RIP – VINOD KHANNA – A STAR AND GENTLEMAN

Vinod Khanna, the most smart and handsome Hindi movie star has breathed his last today the 27^th April, 2017.  He will always be remembered as the only potential candidate in 1980s who could have marched ahead Amitabh Bhachan, may be for a brief period, but overall remained an under achiever, as a film star, for causes mainly attributable to him only.    

Vinod Khanna is one of those actors who made everything on his own, no linage, no favourite camp (though worked in many movies of Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra in 70s).   He had very modest beginning doing small side roles (in movies like Poorab aur Pashim, few south Indian remakes featuring Mehmood) and negatives roles.   He and his dashing personality got a great and enduring recognition in movies like Mera Gao Mera Desh (in memorable role of Daaku Jabbar Singh), Kache Dhage and Phool aur Phattar.   He exhibited great courage in accepting off-beat themes very early in his career with movies like `Mere Apne' and Intihaan, both brought him recognition and critical acclaim. 

  

Come 70s he blossomed into much sought after actor predominantly for his terrific personality, he was as tall as Amitabh Bachan, but surely better looking than him or any other contemporaries.   The advent of multi-starrers and his having no qualms in being part of multi starer movies have given a short in arm for his career in soaring peaks.   He worked close to 50 multi starrers in his entire career.   Though he paired with Rajesh Khanna, Jitender, Randhir Kapoor and Sashi Kapoor, his pairing with Amitabh has produced a string of super hits movies like Hera Pheri, Khoon Pasina, Amar Akbar Anthony, Muqaddar ka Sikender and Parvarish.   He was so popular in Multi Star set up that whatever may be the length of his role, he was reported to have been paid more than the leading pair in many movies, more than even Amitabh and Jitender.   

For some strange reasons despite his huge popularity and ability to carry movie on his shoulders, very few of his solo starers were super hits and racked big box office collection. Achanak,  Inkaar and Quid were pretty decent movies but such movies were few and far in between

The biggest block buster of his career was with his good friend

Feroz Khan Quarbani, which broke all box office records at that time.   That was the time when he could have gone on a signing spree of new and plump assignments, but he shocked the Bollywood by announcing turning into Sanyasi and follower of Rajnish.   From his film career point of view that was the biggest loss.   Though he came back and gave back to back hits with Insaaf and Satyameva Jayate, he could never reproduce the same magic.   Once in a while he excelled in his forte of multi starrers like Chandni,  Kudrat and towards the end of the career some interesting roles in Dabang series.

Another very good quality of Vinod Khanna was though, being as handsome as he was, and he joining Osho Ashram which was in new for many wrong reasons too, there was lot written about him by those who excel in yellow journalism.  Lot was written about cold war between him and Amitabh and his owing not to work with him after minor freak accident on the sets Muqudar Ka Sikander, he always maintained a dignified silence and never went public with any thing

Though not very flamboyant like Shatru, in politics he has been extremely successful getting elected to Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur four times, and at the time of his passing away he is sitting MP.  Unlike many celebrities he used to make himself available for the people of Gurdaspur and commanded healthy attendance in Parliament.   For short duration he discharged duties as Minister of State in Ministries of Tourism and also External Affairs. 

The other facet I know of him is as a Director of Companies.    I had the privilege of convening and attending many Board meetings in a hospitality chain having him as a Board member.   Again he was fairly regular in attending Board Meetings, turning up in time, be attentive and ask very intelligent and relevant questions about business development, occupancy, measures to improve occupancy and revenues.    

He continued to be active and healthy till late 60s before he was hit by the terminal cancer.  In the death of Vinod Khanna, we lost a simple, non-flamboyant, friendly, and handsome film star and Gentleman to the core

RIP

S. Prabhakar

27.4.2017

THE WINNER   OF  INDIAN IDOL 9^th EDITION

REVANT has emerged as  the winner of the Indian Idol 9 (including two editions of Jr.) which has not surprised anyone.    Right through the entire competition he had an edge over other competitors with his powerful voice and a voice conducive for playback singing.    Unlike Naga, who kept on fumbling and forgetting lyrics, Revant has mastered Hindi during the course of competition and presented himself very confidently which surely helped his cause.  

