Writing 'Sridevi no more' is something I never hoped I would be writing any time soon. But Life is cruel, so cruel that it took one of our beloved actresses  right from our midst. The queen of charm, and humour has ruled the industry and our hearts in the '70s, '80s and '90s, and one of the few actresses who actually had tasted success in her comeback innings, The cause of her death was ascertained to be a massive cardiac arrest and she is survived by her husband Boney Kapoor and daughters, Janhvi (due to maker her debut later this year with Dhadak) and Khushi.

There is a reason why nearly everyone in this country is shell-shocked over the passing of this screen legend. Sridevi was one of the true divas of Bollywood who commanded her own huge massive fan following and had roles written just for her in an industry that is often accused of being patriarchal. There was something really special about Sridevi that only a very few actresses can claim to possess. It is hard to confine that feeling in one story, but we did our best to break up that special-ness into seven aspects of her career and personality. Here they are,

Versatility

It is strange to think that despite having worked in various genres and languages and rarely putting her foot wrong, Sridevi has never won a National award though she has won tonnes of other awards. This is such a shame since less deserving stars with less accomplished performances have gotten away with one. She has been in nearly every genre from comedy (Chaalbaaz), superhero (Mr India), romance (Chandni), revenge drama (Mom), fantasy (Puli) and so on and so on.

Being a Mistress of Disguise

Working in various genres often give Sridevi quite a lot of opportunities to take on various getups. She has played an OTT exotic dancer (Mr India), doomed lover Heer (Heer Ranjha), an Afghani warrior (Khuda Gawah), a mythical queen (Puli) and even a snake (Nagina, Nigahein), not to mention pulling off double roles with ease (Chaalbaaz, Gurudev).

But nothing can beat when she did the below…

Pulling of a Charlie Chaplin

No one can dare to pull off a Charlie Chaplin on screen and yet look so convincing doing so. Seriously, why hadn't we given her a National award already?

Being a success story in multiple languages

How many actors or actresses can claim of working in multiple languages and making a success out of it? Sridevi had made a huge mark in Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and even Kannada industry and was one of the most sought after actresses in these industries during the '70s, '80s and the '90s. Only Kamal Haasan, to some extent, can claim that achievement.

Relishing in playing a vamp

Many of our heroines would actually baulk at the idea of playing a negative role, let alone a vamp in an movie. But Sridevi not just accepted such roles, she even relished playing them so much that she turned out to be a far memorable leading lady than the nice girls in there. Case in point, Laadla and Judaai.

Making that baby voice a trademark

Only, Sridevi can pull off that cutesy baby voice and get away with. No one else even dare attempt to do that!

The only heroine to romance maximum major stars

Let's see… so Sridevi has romanced Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Arvind Swamy, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Rajinikanth, Mithun Chakraborty, Sunny Deol, Govinda etc. Though she was not paired with them romantically, Sridevi has also worked with Tamil superstars Vijay (Puli) and Ajith (Tamil version of English Vinglish). The list is actually exhaustive.

Rest in peace, Sridevi ji!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 25, 2018 03:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).