In Vaasanthi’s words, “Solai adds, ‘MGR was found of her, that was obvious, and people thought it was natural if they had physical intimacy.
So, she brings this fact (or innuendo) through the words of Solai, as if either MGR or Jayalalitha had confessed this issue to him. Ramachandran (aka MGR, 1917-1987) and Jayalalitha’s mentor in movies and politics was committing adultery. Vaasanthi, as a fiction writer, knows well how to delicately tackle a sensitive topic that actor-politician M. Radhakrishnan and two of Jayalalitha’s classmates at Church Park Convent. Veerappan (who is now 90, and still living), K.S. Somasundaram (aka Solai, who had died in 2012), Film News Anandan (who died early this year and had functioned as Jayalalitha’s public relations officer in late 1960s and early 1970s), MGR’s confidant R. These include, veteran journalist and speech writer Ayyampalayam K. What a change ten years can make? In fact, for this biography, Vaasanthi had acknowledged only a handful of individuals who had intimately (somewhat) known her subject. 149)īut, in this 2016 biography, author Vaasanthi had conveniently omitted this revelation. ‘She is quite capable of doing it,’ said Cho.” (p. But when Cho, a long-time friend/critic/foe/ and repeatedly confidante of Jayalalithaa, confirmed it, I still felt it was a gross exaggeration. When it comes to anything connected with Poes Garden, I know that journalists would leap to all sorts of speculation, for want of any reliable information. It was also said that Sashikala, her friend, lent her a hand in the spanking. It was said that the poor fellow was summoned to Poes Garden and was literally beaten with sandals with a ferocity that left him bruised and bleeding. There were rumours in Chennai one morning in March 1999 of how Jayalalithaa beat up her auditor for messing up some transactions of hers, which helped the opposition to file a case of corruption against her. ‘The fellow came to me shivering with fright. “ ‘It is true’, said Cho Ramaswamy, noticing the disbelief on my face. I cite three paragraphs from chapter 15 of COCCS, which quotes Cho Ramaswamy, a noted observer of Tamil Nadu’s political scene for over half a century.
Offensive passages included in this 2006 book had been delicately chopped off to be in the good books of ‘Amma’. It seems to me, as a sanitized rip off from Vaasanthi’s previous book on Tamil Nadu politics, entitled ‘Cut-Outs, Caste and Cine Stars’ (2006 hereafter shortened as COCCS for this review). Despite the front cover blurb from The Hindu, extolling it’s essence as, ‘Fascinating…a required read’, the quality of this work is sub-standard. The author Vaasanthi, is a noted Tamil woman novelist. Book Review: Amma – Jayalalithaa’s Journey from Movie Star to Political Queen, by Vaasanthi, Juggernaut Books, New Delhi, 2016, 175 pages.Īt last, a short English biography on actress-politician Jayalalitha, the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India, had appeared.
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