The Sridevi Repertoire: A Gallery Of Her Greatest Performances

"It was Sridevi who changed what it meant to be a woman on the screen in India. It was she who first brought energy to acting for the Indian actress." -- Shabana Azmi, Filmfare (1994)

Sridevi Kapoor

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A great compilation of her video and tributes, perfectly done by TheDeviDiaries from youtube.

Info by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)
This presentation is a five-part collection of the most memorable and landmark performances of India's greatest actress, Sridevi. Thankfully, Sridevi has left behind an incredible body of work that spans decades, genres, and languages. She has not settled for being a mere glamorous ornament in hero-centric films: she has established a new paradigm for what it means to be an actress in India, and done so by redefining the limits of the the types of roles a leading lady could play.

Indeed, with the notable exception of Amitabh Bachchan (and perhaps not even with that exception), Sridevi has played the most distinct and dynamic variety of landmark roles in Indian Cinema: a mentally retarded prostitute (Sadma), a comic journalist/drag queen/superheroine (Mr. India), a serpent avatar (Nagina), a pair of twins -- one a victim of domestic abuse, the other a drunken misfit superstar wannabe (Chaalbaaz), an aggrandized, cherubic romantic (Chandni), the double role of a woman who falls in love with a man who was once in love with her mother (Lamhe), a tribal Afghani Queen ravaged by the presumed death of her husband (Khuda Gawah, another double role), a star-crossed Punjabi lover (Heer Ranjha), a vengeful conwoman (Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja), a wrongly accused drug smuggler imprisoned in China (Gumrah), a monstrously powerful corporate Hell Queen (Laadla), a scatter-brained modern woman who gets caught up in a comic crime caper (Hairaan), an implacable widow in pursuit of justice for her husband's murder (Army), a reluctant adoptive mother (Mr. Bechara) and an impoverished housewife who literally sells her husband to another woman in order to acquire material wealth (Judaai). Whilst other actresses have managed to forge careers with remarkably little acting, Sridevi has built a repertoire comparable only to a few other actors in the world.

These 14 roles encapsulate the behemoth of talent and brilliance that is Sridevi. She not only tore down many barriers and opened up new doors for herself and other actresses, but she proved that she could take mediocre material (sometimes even downright bad writing) and make it not only palatable, but brilliant. In my opinion, her three finest performances are (in order) 1) Lamhe, 2) Sadma, and 3) Chaalbaaz.

Khalid Mohammed, India's premiere film critic, perhaps put it best when he wrote of Sridevi in 1996: "She has meant so much to all of us. The Queen of the Marquee for over a decade. The Supreme Entertainer. The heroine whose performances have lit up our lives in the dark of the auditorium. The bundle of energy and elan who was, without question, born to act."

Part 1 by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)

Part 2 by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)

Part 3 by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)

Part 4 by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)

Part 5 Finale by TheDeviDiaries (Youtube)

Sridevi Kapoor