Review : #ThalaiviJayalalithaa’s life journey from Ammu to Amma!
Actor turned politician #Jayalalithaa was a politician to reckon with in Indian politics. She changed the political scenario in South India and emerged as a very strong female political leader. Her personal life as well as public life was marred with controversies but she always conquered the love of common people and was hugely popular as a Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She served as a CM for six times and was lovingly called Amma by her millions of followers. ‘Thalaivi’ is a movie based on a book by the same name by Ajayan Bala which chronicles around two and a half decades of Jayalalithaa’s life. The film covers the time span from 1965 to 1991, where her journey from a new actor to the Tamil Nadu’s youngest Chief Minister. The near and dear ones in her private life used to lovingly call her Ammu and after coming to public life her followers started referring her as Amma.
An iconic figure in Indian political scenario Jayalalithaa’s (Kangana Ranaut) journey is known to most. ‘Thalaivi’ showcases her emotional side and the incidents which led her into politics which she hated earlier. Her life always revolved around another iconic figure in cinema and politics, MG Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR (Arvind Swamy). MGR and Jayalalithaa’s relationship was an open secret for which Jaya was targeted in press and public life. Her life always was driven by MGR’s love and she was never apologetic about it. The film depicts the purity of her love for MGR and unconditional support for him in all his endeavours. The ‘other woman’ tag never bothered her as her life revolved around MGR. On the insistence of MGR, Jayalalithaa shifted gears in her political career despite hard resistance from her own party. The humiliation meted out to her by her political rival Karunanidhi changed the face of political scene of South India. In fact the opening scene of ‘Thalaivi’ poignantly displays that and the story of a rebellious teenager starts taking shape.
Kangana Ranaut who plays titular role of Jayalalithaa is extremely convincing in her portrayal. The rebelliousness of the character is present in Kangana as a person in real life, helps the characterisation immensely. The director AL Vijay has done justice to the script and doesn’t deviate much from the narrative. In the life of Jayalalithaa, MGR’s role was immensely important as she was head over heels in love with him and he too was besotted by her beauty and brains, despite being married, twice to be precise. Kangana brings forth every emotion alive on big screen effortlessly. Another positive being she has not tried to mimic Jayalalitha but has got the tone and nuances of her character right. Her performance gets complimented by Arvind Swamy’s portrayal of MGR. He has nailed the character and delivers a superlative performance.
Other notable performance in the film is by Raj Arjun who has played RM Veerappan, a close aide of MGR in personal as well as public life. The film doesn’t showcase the political journey of Jayalalithaa after she became CM. Maybe Kangana can come up with a sequel covering that. Director should have used editor’s services more efficiently as the first half drags a little and some portions could have been chopped. The Art Direction is impressive so are the costumes as a lot of research seems to have gone into it. Music is reasonobly good but the background score is at times a bit jarring. Madhoo, who plays MGR’s wife VN Janaki Devi and Bhagyashree who plays Jayalalithaa’s mother are good in their small screen time. The film has some good ‘Dialougebaazi’ (Rajat Arora) which helps the narration at times. The film has avoided political controversies Jaya was involved him but doesn’t glorify her character beyond certain point.
‘Thalaivi’ showcases Jayalalithaa’s life journey from Ammu to Amma and can boast of superlative performances too.
Rating: ****