Book Review: Another author ‘inspired’ by Jayalalithaa’s life

Enter PKB, a film star enjoying super-stardom by then and soon to be politician, who offers Kalai a chance to share the screen with him. There was no looking back for her. Kalai finds it difficult to restrain her feelings for PKB, who was more than twice her age, and eventually falls for him. Years later, when PKB coaxes Kalai to campaign for him, she meets with spectacular success. Following PKB’s death, Kalai seizes the throne to become the Chief Minister. 

Does the story sound familiar? It is, after all, set in Tamil Nadu — where politics intersects with the film industry. With her book, The Queen, author Anita Sivakumaran takes on the life of none other than the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Spanning four decades, the plot goes back and forth, slowly and steadily unfolding Kalai’s rise with PKG’s support. The fictional characters, with strong resemblance to real ones, are easily acknowledged; PKB replicates MGR, while Selvi is Sasikala. Some dialogues seem inconsequential, simply dragging the narration and the fictional part often appears to be weakest. There also remains a strong disparity with factual episodes related to the former Chief Minister’s life and therefore fails to generate curiosity among readers. 

But a few episodes, although known, will take your breath away while reading. Like when Kalai is stopped from attending PKB’s funeral by his family and yet decides to walk along with the masses who have come to pay their last respects, and receives their support with chants of ‘Long live Kalai Arasi. Long live PKB’. 

Other engaging episodes are when Kalai gets her first major breakthrough after PKB’s death in politics, with her landslide victory in a by-election, “making her presence felt in the world of politics”; and not to forget the assembly scene — “her hair was dishevelled, her eyes red and weeping, her blouse torn and her sari a wreath of snakes” — that will make readers relate to the real-life incident. But just when it seems the book will engage the reader’s interest, it fails because of its vague fictional dialogues. Had the book been based more of facts, revealing unknown or lesser known tales of Jayalalithaa, it would have been a great read.