Whenever somebody makes a list of the greatest actors to have been a part of Indian cinema, they do not miss out on mentioning Sridevi. The actress, who made her debut in cinema at the tender age of four, went on to feature in countless films across multiple film industries. When she passed away at the age of 54, she left a void in the film industry that, perhaps, would never be filled. While her fans mourned over her death, the actress had left behind a vast amount of work that one could keep revisiting throughout one’s life.
As somebody who has mostly seen Sridevi’s performances in her Hindi films, I was quite intrigued to know that author Amborish RoyChoudhury has written a book on the actress that focuses on the work she has done in the Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam industries. This book, which has recently been launched as ‘Sridevi The South Years’, is spread across 194 pages.
The book is divided into two parts. The two halves of the book are not uniformly divided. The first part, titled ‘Her Story’ offers a detailed account of the journey Sridevi had in the Southern film industries. By the time we reach page number 147, the first part of the book gets over. The second part, which is much shorter, features four interviews. There is also an afterword by Ram Gopal Varma, a filmmaker who has famously that Sridevi is one of the only two actors (the other being Amitabh Bachchan) he was an ardent fan of in his younger days.
The first part of the book has 16 chapters. The first chapter, which is titled ‘It All Began With a Love Story’, does a good job of attracting the attention of the reader and raising their expectation from the book. This chapter gives one an insight into Sridevi’s family and her early years. When you look at the title of the book, you might expect the author to dive straight into the celebrated actress’ career down south. However, he decides to familiarise the readers with some of the events that led towards Sridevi becoming a professional actor by the age of four. This strategy works rather well as many of her ardent fans, too, might not be aware of some of the incidents pertaining to her family history and childhood days mentioned in the book.
While reading the book, you not get a better understanding of the kind of work Sridevi down south, you also get treated to some interesting trivia about several other celebrated artists from different southern industries who worked with her. As you start reading the sixth chapter of the first part of the book, you get to know Sridevi did the maximum number of films (35) with Telugu superstar Krishna. The same chapters also informs you that Krishna had 18 releases in a particular year and the only leading actor in India who has done a larger number of films in a single year (22) is Bengali superstar Prosenjit. Those who have not followed or watched much of the cinema made in the southern film industries might want to know more about the work of some individuals whose names have been mentioned in the book. Vijay Nirmala, an actor and director who is known as a ‘female filmmaker’ with 44 films to her credit, is one such name. Page number 87 mentions the name of a film which was the first Tamil film to feature a Hindi song. The book contains many such wonderful information which trivia buffs might want to take a note of.
A leading filmmaker once said in an interview how she found it difficult to cast one of her films as she needed two female leading actresses. While a few actresses wanted to do the film, they didn’t want to play the leading man’s (then an emerging superstar) sister and wanted the other role of his heroine. Then, there were those who were offered the part opposite the lead actor but they were insistent on playing the sister as they felt it was the meatier part. In this book, the author shares a rather interesting information which actors today might learn something from. Sridevi played Krishna’s sister, mother and love interest in different films. This just goes on to show that the actress was not concerned about her image and was confident about taking up any kind of character.
To write this book, the author watched all the films Sridevi did in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. The detailed manner in which he has described some of the films in the book is truly impressive. Reading the synopsis of ‘Moondru Madichu, a film in which Rajinikanth plays the baddie, made me want to watch the film immediately. Unfortunately, as the author himself confirms, many of these films featuring the late actress, are available online but without subtitles.
The four interviews of Baradwaj Rangan, G. Dhananjayan, Chitra Lakshmanan and Mohan Raman and the afterword by Ram Gopal Verma contribute greatly towards making this book special. While film critic Baradwaj Rangan tells us why Sridevi was not a natural actress, film historian, writer and entrepreneur Mohan Raman does an interesting analysis on the kind of career the actress had in the south. Film academician shares lesser known facts about her family and career and industry insider Chitra Lakshmanan throws some light on how the world Sridevi was a part of treated her. The two and a half page long afterword by Ram Gopal Verma, which culminates the book, is heart-warming and insightful at the same time.
I would not have seen more than 5 films made in Southern languages that featured Sridevi in the principal role. When I picked up a copy of ‘Sridevi The South Years’, I hoped that it would educate me about some of the work she has done down South. The book not only gives you an insight about Sridevi’s work in the Southern film industries, it also makes you want to explore the films which gave her the scope to bring her skills as an actor to the fore and play the kind of parts she was not getting in Hindi cinema.