But overall this edition has been very disappointing.    Compared to earlier editions or reality shows in other channels the quality of the contestants is far from satisfactory.   As has always been, Sony Indian Idol seems to be focusing more on packaging and producing a glossy content for TV in a set pattern rather than spending any time in analysing the singing and giving tips to the contestants in improving their singing.     Naga fumbled and missed lyrics few times and KhudaBaksh has been very pedestal right through.    But a great sob story has been built around his modest back ground, which surely has been proved to be bit of a disadvantage and non level playing field for other contestants in getting required votes.    But i came to know through an article in Telugu news paper Enadu that Revant too had an equally modest back ground, losing his father before birth itself, mother bringing him up very hard way, he doing petty cateing jobs, which as revealed in the final show he did not like to share being personal things.   The judges tried to push Mrs. Narang into top ten by even bringing her back after being eliminated as she was suiting the channel requirement of being a newly married smart young girl to push their content in a sitcom manner.   

Indian Idol has always been everything other than about performances.  It is more of stage presence, glamorous makeovers, side stories with celebrities and everything that makes an interesting content for the channel,  rather than the real singing talent search.  

The audience voting pattern always surprises me, which seems not to be in favour of female contestants.    In this edition, going by the talent, variety, confidence, singing and delivery Mallavika Sundar seemed to be an Indian Idol material and her getting eliminated from the top 3 and KudhaBaksh and Nag making into top three at her cost was shocking.  

 

The terms and condition of eligibility itself seem to be giving advantage to some over other.     Like winner of 5^th edition  Sreeram, Revant too is already a play back singer sang few songs in Telugu including the very popular number `Manohari’ from Bahubali.    When it is termed as a Talent Search show, the presumption is that it is for amateurs and not professionals.   Someone who has already done playback singing can not be categorised as amateur.   

A thing one wishes from Indian Idol and other such reality shows is not encourage emotional outbursts at drop of hat by the contestants, their parents, judges and other relatives and channel making it more overdramatic by somber music at the stage of editing.    Emotions should be very personal and any person who has reached such stage like being top ten of an All India contests should not give an impression that they are there not because of their talent but because of their poor/modest back ground, their trials in life.   You win some and lose some, there is no need to sob uncontrollably when a contestant is eliminated.   It shows one’s weakness and lack of composure.   There are so many cricketers like Pathan brothers and even Sehwag, firstly they were not selected because they were poor and they do not sob on the pitch after being dismissed.    It is for the good of all the contestants, their relatives and judges to get over this irritating habit.   

In the top 4 contestants of this edition there were three south Indians (two Telugu speaking and one tamil speaking), 5^th edition winner Sreeram was from Hyderabad, the runner up of 2^nd edition Karunya was from Hyderabad but still Sony TV never thinks it necessary to hold auditions at any of the south Indian cities.   It may not be convenient to many talented south Indians to travel all the way to Mumbai or Delhi to take part in the auditions and many Kudha Bakhs from these states must be deprived of an opportunity of being part of this talent search show.   Next edition onwards hope Sony holds auditions in few South India cities too. 

Last but not the least SUNIL GROVER has rocked in the Finale programme with his fantastic energy

S. PRABHAKAR

2.4.2017   

IS IT THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF KAPIL SHARMA SHOW by S. PRABHAKAR

The Kapil Sharma Comedy Show took a serious and ugly turn with the spat between Kapil and Sunil Grover on flight in public view. Sunil Grover has promptly announced that he will no more work with Kapil and to make matters worse Kapil’s good and childhood friend Chandan also took similar step.    As can be expected it is all over the news and majority are backing Sunil Grover.    Sunil Grover has handled the situation very cleverly and maturely and coming out very clean and as a victim.  This unfortunate episode has considerably damaged the brand `Kapil Sharma’.    Once the hangover of the cocktail was over Kapil has realised his mistake and went public in apologizing  Sunil Grover and trying his best to get him back. 

 For a person giving stage shows in Amritsar and participating in programme in Punjabi channels with hardly any reach, the success achieved by Kapil Sharma is phenomenal and it is human and natural to allow success to go to the head  to some extent, but at this juncture trying to shake off Sunil Grover is like ` `apne pair pe khuladhi maar na’.

Staleness has set in Kapil’s acts.

