Sadma: The film that you walked out of feeling a pain in places so deep you never knew existed. Even in her nonchalance, Sridevi was brilliant in that final scene, but it belonged to Kamal Haasan. As a strong-minded independent girl rendered a child-woman after an accident, Sridevi’s Reshmi made us laugh and cry. Our pick is the scene where Somu (Kamal Haasan) gets Sridevi’s Reshmi a red sari, drapes it around himself to show her how it’s done and then tells her to do it. She comes back — part gleeful, part shy — and realises it’s all wrong, running to him and plonking herself on his lap and laughing the loudest and most unbridled laugh ever. A moment of pure innocence.

Mr India: The Charlie Chaplin sequence is one of the best tributes ever to the man and Sridevi is brilliant in every second of that nine-minute scene. From poking the villain Karga (“Good name,” she giggles) in the rib with her stick to cleaning her ear with the end of a dart before aiming it at the board, from breaking into a jig even when she’s being chased by the villain’s henchman to the delight on her face when she senses a shower of beer “pouring out” of her ear after taking a swig. “Don’t know a single actor in the world that could have pulled this scene off like she did,” Mr India director Shekhar Kapur had tweeted on Monday. It’s a scene we would keep rewinding to, sometimes even more than “Mogambo khush hua”.

Chandni: The Yash Chopra film that introduced us to chiffon saris and Switzerland… and made us fall in love with her Chandni. There’s so much of Chandni to love, so what do we pick? The one where she gets high on cognac, to give us a delightful “drunk” scene, or that moment when she, a vision in yellow, dances in the rain as Lagi aaj saawan ki phir woh jhadi hai plays out. Or that three-minute dance to instrumental music with the verdant Swiss mountains in the backdrop. And that moment when Chandni meets Rohit (Rishi Kapoor) after months and realises he can walk again. Not a word is spoken, but with eyes like that, do you need words?

ChaalBaaz: She was a shape shifter, and not just in Nagina. In ChaalBaaz, she made Manju and Anju two distinct characters (adding her own spin to this Seeta-Geeta tribute) and we have many memorable moments to pick. The “Main madira nahin peeti” scene involving Anju and Jaggu (Rajinikanth) is a gem, and we also love the sequence where Manju, threatening the evil Amba (Rohini Hattangadi) with a knife to her throat, says, “Jaani yeh chaaku hai… lag jaaye toh khoon nikal aata hai.” And then goes all out with the bronzer and blusher, lipstick and eyeshadow, in that famous “make-up scene” that must have made even Hattangadi laugh out loud. #PureGold 

Lamhe: This Yash Chopra romance was a Sridevi film, with or without her “Kunwarji” Anil Kapoor. The last scene is special — when Kunwarji tells Sri’s Pooja he loves her and her face lights up — but we pick the moment when Pooja, after discovering mother Pallavi’s sketches in Kunwarji’s drawer, breaks into a jig of joy, thinking it’s her. It’s a beautiful moment, with the actor conveying both childlike glee and the happiness of a woman in love. And how can we ever forget her in the 10-minute-long ‘Antakshari’ sequence, culminating in the uninhibited Ramaiya vastavaiya moves?

English Vinglish: She came back after a hiatus of 15 years and gave us a film we will rewatch for the next 15. The last speech at the wedding — where Sridevi’s Shashi smilingly breaks into English to gently lecture her family on love and marriage — is the scene we’d go back to again and again. But we also love the one where Shashi, in her English class, first stumbles on the meaning of the word “entrepreneur”. Once dismissed as just a homemaker who makes laddoos as a hobby, Shashi gets a new identity and feels important. Yes, those eyes again. Or “Two drops of coffee in a cloud of milk”.

The songs

Hawa hawai (Mr India): She was a flirty pataka in gold, the “khwabon ki shehzaadi” who struck “bijli” in our hearts. 

Har kisiko nahin milta (Jaanbaaz): She had a cameo but we remember her in the red sari, singing on a beach, mic in hand, as Feroz Khan looked on mesmerised.

O meri Chandni (Chandni): Sridevi, Switzerland and that distinct laughter. She even sang a line or two in her own voice. So much to love.  

Morni baaga maa (Lamhe): We all wanted to dance with abandon by that bonfire on a Rajasthan desert like her. Lovely song, lovely Sridevi. 

Tu na ja mere Badshah (Khuda Gawah): The longing and grief in her eyes, as Benazir implores Badshah Khan (Amitabh Bachchan) not to leave her, tugs at our heart every time we watch it.  

Navrai majhi (English Vinglish): That initial shyness giving way to some uninhibited moves as she tucks her pallu into her waist and goes all out. And that Michael Jackson step.

The motifs

The blue sari in Mr India: We all wanted a blue sari like that after watching her in Kaate nahin kat te, that song in which it’s tough to take one’s eyes off the sensuous Sridevi. The yellow chiffon in Chandni came a close second.

The chooriyan in Chandni: Those eyes peeping out from behind the “nau nau chooriyan”, something we did when we slipped on some bangles. We still do. 

The transparent raincoat in ChaalBaaz: A very cool Sri in that transparent raincoat in Na jaane kahaan se aayi hai. It was such a cool thing to wear in the ’80s. 

The trench coat in English Vinglish: When Shashi slipped on that trench coat, picked up her Starbucks and walked through Manhattan on her way to English class, it instantly became an image of power. Of what a woman can do when she wants to.

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