“Aadmi khana banaye to woh art, aurat banaye to woh duty!’’ (if a man cooks food it’s art, if a woman does the same it’s duty) she says with disdain, nonchalance and a matter-of fact-voice. All these emotions in just one sentence with a flick of her plait. And the theatre full audience wanted to ask her, ‘Why did you take such a long hiatus from the big screen?’

That is Sridevi in her comeback film English Vinglish and no one dare call her a ‘yester year diva’. She was a diva and will continue to be a diva and it doesn’t matter how many Aishwaryas, Kajols, Katrinas come and go on the radar of the Indian film industry.

“That is all your love speaking and thank you so much for it,” says Sridevi in her hesitant, soft voice with a slight tremor.

What the star doesn’t say aloud is that people have loved her since her heydays in 1980s and ’90s. Every youth in those days wanted to marry a girl like Sri — playful, gutsy, talkative, affable but not inaccessibly beautiful. The classic beauty in those days was Jaya Pradha sans the charisma of Sri. Sridevi was one who boys in their 20s and of marriageable age could dream of getting. And today Sri, in her late 40s, still pulls the same strings.

One thing that has always come across is that Sridevi has never been a method actor. She is spontaneous and a first-take lady. How else can one get to dance the Hawa Hawai from the film, Mr India. She has mastered this Charlie Chaplin-esque kind of act where she rolls her eyes, stumbles, bumps into either the chorus behind her or into her male co-star all the while pouting and looking deliciously innocent. And always gets into what appears as an impromptu jig. That is her special attraction. Remember another song — the parody of films song from the same film — when she snatches the ball from children? Her comic timing was superb.

No doubt she might have got critical acclaim only for her film Sadma where she plays a young girl suffering from total amnesia, but her mass appeal was never in question. Which other actor —male or female — has successfully essayed so many films in double roles? Including acting supremos Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan? Sridevi has given five unforgettable double roles in Hindi — Chaalbaaz, Banjaran, Lamhe, Khuda Gawah and Gurudev. This we are talking about only of Hindi films. Sridevi has acted in South Indian regional language films like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malaylam.

“Those days were different. Now things have become very professional and story lines have changed,” says Sridevi who also has never been very articulate. To get her to talk in any interview has always been a nightmare as she prefers to listen more than talk. Making her utter two sentences in any talk has always been very difficult.

What scares her now isn’t the camera as she says, “I never felt I was away from films even when I faced the camera after 15 years gap. I felt I had come home.” Laughingly, she admits that during her whole career she has never given so many interviews or appeared on so many TV channels to talk about her film than she had to do for English Vinglish.

“That scares me,’’ admits Sridevi, the ever green diva. — SKB