The biggest mistake Kapil and the channel have collectively done is dragging the show unendingly resulting in overkill.    No doubt everyone wants to make hey while the Sun is shining but they should have done some research to realise that boredom has set in long back and it is time to give a break and make a comeback after creating curiosity value.    The programme is depending too heavily on Sunil Grover, who by his sheer versatility of doing many roles in a single episode and with his perfect and flawless mimicry (specially the roles of  Dr Mashoor Gulati & Rinki Bhabhi)  able to carry entire programme on his shoulders.    His popularity and demand for his spontaneous mad acts at the climax on songs (like the ones in episodes with Aishwarya and Sharukh Khan) was soaring skywards. This obviously might have caused lot of discomfort to Kapil, on whose name the programme is running.   

When Kapil started his career as a stand up comedian in Great India Laughter Challenge on Star plus, he became very popular as the Inspector Shemsher Singh.   After winning one edition, he moved to Sony Comedy Circus and appeared in all editions and turned out to be the most successful comedian  amongst other contestants like Krushna, Sudesh, Bharti and VIP etc.  

 But as a comedian he did a tactical blunder in not relying much on his mimicry talent and donning various roles instead predominantly following single track of running down his fellow contestants specially female partners episode after episode which can only appeal masses.    This brand of comedy is popular with Pakistani comedians both in Pakistani shows as well as when they were allowed to participate in comedian shows in India.   They go berserk in insulting all and sundry and even go to the ridiculous extent of insulting Mother and Father at drop of hat in such cheap manner by saying that the `entire mohallah is after your Mother’.    Sadly Kapil picked up that trait and scripts were written around the theme of his running down fellow contestants and his female partners and understably most of his female partners like Sweta Tiwari  got upset and opted out and Kapil kept on changing his female paratners.   He ultimately zeroed on Sumona Chakravorthy, who preferred to be a dumbo and continued to be at the receiving end of  but of his jokes till date.

If i were to give one piece of advise to Kapil, it would have been that in comedy those comedians will be popular and long enduring who project their innocence, cut jokes on themselves and does idiotic acts rather than those who try to dominate and insult others.    Charlie Chaplin and  Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean have mastered this trait and became house hold names and immortals.   Sunil Grover’s Mashoor Gulati role is in the same mould and Rinku Bhabhi is just adorable.   While moving from Colours to Sony, Kapil carefully avoided all the popular and screen stealers like Bharti, Krushna, Sudhesh and VIP and picked lesser known mortals like Ali Asgar, Chandan who were his co-participants in other shows.    Kiku and Sunil Grover were not very popular in those days and did not enjoy star status.   While roping in them Kapil might not have thought that one day he will be overshadowed by them, as has happened specially by Sunil Grover.    When the Kapil show was with Colours Sunil Grover stormed as Guthi and gained tremendous popularity besides Asgar Ali and Upasana Singh.    On moving to Sony he had to re-create new roles for all. Ali Asgar lost his charm and popularity as Dadi, but Sunil not only slipped into Rinku Bhabhi effortlessly but also added new dimension by Dr. Mashoor Gulati character.    

Around the same time Kapil lost the plot as a comedian, and merely reduced to playing introductory role and interviewing celebrities in a very repetitive and stale manner.    He has become so predictable by asking same type of questions like what celebrities do in their bathrooms, how did they enjoy kissing scenes, did you ever thought that one day you will come to Kapil show, pouncing upon heroines to hug in a distatesful manner and openly flirting with them, (despite being snubbed many times by Aishwarya, Raveena and Sonakshi), repeatedly mentioning about his solitary feature film under production and his paying huge amount of income tax.  He becomes so out of control while dealing with females that once Saina Mirza has to pull him by saying come on she is my Mother atleast leave her, which is so embarassing, but he kept on repeating that unchartible act with the Mother of Arman Malik and few others.    A time has come when episode after episode, apart from Sunil Gover and Kiku, it is the guests who used to make the programme more funny and interesting than Kapil.    If one considers the programme on Crys Gale, Bravo, Sabri brothers, Jackey Chan, Sidhu Family, Govinda and Rishi & Neetu kapoor, Sunil Grover and the guests completely dominated and proceedings.    The moment Sunil Grover makes entry as Dr. Mashoor Gulati and/or as Rinku bhabhi the programmes lightens up and focus completely shifts and tempo of the programme picks up and Kapil get almost sidelined, which must be difficult to digest for the comedian in him, though it was benefitting him, the channel and the show.    

