It’s Sridevi’s birthday! I am so excited about celebrating! Because it means we all get to watch a bunch of really great song sequences as I list of my reasons that I love her. I’ll do 13, because she was born on the 13th, and she was 13 when she had her first heroine part.
1. I love you because she has been acting since she was 4, had her first notable Hindi role as a “child star” at age 12 in Julie, and launched as a heroine in southern films a year later at 13. A classic working actress biography that isn’t seen much these days.
2. I love you because you put in a good 6 years working primarily in the south, winning awards in Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil films, before you seriously tried to break out in the north.
3. I love you because your “break-out” role in Himmatwala was something that, in any other hands, would have been unplayable. As we saw, when Tamanna attempted to recreate the magic in the Himmatwala remake.
4. I love you because you could make a young girl with amnesia and a snake who falls in love with Rishi Kapoor equally believable.
5. I love you because you kept working in the regional industries even after you hit it big in Hindi, staying in touch with your roots.
6. I love you because you were wise enough to take a break when your career started to slow down, and even wiser for picking the perfect comeback picture to restart it.
7. But mostly, I love you because you light up the screen when you dance! Right from your first Hindi film.
8. To your last Hindi film.
(I love Urmila too, but I may have to re-use this on her birthday!)
9. You made the snake dance actually snake-like.
10. You were arguably Yash Chopra’s greatest heroine, and certainly in two of his greatest films.
11. With Yashji, you re-imagined the wedding song.
12. And turned a modern young girl into a traditional heroine.
13. Is it any wonder that for your return to Southern film, they made you a queen!
dontcallitbollywood 
I wish you had some songs of her in her child star days. I’m going to put some here, just the first ones I can find. I know it messes up your count, sorry. (I started watching her when she was five, so maybe I should put five songs from her childhood? 🙂 )
(actually the little boy here acts better than Sridevi, even though he’s younger, but I include this because it has a bonus for you)
A Tamil one this time, where she is playing a male god, Murugan:
This is another puranic role, from the Mahabharata. I included it because it has her dancing quite a bit. You only need to watch up to 4:40.
And finally a Malayalam film:
Sorry, I didn’t mean to spam, but I really like Sridevi in her child actress days, and wanted to share.
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Thanks! I only know her from her Hindi years, so this is cool!
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Okay, I’ve watched them all now!
1. Is she missing her front teeth here? That is so cute!
2. Dog! And you’re right, the little boy is a little better. Less self conscious I think.
3. She makes a really good little boy!
4. Is that Gandhari with the blindfold? Anyway, her dancing is really good for a little girl! Or really anyone, she’s way better just as a little girl than I could ever be as an adult.
5. Her eye control is so impressive! You can see how she’s already using them as part of her performance, not just looking side to side like a normal little girl would.
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I’m glad you enjoyed the videos. As for your questions/comments:
1. Yes, she is. Nothing the film makers can do about a natural process. 🙂
2. This clip is the first time I’ve seen Sridevi be a little bit awkward/not natural. Usually her performance always (from the time she was a child) was marked by complete naturalness.
But you didn’t seem to notice the “bonus” I talked of in my comment. The adult man who befriends the little boy, and who tries to resolve their argument over whom the dog belongs to, is Krishna — father of your newly discovered friend, Mahesh Babu. 🙂 I thought you would notice the resemblance.
3. Unlike most girl child stars, Sridevi never played a little boy. I guess, since this is the role of a god, they may have thought the gender doesn’t matter. 🙂
4. Yup, the lady with the blindfold is Gandhari. And yes, I was surprised myself at how complicated a dance Sridevi was doing at this young age. (which is funny, because I have the dvd of this movie and have watched it several times. I guess I always just took it for granted that of course Sridevi dances well.)
5. In this clip, she doesn’t speak at all, just gives lip movement to the song. But yes, she emotes with her eyes in a wonderful way. You know what struck me when I was watching all these clips? It’s that, she had the exact same style of acting when she was five as when she was an adult! Does that mean she was always an accomplished actress, or that she didn’t grow as an artist as she matured? I think it’s the former, because I’ve never felt her performances in various films to be the repetitious.
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2. Oh cool! I didn’t notice the resenblance, but I did notice that was a veery handsome man 🙂
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