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Tamil Nadu’s just deceased chief minister Jayalalithaa had a very successful innings in the 1950s, 60s and 70s as an actress.
He played the two sons of an arrogant Thakur (played by the amazing Balraj Sahni) who during a hunting expedition, rapes and impregnates a tribal woman.
As luck irony and corny script writing would have it, the tribal woman sires a son who falls in love with a sober, sad and grieving upper class woman while the Thakur’s legitimate son falls for a sprightly, outspoken and unabashed tribal girl Jhumki. The tribal girl was played by Jayalalithaa.
Izzat was directed by the famed Tamil-Telugu director T Prakash Rao who made several successful Hindi films in the 1960s, mostly with South Indian leading ladies: B Saroja Devi in Sasural, Vyjanthimala in College Girl, Duniya and Suraj, Padmini in Nanha Farishta.
Rao was given the responsibility of launching Jayalalitha in Hindi for the reason of cultural comfort. Rao had great facility with the cultural transition from Tamil to Hindi cinema.
The hit song composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal had raised quite a storm for its lyrics written by the great Sahir Ladhianvi. Lataji recalls that number with a smile of recognition.
Dharmendra, who had the singular privilege of being the only leading man from Hindi cinema to have been paired with Jayalalithaa in a Hindi film, remembers the lady with much respect.
(This story was originally published on 5 December 2016. It is being reposted to mark J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary)
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Published: 05 Dec 2016,03:09 PM IST