It was a fully working weekend of updating only verified news on the Sridevi Facebook fanpage, keeping conspiracies at bay, false news on hold, reporting on what seemed to have some semblance of truth. The biggest news networks stated that Sridevi died of cardiac arrest - which seemed plausible (after all, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, one in every five female deaths, irrespective of age). Much later, it was confirmed that Sridevi died of "accidental drowning" on 24 Februarly, 2018.
The floodgate of false news went berserk that weekend - where even the biggest stars, legends, co-stars and any sane thinking person - begged the rabid Indian media to "let Sridevi rest in peace".
We got a message from New York Times to confirm a few details about Sridevi, we went back and forth on one issue, namely... well, her name; I had to state that though it is widely purported that Sridevi was born "Shree Amma Iyengar" we have NO CONFIRMED or verified attribution to that. As far as we know, Sridevi was born "Ayyappan Sreedevi", which distilled down to her mononymous legend as "Sridevi".
Everything else is a blur. What remains in memory is the misreporting and the character assasination the Kapoor family went through that entire period. One of the most shocking clips that floats online is the video of "Sridevi's uncle" speaking to the press - when the man is of no relation to Sridevi what so ever. It's laughable that the network did not vet the interviewee or do basic background check. Especially the defamatory **** the man said about Sridevi and her family.
Here we are 24 months after Sridevi's untimely death and we still cannot fathom the world no longer has the corporeal, ethereal Sridevi.
Like a benign masochist, we go over newsbytes from that fateful weekend in shock and awe. Pure disbelief that still haunts us daily. How fate intervened and closed the book while we were still mid-way on her chapter...
RIP Sridevi - wherever you are...
No comments:
Post a Comment