Hundreds and thousands of mourners poured onto the Mumbai streets on Wednesday to join a poignant 6.5 km-long final journey of veteran actress Sridevi that began from near her lokhandvala residence and wended its way to a crematorium at Vile Parle, where her last rites were performed with full State honours.
loud cries of ‘Sridevi Amar Rahe’ rent the air, as an open truck decorated fully with white flowers and a huge photograph of the actress carried the casket containing Sridevi’s body that had been draped in national tri-colour moved slowly towards the Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium at Vile Parle (West) in north-west Mumbai, where she was cremated.
With his two daughters Jhanvi (20) and Khushi (17) and the members of Kapoor-Ayyappan (Sridevi’s side) families in tow, husband Boney Kapoor performed Sridevi’s last rites.
Inside the casket lay the mortal remains of a resplendent Sridevi wearing a ceremonial gold and maroon coloured Kanjeevaram sari, with full make-up, a large ‘sindoor’ and a `mangala sutra’ which reflected her status of being a ‘suhaagan’ (still married) at the time of her death.
Sridevi’s family members including husband Boney Kapoor, his son Arjun Kapoor and brothers Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor travelled in the truck to the crematorium.
seing seen one of the largest funeral processions taken out in Mumbai for film personalities, Sridevi’s final journey brought back the memories of similar mammoth but emotional farewells that Mumbaikars had given to legendary actors Rajesh Khanna (July 19,2012), Raj Kapoor ( June 1988) and veteran singer Mohammed Rafi (July 1980)
like it had happened during the funeral of Rajesh Khanna, thousands of her fans had milled the entire stretch of the route from the Celebration Sports Club at Andheri (west) where her body had kept for public viewing for more than four hours, the pavements, building balconies and rooftops of the buildings en route, to have a glimpse of “Chandini” who ruled their hearts for more than four decades.
Earlier in the day, thousands of people – including teary-eyed fans, admirers and who’s who of Bollywood – had queued up outside the Celebration Sports Club at lokhandwala Complex for a final ‘darshan’ of Bollywood’s only female super star.
So huge was the draw of people that a large number of people from not just across Maharashtra, but also other stakes like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand and West Bengal had come all the way to bid an emotional farewell to the actress whom they had loved and revered over the years.
Sridevi’s mortal remains had been flown into Mumbai on Tuesday night, three days after she was found dead in the bathtub of an apartment at Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel where the actress had gone along with her family members to attend the marriage of a relative. An autopsy released by the Dubai had attributed her death to “accidental drowning”.
The controversy over the circumstances leading to Sridevi’s untimely demise had been momentarily forgotten, as Bollywood, her grieving family members, well-wishers and thousands of commoners bade an emotional adieu to the actress, who had regaled them in her iconic films like Mr India, Chandni, Chaal Baaz and Sadma.
Prominent among the film personalities who paid their last respects to Sridevi included Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rekha, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Arbaaz Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Farah Khan, Nitin Mukesh, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vidya Balan, her husband Siddhrath Roy Kapur, directors Rakesh Roshan, Satish Kaukshik, Davi Dhavan, Sanjay leela Bhandsali, Southern stars Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh Sushmita Sen, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Jackie Shroff, Farhan Akhtar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, John Abraham, Ajay Devgan, Kajol Devgan and Anupam Kher. Many of these personalities visited either the Celebration Sports Club or the funeral venue or were present at both the places.
Ahead of the cremation, the Mumbai police draped Sridevi’s body with a national tri-colour and paid a gun salute to the actress who was honoured with Padma Shri in 2013.
The police had deployed more 50o personnel to manage huge crowds of Sridevi’s fans who had turned out to have a last glimpse of her. At one stage, the police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to control the crowds. Sridevi’s step-stone who had travelled in the truck carrying the actress’ body was seen requesting the crowds to let the truck to proceed smoothly towards the crematorium.
In a related development, the Green Acres Co-operative Housing Society limited – the building where Sridevi lived --cancelled Holi celebrations in view of the actress’ demise.