“No Sasikala, please”

Jayaram Jayalalithaa's biopic Thalaivi (2021), directed by A L Vijay, depicts her journey from a filmstar to prominent politician. Jayalalithaa emerged as a powerful female public figure, first as a popular Tamilian actress and later as a politician holding the position of chief minister of Tamil Nadu for six terms. Although Thalaivi highlights Jaya's – as she is called in the film – influence and fighting spirit, it nevertheless subtly reinstates patriarchal norms. The film portrays her as a victim who goes from strength to strength with the support of her male film-star-turned-politician mentor M G Ramachandran, popularly called MGR, and after his death, by remaining true to his legacy. In emphasising Jaya's relationship with MGR while at the same time erasing her equally strong and influential history with party worker and aide V K Sasikala, the film deliberately foregrounds her life in a heterosexual domain, sanitising it and presenting it in a way whereby she emerges as culturally acceptable to the Brahminical order.

Jayalalithaa as Jaya in Thalaivi

Born in 1948 to an upper-middle-class Iyengar-Brahmin family, Jayalalithaa's early life was not easy. Her father died when she was two. Her mother, Vedavalli (Sandhya), who was only 26 years old, had to start looking after the family. Although Jayalalithaa was academically gifted, her mother convinced her to act in films beginning in 1961. Jayalalithaa went on to rule the Tamil film industry and later emerged as one of Tamil Nadu's most powerful politicians.