'Their love makes me cry'

Shobha Warrier

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalitha is not a person to display her emotions in public. But it was a different Jayalalitha that all those assembled at the University Centenary Hall to witness her swearing in ceremony as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, saw on the 2nd of March.

After she officially became the Chief Minister, she got down from the dais and went straight to where three women, who were specially invited to grace the occasion, were seated. The three elderly women were Manorama, this year's Padmashree award winner, P Susheela, the playback singer and M N Rajam, the yesteryear heroine.

Jayalalitha went to Manorama first, hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. Manorama who was least expecting such a display of affection from her 'Ammu' was caught off-guard, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I didn't know how to react then because not even in my wildest dreams did I expect her to come and kiss me. I became so emotional that I couldn't control the tears. I became numb; I don't know how I answered her questions. We talked for some time but I really do not recollect any of those because the whole experience was overwhelming.

"The day the Padmashree was announced, she had sent me a message congratulating me on winning the award. She had also sent me an invitation to attend the swearing in ceremony. I was so happy to receive the invitation because I still remember her as the little girl I saw on the sets years ago."

Manorama is one of the few persons who still address Jayalalitha as 'Ammu'. And, she always had very high regard for the young 'Ammu' who came to act in films though her mind was on her studies. She had reminisced, in one of her earlier interviews to this writer, how 'Ammu' used to sit in a corner reading books all the time. "She'd never talk to anyone. She was always immersed in some book but would listen to the dialogues while reading the book and would later repeat them without any mistakes." There was admiration in Manorama's words.

It was because of this admiration and love that Manorama decided to campaign for Jayalalitha in the 1996 assembly elections when there was a strong wave against her misrule. The whole of film industry had turned against Jayalalitha but Manorama chose to side her. Rajnikanth warned the people of Tamil Nadu through Sun TV that if they voted Jayalalitha back, not even God could save the state!

Manorama irked the whole industry by acting on emotions and going against the king of Tamil cinema, Rajnikanth, and the end result was an unofficial boycott of the hyper-sensitive woman. Suddenly she found that she had more enemies in the industry, and those were days full of tears. It was only when Rajnikanth invited her to act in his film that she became a part of the industry once again. Ask her about this incident, and she says, "That was a black chapter in my life. I do not want to remember it."

Jayalalitha is back as the Chief Minister and at her swearing in ceremony, the film fraternity turned in large numbers and that included seniors like Kamal Haasan, Vijayakant and Satyaraj. And Manorama is the most revered person in the industry now, after winning the Padmashree. Ask her about the way the industry is organizing functions, she turns emotional, "They are all my brothers and sisters. Their love makes me cry."

Things have come full circle.