 He salvaged the situation considerably by introducing the character of Arora, in which role he showed glimpses of his past best.    Overall Sunil Grover and his popularity has become a sore thumb for Kapil and what happened in the flight was bound to happen.

To have a reality check Kapil should play and see the episode featuring the most popular martial artist in the world  Jackie chan, who has great flair for comedy too.  The much awaited programme fell flat miserably despite best efforts of Chan in the absence of Sunil grover .    Things were no better in the last two episodes after the exit of Sunil Grover.   Kapil brought in few comedians like Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal and few more comedians.  They may be good for a change but in this format they may not fit in and may not be able to fill the void created by Sunil Grover's absence.

The predicament of Sunil Grover :

Sunil Grover knows that he shoulders a huge responsibility in making the programme success as Guthi in earlier Avatar and more so now as Mashoor Gulati and Rinku Bhabhi.  This might tempt him to try his luck outside Kapil Sharma show.     His first attempt to do so was a disaster and his show has not taken off at all and he had to make a hasty retreat back to Kapil show.    This ugly incident has come as a blessing in disguise for him to demonstrate how important, if not indispensable, he is for the Kapil Sharma Comedy show to maintain its premier position.    Though he can surely encash this situation by getting his pay cheque fatter, he has no other option but to come back, may be on a stronger footing and better terms.    

He is like Vinod khanna of 1970s, who was so good in doing his bit excellently in multi starrers but miserably failed to deliver any significant solo hits.    Right from Mera Gao Mera Desh (with Dharmender), to some 6 to 7 super hits with Amitabh in late 70s, including Hera Pheri, Amar Akbar Anthony, Khoon Pasina and Muquddar ka Sikandar, he shone only in support roles.    The same was the case with Shashi Kapoor too and sooner these two actors realised it and were happy doing their part well in multi starrer and be in business.    Sunil Grover too may not be able to do anything noteworthy on his own if what happened earlier is any indication, unless any other channel puts him together with Krushna and the adorable Sudesh and extremely talented Bharti and VIP (taking care not to repeat the disastrous mistake of repeating Comedy nights bachov) and pose a big threat to The kapil Sharma comedy show.  

Way forward

Though Kapil and Sony channel may like to continue with the show and reap as much as they can, it would be advisable to take a break for some time and regroup with new set of comedians rather than experimenting with different comedians every week.   Few episodes back they brought in Dr. Sankalp Bhonsle who did a great act of Sanjay Dutt.    They also brought in very young and extremely talented Siddhartha in few episodes but did not give him good author backed character.    After some time if we get Kapil Sharma comedy show in a new avatar and some other comedy show by Sunil Grover and team, it will be double dhamaka for audience.   

As of now it is advantage SUNIL GROVER.    

S. Prabhakar

31.3.2017

KHAIDI No. 150 – BOSS (Chiranjeevi) MAKES A DECENT COME BACK

In last one week there is one thing which is ringing in the ears of every Telugu movie buff is that THE BOSS IS BACK.   Sure the Boss made a smooth, effortless and very decent come back bordering rating of `Boss is Back with a Bang’.   

First thing first, though appearing after a long hibernation of Nine years, Chiranjeevi has not shown any rustiness whatsoever and his acting, dances, and even action to a great extent are absolutely fluid as if he did not have any break of single day. 

  

Mahesh Babu

Chiranjeevi took a break at his peak to enter politics. He has blotted and gone out of shape during his political career and his age was evident all over.   In the last nine years the Telugu industry made a great transition.   Gone are the days of hysterical melodramas and mindless action movies. Production values and the budgets have gone up multi fold, almost making it impossible to recover cost if restricted to twin Telugu states of Andhra and Telangana.   Movies like Bahubali have broken to regional barriers and the dubbed versions have made more money at box office than the original.    In the last nine years all the young crop of actors like Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Jr. NTR, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan and Prabas have established themselves and ruling the roost in Telugu Industry.  All these guys have taken great care of their looks and they are giving run for the money to their bollywood counterparts.   No one is afraid of experiment with looks, new scripts, new directors and new production houses.  

