CM Jayalalithaa no more!

The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu Jayalalithaa Jayaraman breathed her last on Monday at 11.30pm. Official announcement of her death came at 00.30 hours. Popular as Puratchi Thalaivi or Amma, this actress turned politician was battling for her life from the past 73 days. 

An avid dancer, Jayalalithaa has been a part of many plays in her early age. She debuted into films with the Kannada movie, Chinnada Bombe opposite Kalyan Kumar. This film was directed by B R Panthulu and went on to become a superhit in 1964. 

In 1965 she debuted in Tamil films as a leading woman with the film Vennira Aadai, which was directed by C V Sridhar. In Tollywood she was first seen opposite Akkineni Nageshwara Rao, in the superhit film 'Manusulu Mamathalu'. She was last seen in Tollywood opposite Akkineni Nageshwara Rao in the film Nayakudu Vinayakudu in 1980.

She started her career at the age of 15 and in a career spanning three decades she was seen in numerous hits in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films. 28 of her Telugu films have seen Silver Jubilees. She had 119 box office hits between 1961 and 1980, of the total 125 films.

From here she retired as an actress and took on as a full time politician. The Puratchi Thalaivi who was known to be a fighter and had risen on several occasions in politics. Sadly health failed her and she had been battling for her life from the past two months. The end came when she suffered a cardiac arrest. Tamilnadu's favourite actress, politician, fondly called as amma leaves behind a legacy and innumerable followers.