Raju Korti
I had the first dekko of Jayalalitha in late December 1987, much before she became "Amma" to the populous multitudes in her home state of Tamil Nadu. The circumstances in which I bumped into her had a peculiar twist to them.
M G Ramchandran, who held an unchallenged sway over the masses as an actor and politician, had just passed away. The talking point then was, was there anyone with enough charisma to succeed MGR. Speculations were rife, and not without reason, that his protege was the potential inheritor to the chief ministerial throne in a state where hero-worshipping has been an unbreakable tradition. But things weren't as simple as they looked. The pitch was queered by the presence of MGR's wife V N Janaki who seemed to be riding the sympathy wave and was considered a strong contender. There were cold vibes between the two for obvious reasons but as it finally turned out, President's rule was clamped in the state with people going hysteric and berserk after MGR's death.
I saw Jayalalitha completely shattered by the death of her mentor but she was composed enough to speak to the Press and it was here that her body language said a lot about her political ambitions.
Her confident demeanour reflected on her glowing face but it was her articulation and impeccable English that came so resonatingly from her magnetic personality. The film industry, however, liked her more for a qualification which the south is notoriously famous for, if you excuse the oxymoron. She was a great hit with her buxom figure so much so that she also acted in a 1966 Hindi film Izzat with Dharmendra as her lead co-star. Jayalalitha played second fiddle to Tanuja but her song in the film "Jaagi badan me jwala saiyan tune kya kar dala was" as a runaway hit.
The star student did better than her mentor and saw through five terms as the state's CM.
That she had the blessings of MGR was obvious. When she joined MGR's AIADMK, her political rise was meteoric. So it was not entirely unexpected when Jayalalitha withstood and countered the faction headed by Janaki and proclaimed herself as the sole political heir. She was feisty enough to emerge from the shadows of her charismatic idol. She didn't prove the people wrong. When Karunanidhi became the chief minister in 1989, she gave him a tough time as an opposition leader and the old DMK patriarch was no political pushover.
To a gathering of journalists, Jayalalitha made no bones about her angling for the state's highest office. Though a lot of people had written her off as a temporary phenomenon who was just trying to cash in on her celluloid appeal, somehow it appeared to me that here was a woman who meant business. She had guts. When she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, she bounced back by winning the case in the high court to return as the chief minister again.
Her political tenure was eventful but actually nothing much to rave about. She hobnobbed with the Congress and BJP when it suited her party but she stuck a phenomenal equation with the masses, portraying herself as the messiah of the poor. To some extent, she outdid MGR.
I still recall her as a very fair looking and determined woman who knew how to juggle her cinema and politics. I have seen her totally undeterred when she was rightly or wrongly referred to as the desi version of Imelda Marcos. Jayalalitha was made of sterner stuff and had the audacity to take on her political rivals. As a political lreader, she was not the one to cede and never ever hesitated to take a confrontationist approach if she was convinced that it was in the interests of her state, and by extension, for her own political good.
To me she epitomised the idiom "Hell hath no fury like the woman scorned." Here's to the fiery and spunky Jayalalitha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WDk6_YMq8w
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| J Jayalalitha (File photo) |
M G Ramchandran, who held an unchallenged sway over the masses as an actor and politician, had just passed away. The talking point then was, was there anyone with enough charisma to succeed MGR. Speculations were rife, and not without reason, that his protege was the potential inheritor to the chief ministerial throne in a state where hero-worshipping has been an unbreakable tradition. But things weren't as simple as they looked. The pitch was queered by the presence of MGR's wife V N Janaki who seemed to be riding the sympathy wave and was considered a strong contender. There were cold vibes between the two for obvious reasons but as it finally turned out, President's rule was clamped in the state with people going hysteric and berserk after MGR's death.
I saw Jayalalitha completely shattered by the death of her mentor but she was composed enough to speak to the Press and it was here that her body language said a lot about her political ambitions.
Her confident demeanour reflected on her glowing face but it was her articulation and impeccable English that came so resonatingly from her magnetic personality. The film industry, however, liked her more for a qualification which the south is notoriously famous for, if you excuse the oxymoron. She was a great hit with her buxom figure so much so that she also acted in a 1966 Hindi film Izzat with Dharmendra as her lead co-star. Jayalalitha played second fiddle to Tanuja but her song in the film "Jaagi badan me jwala saiyan tune kya kar dala was" as a runaway hit.
The star student did better than her mentor and saw through five terms as the state's CM.
That she had the blessings of MGR was obvious. When she joined MGR's AIADMK, her political rise was meteoric. So it was not entirely unexpected when Jayalalitha withstood and countered the faction headed by Janaki and proclaimed herself as the sole political heir. She was feisty enough to emerge from the shadows of her charismatic idol. She didn't prove the people wrong. When Karunanidhi became the chief minister in 1989, she gave him a tough time as an opposition leader and the old DMK patriarch was no political pushover.
To a gathering of journalists, Jayalalitha made no bones about her angling for the state's highest office. Though a lot of people had written her off as a temporary phenomenon who was just trying to cash in on her celluloid appeal, somehow it appeared to me that here was a woman who meant business. She had guts. When she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, she bounced back by winning the case in the high court to return as the chief minister again.
Her political tenure was eventful but actually nothing much to rave about. She hobnobbed with the Congress and BJP when it suited her party but she stuck a phenomenal equation with the masses, portraying herself as the messiah of the poor. To some extent, she outdid MGR.
I still recall her as a very fair looking and determined woman who knew how to juggle her cinema and politics. I have seen her totally undeterred when she was rightly or wrongly referred to as the desi version of Imelda Marcos. Jayalalitha was made of sterner stuff and had the audacity to take on her political rivals. As a political lreader, she was not the one to cede and never ever hesitated to take a confrontationist approach if she was convinced that it was in the interests of her state, and by extension, for her own political good.
To me she epitomised the idiom "Hell hath no fury like the woman scorned." Here's to the fiery and spunky Jayalalitha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WDk6_YMq8w
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