The Queen of Indian Cinema Passes Away...

 

What is common between the King of Rock N’Roll Elvis Presley, six time Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston, and India’s female superstar Padmashri Sridevi Kapoor? All three of them met their fate in a mysterious way in the bathrooms and tested positive for drugs and alcohol. For many of us who grew up hearing their music and watching their movies and modeled our lives after their success, this news came as a shocker leaving us in a whirlwind of denial, pain and disbelief. Are superstars fragile and less gutsy?

India’s Meryl Streep

Sridevi started her acting career at the age of 4 and went on to act in 300 movies in the last 50 years. As a childartist she acted in all South Indian languages and by the age of 13 (in 1976) she did a leading role in Mundru Mudicchu opposite to Kamal Hassan and Rajnikanth that got her more visibility and opportunities in South Indian Cinema.

 

At the age of 14 she worked with some of the best directors in Tamil Cinema including K. Balachander, Barathiraja and Balu Mahendra.  She won her first Filmfare Award in Tamil for 16 Vyathinile for playing a rural girl (Mayil) and at 18 she won Tamil Nadu State Award for her performance in Moondram Piram for essaying a girl suffering from amnesia. She is the only actress to have paired up maximum number of movies opposite Kamal Hassan (27 movies) after Sripriya. Also, Kamal is the only hero to have paired up with her in maximum movies.

 

She debuted in Hindi Cinema in 1979 while she was still a reigning queen of South Indian Cinema. It is her performance in Himmatwala opposite to Jeetendra that got her recognition and more opportunities. Soon she became a sought-after heroin and paired with all the superstars of Hindi cinema including Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Mithun Chakraborty, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Amitab Bacchan. She was the only heroin to do half-dozen double roles and the only one to pair up with both Dharmendra and Sunny Doel (father and son).

 

Even in Bollywood, she worked with all the star directors including Ram Gopal Verma, Shekhar Kapur, Yash Chopra and Pankaj Parashar. Her dance in Naagina, imitation of Charlie Chaplin in Mr. India, to a twin role in Chaalbaaz all earned her accolades in the press including Filmfare awards.

 

Though she acted in all four south Indian languages, but it was Hindi cinema that catapulted her to becomes India’s female superstar. In 1996, she did Devaragam, a bi-lingual with Aravind Swamy and bade goodbye to Malayalam Cinema.

Her comeback

Sridevi stepped out of Indian cinema in 1997 to start a family and played her role as a dedicated wife and mother off the silver screen. After her comeback to cinema in 2012 she started taking up roles that mirrored real life issues and represented the struggle of a doting wife and a protective mother. In 2015, the Queen of Indian cinema came back to Kollywood as Queen Yavanarani and thrilled Tamil audience after a gap of 23 years.

In her comeback movie English Vinglish in Hindi she captivated audience with her performance as a middle-aged woman trying to learn English, earn respect of her family members and bring back the spark in her marriage. In her last movie Mom in 2017, she displayed intense emotions as a step mother trying to bond with her rebellious daughter and seeking justice when she gets raped.

If her marriage to Boney Kapoor was failing, couldn’t she have borrowed lessons from Sashi (English Vinglish) or if she had a difficult relationship with her daughters Jhanvi and Kushi, couldn’t Devaki (Mom) give her much wisdom and confidence? Wasn’t it time for her to be a protective mom to her daughters and guide them to be successful in their life? Why did Sridevi decide to call it quits?

The bathtub Hall of fame

Though she was a director’s delight, she was called a journalist’s nightmare. She was an intensely private person, who rarely spoke to media or shared about her life or her inspiration. As a result, journalists are now speculating her death and media is rife with rumors with possible theories.

Sridevi may have never copied another artist’s performance, but she did when she ended her life in the bathtub. It is hard to believe that an artist who carefully crafted her career and carelessly ended her life in a bathtub.

We still love and miss you Sridevi. Hopefully, Jhanvi will grow up to be more gutsy and brighter version of you.

 

 

Padman, a Bollywood cinema teaches lessons on Change Management

Though Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”, but he never told us how difficult it is to bring about that change at an individual level. And recently, as I sat through a 150 minute-long Bollywood movie Padman, I realized how this is a brilliant example of a change management, how it can go awry and awkward, and also how change managers go through a horrible time implementing a change.

The protagonist, Lakshmi Chauhan essayed by Akshay Kumar is very sensitive to women’s needs and questions the age-old practice of quarantining women during periods. And, when he notices his newly married wife Gayathri use a soiled piece of cloth instead of a clean and hygienic sanitary pad, he tries to convince her to switch. Unfortunately, the steep price of sanitary pads thwarts his efforts to get Gayathri to switch. Soon, Lakshmi goes on to create a cheaper version of sanitary pad and becomes a self-appointed messiah for educating women to change. In a society where men talking about women’s periods is considered taboo, Lakshmi is meted with a strong opposition by the larger society, which eventually costs him his marriage.

Watch the movie trailer:

As a PROSCI certified, change management professional, this movie reminded of the famous 5-step ADKAR model we prescribe to clients for successfully implementing and managing change.

Why and where did Lakshmi fail in his effort?

• Firstly, he fails to understand the need to create Awareness highlighting the need for a change
• Secondly, though he strongly advocates the use of pads, he doesn’t go about seeding the Desire to change in women and explain “what’s in it for them”.
• Thirdly, he didn’t go about systematically sharing Knowledge on why they needed to switch. Also, he failed to use women change agents in a rural society where a male talking about menstruation hygiene and sanitary pads is considered taboo.
• Fourthly, he never analyzed why women resisted and villagers abhored his efforts. Moreover, he didn't measure their Ability to change and come up plans to diffuse resistance and recognize with Rewards/incentives to switch.
• Lastly, he was a self-appointed change manager and didn’t have a sponsor or village leaders to support him.

After being out casted by his mother and siblings, scorned by his in-laws and villagers, Lakshmi feels like a loser. His good intentions were misunderstood and he became a self-made villain sabotaging his relationships and ruining his marriage. Nevertheless, he doesn’t give up on his ambition to bring about change in the society.

A gentle breeze enters Lakshmi’s life through a sponsor, Pari essayed by Sonam Kapoor. From infusing confidence in him to motivating him to participate in a competition to get much needed capital and visibility and scale up his ambition, Pari turns into a sponsor and a change agent. She kills the taboo by getting women to educate their clan and empower them to be change ambassadors and entrepreneurs bringing success to Lakshmi’s ambition. Finally, her efforts get much needed recognition and visibility to Lakshmi and helps him clear his sullied image in his village and rebuild his relationship with his estranged wife and family.

Change management is not an easy profession and you can be a Superman if you carefully review Padman's mistakes and remember the key lessons including the importance of considering cultural aspects while implementing a change program and how to go about diffusing resistance. If you are a change manager, don’t miss watching this educational cinema and use it as a case study to sell change management to clients and prospects.