State of Cinema

Tamilnadu had always been a state with high passions .
 cinema was a part of its fabric .
With Madras being the center of south Indian cinema  five decades back cinema produced not only  heroes on its screens but also off the screen .
It was never restricted to actors but involved script writers , musicians ,lyricists ,story tellers and so on .
Cinema and politics were a combo with great alchemy.

Starting from the patriarch saint and founder of Dravidianism Sri Annadurai who rose to become a chief minister ,his proteges one the  highly intelligent poet script writer par excellence dark glassed guttural voiced Karunanidhi the founder of the quintessential image of the Tamil politician and the other his total opposite the good looking rosy skinned rippling muscled dashing hero M.G.Ramachandran .

MGR had enough intellect to checkmate karunanidhi to start a new party on Annadurais demise to wear his mantle of the emperor of Tamil passions and the chief minister of Tamilnadu .

He had droves of women who followed him like a pied piper  and one of them was a lissome nubile beauty and a Tamil heroine ,intelligent and articulate in convent educated English .

She  managed to conquer his heart in spite of a wife at home and so like prof Higgins in my fair lady he went on to train the much younger Jayalalitha to groom her to be his successor .

 Drama swept the state again on the demise of the great MGR who once even withstood a bullet fired by a reel villain M.R.Radha and lived to tell the tale .

Jayalalitha had to face ignominy and  insults on her mentors disappearance as her enemies the estranged first wife and her cronies managed to push her out of the funeral cortege on live TV .

These lasting images of a woman tarnished of her honor brought her into limelight in the next election where the drab first wife was summarily rejected by the populace to seat Jaya  as the chief minister.
Cinema again !!

It was during these heady days a mousy looking middle aged video cassette seller women by name Sasikala was introduced to Jaya who by now had the mantle of a mother or Amma to her party men and was slowly turning into a one women power point in the state with her party men prostrating ,crawling and creeping on her feet .

This abject sycophancy was encouraged in the party
Sasikala quickly wormed her way into Jayas inner circles meta morphing from a live n maid of an unmarried lonely leader of the masses to a dear Friend and  confidant and finally became even  a sister who wore similar dresses and jewelry like her mistress did !!

This was the era of extravagance in Jayas rule with crores spent on a wedding of an adopted son who was incidentally the nephew of the maid turned sister whose tentacles of power were slowly entwining the state .
All this angered her voters who kicked her out of poor in next election .
Wilderness to a politician used to power is a misery specially when dark glassed villains with grudge occupied the CM gaddi .

And one day in the august assembly the fair maid Jaya was humiliated by sari pulling by an opposition MLA a sort of modern day Draupadi act and Jaya vowed to get back at dark glasses and company .

During these bad times when a lonely Jaya licked her wounds maid friend sister Sasikala was at hand to give the salve thus earning eternal gratitude of Jaya ..

The bounce back of Jaya in next election got dark glasses in real trouble as Jaya ordered a vengeful midnight arrest of a panic stricken howling frightened karunanidhi  cried out
they are killing me ayyo in live TV
Cinema again !!

Once her vengeance was satiated Jaya turned into administration while Sasikala and coterie slowly started amassing wealth .

Many were the stories whispered
People with lovely houses and prime land were called to Poes garden house of Jaya in the guise of they being called by a busy CM and in her absence threatened by covert threats to sign away their properties .
In the Government the maids husband was on a spree of minting money by any means and stocking it in the vast Mannargudi family coffers who all become the sudden rich .

Jaya wary of another defeat dismissed Sasikala who was smart enough to worm her way back into Jayas good books promising to distance herself from her husband and his caucus .

But in the background she kept appointing people known to her on several positions thus preparing herself for future positions .

And then its all a grey zone .

Jaya admitted in Apollo hospital under scrutiny of a Sasikala who never allowed anyone to see her even the Governor the caretaker CM and several VIP s

Health bulletins told her anxious supporters that she was ventilated and was being monitored
In two months Jaya was declared dead and quickly buried by the side of her mentor and lover MGR
There were expressions of suspicions as people noticed small holes in neck used in embalming bodies
Did Jaya die or was she killed as whispers told
Did they just do an act to buy time
Strangely the center armed with intelligence systems in place maintained zen equanimity with the PM even patting a demure Sasikala as an act of condolence !

So in a huge live funeral the body of Jaya was slowly lowered into the sands of the marina with all neck holes intact .
In days Sasikala her maid moved into Jayas house and her mafia family moved around like a pack of stray dogs in the state .

Now comes one more character by name OPS the humble tea shop owner loyal AIADMK party man trusted confidante of Jaya who was appointed as CM while maid Sasikala became party chief .

Within days OPS with his humility and hard work image was called to the Mannargudi den .

He came out as a resigned CM and announced that Sasikala would wear the CM crown from then on .
But drama and climax starting now
The next day OPS went to Jayas burial place and did a zen Buddhist bout of meditation at the end of which he went into an orgy of confession and informed the populace on how the Mannargudi mafia akin to Sicilian mafias had threatened him to resign and to leave the CM chair to her .

He also touched on how fishy Jayas death was though ignoring his silence till date of this vital matter .
The female don Sasikala flocked her MLA hens to a luxury resort near Chennai where they were kept happy in an orgy of liquor food and the rest so that she could exhibit the worthies to the Governor as her passport to power.
The Governor went into suspended animation probably part of Chanakyan manifestations from center and OPS smiled at this turn of events
The rest will be written as the story unfolds .