What happens when 500 women, many in Sridevi costumes, meet in one place to celebrate each other and Sridevi?
Last Saturday, The Lalit Ashok Hotel in Bangalore was host to a unique kind of evening when India’s leading online women’s magazine, The Ladies Finger, presented Leddis Night!, an all-women performance night with a Sridevi tribute theme.
This was really a ladies’ night in the truest sense of the word: An all-women audience of 500 women in various Sridevi avatar costumes, and an all-women line-up of standup comedians, theatre and dance performers (including Aditi Mittal performing part of her new set), a female DJ, bartender, waitstaff, and even a female bouncer. Young Vanessa George of 26 ear piercings staked out the entryway to guard against men and minors.
The result was a glorious night of great powerful female laughter, comedy, song, dance, cosplay and Sridevi-themed cocktails, with all the glitter and fun only an exclusively-ladies night can bring to mind. This special Leddis Night was a true reflection of Sridevi as a performer and comic genius who took work seriously but not always herself and invested in the idea of wit and humour as a way of subverting traditional ideas of femininity. Here are some choice images from that unforgettable evening.
Medha, from the Sandbox Collective, scoping out early audience members for the costume competition.
Even volunteers at the event were in costume.
How can you not be happy in this crowd?
The famous white-saree look from the movie Chandni.
Journalist Prema Viswanathan dressed as Benazir from Khuda Gawah. She won one of the three prizes for Best Sridevi Costume.
Nimi Ravindran of Sandbox Collective striking a pose as Nagina.
Another costume prize winner, Shashwati in a polka dotted shirt and bandana, reminiscent of all of Sridevi’s many avatars in polka dots.
Aditi Mittal in the famous Hawa Hawaii hat from Mr India.
What leddis really want to do on Leddis Night.
Can you see the stars in their eyes?
Anju from Chaalbaaz goes to Mars in TLF co-founder Nisha Susan’s interpretation.
Women in the audience were literally on the edge of their seats (and on the floor) laughing.
It really doesn’t get better than this.
Another costume prize winner Mishta Roy dazzles in her Hawa Hawaii hat from Mr India.
Aditi Mittal performed a set from her new show, Global Village Idiot.
Mishta Roy receiving her special prize from Aditi Mittal for her Sridevi costume.
Hawa Hawaii!