With this back ground it is not so easy for Chiranjivi, who turned 61, to make a come- back with his mega star status, his future plans and everything at stake.   When Amitabh innings was over as a hero with half a dozen of his movie as hero bombing at box office, he had to take a break for long time and could make a come back in all together new elderly avatar and not as a hero.    With large than life image and unprecedented fan following Rajnikant too is finding it difficult to pull off success.   All his movies after Robo have bombed at boxoffice.    But Chiru preferred to make a come back as a mass hero only and to his credit he surprised everyone including himself.   

Director VV Vinayak

He chose a safe bet for his return by remake of Murugdoss Tamil Super hit `Katti’ and changed it suitably to suit the requirement of Telugu audience specially sprinkling lot of comedy.   

            He has gone back to director VV Vinayak, specialist of                      action movies who gave him super hit Tagore earlier.

Firstly he has come back to shape dramatically without looking being sucked and worn out.   He looked so trim that he did not look odd with

Kajal agarwal who is in her late 20s and about a year back she worked with Chiru son Ram Charan.  In his hey days Chiranjeevi was known for the energetic dances (with Radha, Vijaya Shanti and Sridevi in couple of movies)  and bone breaking action scenes.  After NTR retiring, he filled the gap with controlled and fantastic dialogue delivery.   He is pretty decent in emoting too and has great comic timing.    As such he was a complete package.   With majority of his movie were money spinners and truly he was a MEGASTAR.   In Khadi No. 150, none of these traits have diminished if you discount it to his over the sixty years age.  

Chiru with Devisri Prasad

Lucky the bankable Devi Sri Prasad has given very special foot tapping music with every song being catchy and Chirannjeevi and his charographer including Lawrance for a guest number did great job.    Very cleverly keeping Chiranjeevi’s age in view, the steps
were not jerky but fluid and Chiru has put all his experience to pull them off and the results is there for all the see and his fans to be thrilled.  


When Chiru is there action cannot be far behind.   Surely at his age he cannot be as agile as he was, but thanks to the cable technology being used in all actions scenes in Telugu and Tamil movies, and daredevil feats done by the stuntman, all the action scenes have came off well.    But what stole thunder is the great sense of comic timing of Chiru.   He alongwith Ali, Brahmanandam, and Posani gave great comical relief in an otherwise serious proceedings and it really elevated the movie.  The subject of corporatisation and land grabbing has given Chiru lot of scope for his trade mark dialogue delivery.   No other movie could have given him such ample scope to unleash his talent that is in abundance.

The welcome given by Telugu audience to the comeback of Chiru is astounding with tickets getting sold out for entire week in not entire Andhra, Telangana, but UAE, US and UK.   UAE has given a holiday to all the Telugu speaking people on 11^th Jan, the day of its release.    Within a week of its release the gross collection has crossed Rs. 100 crores and there is much to come.    It is the second highest grosser in Telugu industry next to Bahubali but if one considers the small budget of this movie compared to Bahubali, returns of Khaidi No. 150 are much more.  

The stupendous success of Khaidi No. 150 has forced all the younger heros to welcome him back and Chiru is going to add a new dimension in Telugu industry.     The success of this movie is going to give a new lease of life to Chiru in films and Telugu movie goers are in for feast of movies from the senior most member of the seven heros MEGA family  

BOSS IS GOING TO ROCK

S. PRABHAKAR

17.1.2017

FROM  `AMMU'  TO `AMMA'  – THE INSPIRING STORY

OF THE IRON LADY OF TAMIL NADU

With passing away of Miss J. Jayalalitha an Era has come to an end in Tamil Nadu and Indian Politics.   What she has not succeeded in her life time, she did in her death, in making all the leaders across all parties, including DMK leaders, gathering to pay rich tributes to her and DMK releasing a poster with her photo for the first time keeping aside for a minute their rivalry.  

People may have their own opinion about Jayalalitha, but there is no denying of the fact that she is one of the most popular mass leaders of Tamil Nadu/India and earned a permanent place in the hearts of poor specially female for whom she remains their `Amma’.  She  groomed herself as the most fearless Iron Lady, who never showed her back to adversaries, lived her life completely on her terms and un-apologetically ignored the general norms and conventions.   

