed women, finding themselves in a foreign land. A post shared by Radha (@janhvisupremacy) Come October, Janhvi will be making her official Telugu debut with Jr NTR's Devara . "Somehow it makes me feel closer to my mom, to be in that environment, as well as to hear and speak in that language.
It just felt like it was the right time, I felt I was gravitating towards it", shared the actor during an interview with PTI. Sridevi would have been 61 years old today..
