Little girl' Sridevi charmed all of us, says her first Malayalam co-star
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Raghavan still remembers the excitement that ran through the studio floor on the day the “little girl” was to arrive. “Sasi had already told me that the little girl would be my heroine,” Raghavan said. “We were all curious to see her,” the veteran actor said. The buzz around the “little girl” was not triggered by amusement (of watching a kid play the heroine), but admiration (of getting to see at close quarters a prodigy who by then was the darling of South Indian film industry.) Sridevi was the little one’s name. “I already knew her as Murugan in Kumarasambhavam, and had watched in disbelief her performance alongside stalwarts like Sivaji Ganeshan and Gemini Ganeshan,” Raghavan said. He even considered the girl his senior. “I think she debuted as an actor before I started out,” he said.
The girl had even won the Kerala State award for the best child artiste for her role in Poompatta in 1971, barely a year after Abhayam, Raghavan’s debut. It was 1976, the year he eagerly waited for the little girl, and he was on the sets of I.V. Sasi’s Alinganam. The girl, now just about 13 years, was to be his heroine. “She charmed all of us. She was very sweet, ever smiling, like any innocent little girl,” Raghavan said. “I think I was her first hero in Malayalam,” he said. Raghavan was 35 then. At that point, Sridevi had her breakthrough Tamil hit Moondru Mudichu, K. Balachander’s triangular love story in which she was wooed by Tamil cinema’s future superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
“The only sign that indicated that ambition was stirring inside was her constant complaint about her nose. She thought it was not good. We, especially Sasi, kept assuring her that her nose was beautiful. But she never seemed convinced,” Raghavan said with a laugh. “Later when I realised that she had done some nose correction I thought her beauty had lost that wistful aspect, something that gave her an angel-like quality,” he said. The success of Alinganam, which released in later November 1976, saw a sudden rush of Malayalam films featuring Sridevi. In 1977, she was seen in 11 Malayalam films, six of which were directed by I.V. Sasi and at least four had Kamal as her pair. In one of Sasi’s films, Angeekaram, Sridevi did a double role, her first.
She was so busy in all the four South Indian languages during the year that she possibly did not have time to brood over her nose. “She came to the sets with her mother and left the moment her shots were canned,” said Ramachandra Babu, the cinematographer of K.S. Sethumadhavan’s Amme Anupame, another 1977 creation. “She was only 14 then, but grasped things fast. Sethumadhavan Sir was very pleased,” Mr Babu said. However, after the super success of 16 Vayathinile, Sigappu Rojakkal, and Priya, she concentrated more on Tamil. After 1977 she acted in just five Malayalam films, the last being Bharathan’s Devaragam (1996). Award-winning film critic C.S. Venkiteshwaran said that Malayalam cinema, too, had not taken to her very enthusiastically.
“She was more like a doll and did not fit in with Malayali sensibilities,” he said. “Moreover, she was not part of the Malayalam New Wave. She was mostly picked by mainstream filmmakers like I.V. Sasi, and Sankaran Nair. The period also saw the emergence of new and fresh talents like Shobhana (Chembarathi) and Jalaja (Thampu) who were more culturally rooted,” Mr Venkiteswaran said.