The Early days:  Though her family was affluent her Father squandered their wealth and died leaving the family in deep financial mess when she was hardly two years old.   

Her mother has to shift to Madras to try her hand in Tamil films, leaving her to the care of aunt and grandparents.    She was convent educated and a brilliant student and topped at state level and won scholarship to pursue further studies and wanted to pursue law.

But the destiny and her Mother had different plans for her.   Her mother pushed her into film industry at a tender age of fifteen. 

The long and successful film journey:

Jalalitha did not start her film career with Tamil film.   She debuted in BR Pantulu’s Kannada movie `Chiannada Gombe’ in the year 1964, which was a runaway success.    Even while the shooting of this movie was on, she was dabbling with her studies and took that as a one off outing.  In 1965 she paired with her mentor MG Ramachandran (MGR) in `Aayirathil Oruvan’, a lavishly mounted action movie in colour dealing with the subject of pirates.   It was a major blockbuster and that was the beginning of the successful and enduring on screen pairing with MGR in 28 movies between1965-73, most of which were big time money spinners.   Apart from Tamil movies, she worked with top stars like NTR and ANR in Telugu and also Kannada movies.

She worked as leading lady in her only Bollywood movie Izzat with Dharmendra. 


She was a polyglot with ability speak in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and English.   In a career spanning over fifteen years she acted in 140 movies and was tipped as the highest paid actresses of her times.   As in every walk of life, she has been very bold in her movie career too.   She was the first heroin in Tamil movie who wore knee length skirts, sleeveless tops and banked heavily on glamour along with dancing and acting skills. 

MGR’s Mentoring : 

Jayalalitha was under the great influence of her mother as long as she was alive and after mother’s death, she found an able mentor in MGR who had an equal amount of influence over her like her mother.    Their on screen romance has spilled over to their personal lives but unlike in other much publicised romance between film personalities it was kept as a close guarded secret so that it does not damage the political public image of MGR .   Due to the frenzy fan following the south Indian stars command, South Indian journalists, unlike their North Indian counter parts could never dare to cross the line to peep into personal lives, so the personal angle between MGR and Jayalalitha remained to themselves to a great extent.    In public life they conducted themselves with great degree of dignity.

The Most enduring Political Career :

With Vanishri, Manjula, Jayaprada and Sridevi becoming popular stars Jayalalitha was reaching sunset in her film career.    By that time MGR has formed AIDMK and has taken the mettle of the state as Chief Minister.    To leverage Jayalalitha’s popularity and mass base, MGR inducted her into the party and appointed as Propaganda Secretary and then as Rajya Sabha member. For the second time in her life Jayalalita has been pushed into a high pressure career very reluctantly.   As MGR was an undisputed king of AIDMK no one in the rank and cadre shown any resentment toward the big push he gave Jayalalitha and her raise in the party.   Her sailing in politics was very smooth as long as MGR was alive, but when he died in 1987, Jayalalitha faced her biggest challenge in her political career and a `make or break situation’.   She faced the rude reality when she was not allowed to pay her last respects to MGR and physically thrown out of the carriage of MGR last journey.   Her claim to be the political heir was challenged by the MGR’s wife Janakai Ramachandran faction.  After the 1989 election debacle both of the faction of AIDMK was merged, Janaki Ramachandran took political sanyas and Jayalalita became the General Secretary of AIDMK and the undisputed leader.  She was elected as leader of opposition of the TN assembly.   

In 1991 Jayalalitha became Chief Minister of TN for the first time and was youngest Chief Minister of TN.   She served as Chief Minister five terms for fourteen years between 1991 and 2016.  These fourteen years have been a roller coaster ride for her in and out of power and in and out of jails.  More or less Karunanidhi and Jayalalita took turns to become Chief Minister almost every time the anti-incumbency factor working except in the last elections.  

