“ The Lone Empress”_

Vasanthi Sundaram

Introduction :
“ The Lone Empress” – is penned by popular
novelist and writer Vasanthi Sundaram, who
exclusively writes in English and Tamil. Her
notable works are “cut-out, cast and cine
stars”, The world of Tamil politics, The silent
storm .
The Lone Empress is a portrait of southern
sensational glamour queen and Iron lady “ J.
Jayalalithaa”, who not only conquered the
southern silver screen for two decades but also
ruled the male centric Dravidian politics for
next three decades after her exit from glamour
world.
Body : Ammu ( J. Jayalalitha ) was born in a
typical Tamil Ayyanger Brahmin family in the
state of Mysore in 1948. Her father Jayaram
died when she was merely 2 years old. Her
mother Sandhya was Home maker and aunt
was Air hostess. Her aunt was adventurous and
daring soul who decided to work in Tamil films.
Sandhya moved to Madras along with her sister
to work in films, so that she could give good
education and upbringing to her daughter
Ammu and her son.

As a child, Ammu was very self-centered and

reserved. She would speak only when she was
spoken too. She was brilliant student and was
incredible at her acedemics. She was very often
humiliated by her classmates for her mother
being an character actress.

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In matriculation, she topped Tamil Nadu state
and received the award of “ Best outgoing
student” and scholarship to continue her higher
education . Eventually, that was the time when
her mother insisted Ammu to give away her
scholarship and Join Classical dance classes and
drama. She was excellent classical dancer.
Gradually, she started receiving the film offer’s.
But categorically refused to work in films. Her
mother then pressurized her and let her know
the family poor circumstances .
Sandhya explained Ammu that, she isn’t
receiving much film offers and it’s becoming
difficult for her to run the house. Then Ammu
realised her family situations and started
accepting film offers that were pouring in to her
in a golden platter. She was given name on
silver screen i.e “ Jayalalitha”.

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While working in films her life saw a turning
point when she met her co-star of her many
films “Marthur Gopala Ramachandran”
popularly known as MGR, who was treated as
Demi-god in Tamilnadu. MGR was a popular
cine star and was 3 times Chief Minister of
Tamilnadu. To the adoring public of Tamilnadu,
he was not less than a charismatic figure and
Demi- god. But to Jayalalithaa, he was her
friend, Guide, Philosopher , whom she looked
upto.
After death of Sandhya ,He sort of replaced her
mother in Jaya’s life. She reignined southern
film industry in 1960’s and 70’s. She worked in
all the languages with top most stars of her
times like MGR , Shivaji Ganeshan, Gemini
Ganeshan, NTR ,ANR, and Dharmendra. Later
on after split from Dravida Munnetra Kazagam
(DMK), MGR established his own party
AIADMK, he won the state general elections in

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1977 and became the chief minister of
Tamilnadu consecutively three times from
( 1977-1987) . MGR brought Jayalalitha in
politics and she was made member of Rajya
sabha in Parliament.
MGR lost his life in 1987 due to cardiac arrest.
After the death of MGR, the real tussle of
power begined AlADMK split in two parts. One
was supporting Janaki Ramachandran , the wife
of MGR . But the other side was supporting
Jayalalitha. Ultimately after a bigger innner
battle in the party, Jayalalitha agreed to lead
AIADMK.
Jayalalitha confronted a severe insult by the
ruling party members ( DMK) on the floor of
legislative assembly in the presence of then
Chief Minister Karunanidhi. The ruling party
MLA'S banged brass bell, heavy books and
pulled saree of Jayalalitha and infact,torn out
some her hair. She was insulted on the floor of

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the house . On that day, she left assembly in
tears making a vow that she would return to
the assembly only when becomes chief
minister. She fulfilled her vow with in a year
and won with thumping landslide majority .
She became first women to become chief
minister at the age of 40 , but her 1st tenure
was full of corruption charges. She became
chief minister of Tamilnadu 6 times in her span
of Political career from ( 1991-2016). On one
hand, she was alleged for corruption charges
but on the other hand, she was applauded for
her public welfare centric programmes
popularly called “Amma”. She took many land
marking decisions in the interest of Tamilnadu
and India.
In the year 2016 she lost her life due to cardiac
arrest. Lakhs of people were on the roads of
Chennai to pay last homage to their beloved
“Amma”.

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Conclusion : The author very sincerely depicted
and the title of the book is very rightly
penned to the image of Jayalalitha. According
to me, Jayalalitha is undoubtedly the
empress who rose to fame in a male centric
Dravidian politics by dominating on her terms
and conditions. But she couldn’t be labelled
as “The feminist” because she had corruption
charges alleged on her.