Jayalalitha – An Iron Will Lady!

The dispute about her health has been continuing from last 75 days. Since September 24th, Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Puratchi Talaivi Jayalalitha, has been fighting against the odds to survive healthscare. The things have taken a high dramatic twist with several people arriving to conclusions even before official statements have arrived. With all the speculations kept aside, it is great to remember and know such a strong will power lady surviving in a Men’s world. She rose to heights like no one from humble beginnings in Film Industry. Her mother was an actress in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Sandhya was popular as character artist in many films.

She encouraged Jayalalithaa from an young age to learn dance and achieve a career as a popular actress in films. She with amazing dancing skills, started off as a small time dancer in the movies. At the age of 14, she started being background dancer in Tamil movies and some Telugu movies too. After several small roles in few films and doing English plays, she debuted as a lead heroine in Kannada under the direction of BR Panthulu, Chinnada Gombe. The movie became a Blockbuster and she did Manushulu Mamathalu in Telugu with Akkineni Nageswara Rao.After both her debuts proved to be successful, she debuted in Tamil, with Vennira Adai, a successful film.

In her illustrious career she has been extremely successful and all her movies in Telugu, 28 were hits. She acted in 28 films with MGR in Tamil and all of them big hits. She acted in 12 movies with NTR and 7 movies with ANR. She acted in her first movie in Telugu with ANR and last film in 1980, with ANR only. This is a unique coincidence. In her career she acted in 125 films and 119 of her films have recovered costs and became hits as well. She won Filmfare award in Telugu as actress one time for Sri Krishna Satya, directed by K.V.Reddy, his last movie. Tamil Government awarded her Kalaimamani and also she won 7 Filmfare awards in Tamil and 5 Government Awards.She never shied away from wearing revealing clothes if she was convinced by the director and script. She balanced glamour with performance and never let her popularity go to her head.

She was highly confident and competent with any actor she acted with and her acting skills can be better seen in Sri Krishna Satya where she played Satyabhama character with aplomb confidence after Jamuna, she was regarded as perfect fit for the role. After a successful movie career she shifted her focus to politics and joined MGR’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Looking at her popularity and fluency in english she was appointed propaganda secretary and was regarded as MGR’s political heir. She was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 1984 and in 1987 after the death of MGR, she had to fight with Janaki Ramachandran as the political heir and in 1991, she was elected to the legislative assembly and merged both the divided groups of AIADMK under one roof.

She was unanimously elected as leader of the legastive party and became youngest Chief Minister ever to take office in Tamil Nadu. After that she again came to office in 2002 to 2006. Then for the third time in 2011 and fourth time in May, 2016.Through out her political career she suffered major setbacks by rival DMK Government maligning her image with corruption charges and in several cases first she was convicted guilty but then the High Court and Supreme Court have acquitted her from the charges. She had to face humiliation in the Assembly, as the ruling party members tore her saree by forcefully attacking in a violent burst. But then she rebuked all the critics and answered them by launching many welfare schemes for poor.She as a CM was instrumental in bringing all Lady Police stations and bringing in 30% reservation for Ladies in Government jobs.

She also introduced several beneficial schemes under AMMA name and her everlasting glowing smile. She is one iron will lady of Indian politics who stood against hurricanes, faced brickbats and converted all the criticism into positive feedback. She became an influential figure in Indian Central Politics by supporting Sonia Gandhi when many opposed Sonia. She always stood by her word to make India better for all the women and she will always remain an inspiration. While many of her contemporaries decided to enjoy a great family life, she chose to be single and also disown her adopted son, when she found malicious interests. The true successor for such an Iron Willed Woman should be her fighting spirit and will to swim against all odds and reach the pinnacle of success! Her brand of sweet yet stern, popularistic yet welfare related politics would be missed.