Populist measures and mass base :

Despite huge negative publicity due to large number of corruption cases, serving of jail terms, aristocratic and arrogant life style, she succeeded in neutralising these negatives by developing huge mass base with the help of populist measures most of which were aimed towards welfare of the poor and downtrodden.  In this aspect she bettered her mentor MGR’s mid day meal scheme, by introducing number of welfare measures like Amma Canteens, Amma Salt, Amma Bottled Water, Amma Pharmaceis, Amma Baby Care, Amudam, Amma Cement, Amma Theaters and Amma Job Training.    Thousands of crores of tax payers’ money was spent on these schemes which was primarily aimed at wooing the poor voters and building the brand `Amma’ by putting her photograph on every bag, bottle, pack and advertisement. In additions to these, during election time, all conceivable things from sewing machines, laptops, colour TV, mixer and grinders, to golden chains were distributed which was unique to the state of Tamil Nadu.   It is beyond anyone’s comprehension how such open wooing and in a way purchasing of votes was not treated as violation of  model code of conduct by Election Commission.

The unconventional, unemotional female chauvinist

Jayalalitha remained an unconventional throughout her life. First though born in a traditional Brahmin family and remained deeply religious and superstitious, chose to join and head a Dravidian party which has always been anti-Brahmin.   She chose to have romantic liaison with a person who is older to her by more than 30 years and remained unmarried.   Never maintained close relations with brother and other family members but drew closer to and trusted friend Sashikala and her family members.

Normally politicians try very hard to project their clean image before the public and take every possible care to protect that image.  But Jayalalitha, did whatever she liked and wanted to do without bothering about the damage to her public image.   She built a palace and enjoyed lavish life style, indulged in a vulgar display of wealth and power in her foster son’s wedding, which apart from other things created couple of Gunnies World Records.   This misadventure has even costed her next elections but she was never repentant about it.

Jayalalitha has no love last for Media also.   She never bothered to stage pro-poor dramas like going on padyatras, visiting and eating in juggis for photo-op and such other things. Even top editors like Arnab, Rajdeep Sardesai were denied interviews and i remember once Barkha Dutt was given whole interview standing at vehicle door and Jayalalitha sitting in the front seat of the car.   In an interview with Karan Thapur, when he concluded by saying that `it was pleasure talking to you’ she retorted by saying `it was not pleasure for me talking to you’.   May be she was confident that the welfare measures unleashed by her at the cost of exchequer and the popularity gained among poor masses can do the trick for her and does not need to help of media and stay behind a tall wall of her Palace away from glare of media.

For some unfathomable reasons, in her political life she very unapologetically projected herself to be a female chauvinist.   She never had any qualms in the entire team of legislature members publically prostrate and fall at her feet and most of the time she hardly acknowledged it.   The film industry and politics have always been tough for females and exploitation is not uncommon and it was quite possible that they turned Jayalalitha what she has become.   One cannot really say how much of cynical pleasure she derived out of it, but surely it lowered the dignity and image of Tamilians before entire India/World. 

When she was insulted in the State Assembly by DMK cadre by almost enacting Draupadi Vastrabhaharanam episode, she gave it back very hard by getting Karunanidhi stripped off his Lungi at midnight and getting Maran physically lifted who came to his rescue and threw both of them in jail.  

As far as her party is concerned she handled it with Iron fists.    Appointments and removal of Ministers and Bureaucrats were  absolutely unpredictable and whimsical  and any trace of dissent was not tolerated.   There is only one unwritten law in the party either you are with her or you are not there.    

Though ultimately acquitted in many of the corruption cases, she was one of the very few Indian Chief Ministers who got arrested and got disqualified from holding the august office. The solitary confinement and inhuman behaviour meted to her, by her own admission, has made her tougher than ever before.   But to her credit she showed tremendous grit, tenacity and will power to bounce back and it is a poetic justice that she died while in office.

How Jayalalita will be remembered :

History will remember her as one of the most charismatic and mass leader, great administrator, orator, glamorous star and an Iron Lady with very strong will and grit.    Her name will always be taken in a same breath as Indira Gandhi to be the torch bearer for Feminist movement in India. 

In one of her interviews Jayalalitha said that Indian tradition is that a girl is born as a daughter, then becomes a wife and should die as a Mother, I could not achieve myself as a Wife, but I will definitely die as a Mother.    How true she was, she died as `AMMA’ for millions in Tamil Nadu and India specially the poor.   Here is a case where a person has equalled her Mentor if not bettered.   

Long live Amma

S. PRABHAKAR

7.12.1016