Hawa Hawai - No more

The song Hawa Hawai from the ever green movie 'Mr. India' was immortalized by two ladies. The singer offscreen, who has a vast work in her name and is blessed with wonderful voice, Ms. Kavita Krishnamurthy and on screen by Sridevi, who with her funny dance moves and expressions made that song etched in our memories for a lifetime. She breathed her last in Dubai by accidental drowning and the whole nation wept for her and felt sad for her sudden departure. She had so much potential.

I was in school when I first saw her in movies. Those were the typical hero centered movies (Tohfa and the like) directed by south Indian directors and where she just had to dance and look pretty. But her performance in the movie 'Sadma' blew me out completely. Her role left a deep impression on me. I was very young to decipher the melancholic end but whatever I understood made me feel so sorry for the male character who loses his mental balance in the end. Sridevi did a great job acting as a small girl trapped in a woman's body due to an accident and memory loss. I watched a few more movies where she was also a part, but I didn't really like the characters she played. In those days women centric movies were hardly made. The actress was left to do dumb roles or dance with the hero.

I also loved her in the movie 'Chandni'. She looked ethereal and she danced very well in the movie. The songs were good and so was her character. She gave justice to bubbly Chandni in the first half and also the demure and introvert Chandni in the later half due to heartbreak. The movie 'Lamhe', again a Yash Raj movie gave her the screen presence and she played the double role of a mother and daughter very well. She evolved as an actress with time and matured to do serious and sensible roles.

Her best performance for me was in the movie English Vinglish. She looked and acted so vulnerable in that movie that my heart went out to her. Her constant fiddling with her own identity, her low self confidence and then her demeanor after she masters the language is just too good. No one else would have acted better than her. The role was very meaty and etched out only for her.

Her personal life was always in the limelight. She fell in love with a Bollywood director who was already married with two kids and that man walked out from his marriage to be with her. Love knows no bounds and has no logic. His first wife died of cancer just before her son's debit film and like wicked karma, Sridevi also passed away just before her daughter's debut film. Can it be just coincidence or something else? Questions unanswered. Reasons unknown. Destiny! What else?

Sridevi dutifully carried out all the responsibilities of a wife and mother and suddenly left just when her daughter needed guidance and grooming to face the bad big world of Bollywood. Her poor husband! Both his wives are no more and he has four kids to take care of. Life is so unpredictable. Who would have thought that Sridevi would lose her life in a relative's wedding, that too away from home, in Dubai? She looked so happy in the wedding celebration videos. Who knows beyond that happy face what emotions were raging.

Sridevi, rest in peace now. There will be no paparazzi up above disturbing you to click pictures or ask you questions about your life. You are finally with your own self. We will miss you and you are irreplaceable.

I dedicate this song to you from your own movie which is my all time favorite ..

ऐ ज़िन्दगी गले लगा ले

हमने भी

तेरे हर एक गम को

गले से लगाया  है

है  ना?