The last days of Sridevi: A visual depiction of Sridevi's final public appearances and looks in 2018

 

The last days of Sridevi: A visual depiction of Sridevi's final public appearances and looks in 2018...  

Indian actress, icon, wife, mother-of-two, superstar Sridevi was attending film screenings, award-shows, performing on stage, laughing in the audience of Bollywood live shows, attending weddings, walking the red carpet, seen out with her family, husband, children, attending a family function and wedding and then... the screen fades to black. 

When news first broke of Sridevi's death on Feb 18, it seemed absurd when, just hours before, the actress herself had posted a self portrait in Dubai, looking like the regal cine-legend that she was. Imperious yet approachable, a towering figure yet so humble, so full of life and then...  

On the eve of what would have been a landmark year in Sridevi's life, her 60th birth anniversary (Aug 13), here's looking back on the last days of an Indian empress... of screen. 

A life cut far too short, at 54 Sridevi's "soul left her mortal coil,"--if we are to follow Hindu rites of passage-- through accidental drowning. When someone so larger-than-life met with sudden death, a barrage of bat-shit conspiracy theories have let loose including criminal accusations, sensationalism and the bottom-of-the-barrel TRP rating hungry television coverage of a human tragedy that was so blown-out-of-proportion and so badly televised, it required several other stars of her ilk to 'let her rest in peace.' 

There still lives a 'justice for Sridevi' slogan left in the relics of Twitter, but the true justice we seek is 1) to find the criminal who leaked images of Sridevi's body to the press/internet 2) the instigators who spread false stories and theories about the actress and her beloved family for personal gain (viewership numbers are pathologically addictive). 

If Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan's daughter Aradhya can sue internet trolls for false stories, then the Kapoor/Ayappan family should too, but perhaps they do want to simply move on from a national tragedy that was personal to them. 

Truth of the matter is fans, with the best of intentions inflated sadness to anger and wanted a culprit, someone to blame other than fate for what happened. They are still looking for one, while casting aspersions on many. This hunt defies logic and science, reason and, legality. 

Sadly, we-the collective we of fandom-were not ready to let her go so swiftly when, despite hundreds of film appearances in a resplendent film career like no other on the planet, we just couldn't get enough of Sridevi. 

This is not hyperbola. I cannot think of a global star who had a career parallel to hers; well, perhaps Elizabeth Taylor. A child star, who went on to teen idol status, to rising pan-national phenomenon, to award-winning actress, to living legend by the age of 34! With equal command over the box-office and critical review, known for looks, talent and ability, Liz and Sri lived parallel lives spanning decades, but continents and timelines apart. 

But Liz Taylor lived till the ripe age of 79, Sridevi's departure at 54 seemed unbearably young. Alas, alas, alas... 

She lives on in the hearts and minds of film fans and in perpetuity on film. The legacy lives on, if not the legend.