When one sits down to write the history of Indian cinema, especially south Indian cinema, Kodambakkam in Chennai is definitely bound to have a chapter or two written about it. It has given more than one chief minister to two Indian states if not three after bifurcation. M. Karunanidhi, MGR, NTR, Jayalalitha and the latest addition in that list; C. Joseph Vijay. Of course Karunanidhi came from an ideological background and wrote scripts for movies, but the others befit our topic. If Karunanidhi was an ideologist, the others are all mass leaders who transformed their reel life persona and charm to real life achievement. MGR fought election from a hospital bed not once but twice and now Joseph Vijay ascended the throne of Tamil Nadu with a party that he formed barely three years back and holding only a handful of rallies of his own and that too with the one that ended up in a massive tragedy. So what makes Vijay’s ascendance hugely remarkable?

One can start with his huge popularity in Tamil Nadu and also the neighboring states, which is tenfold more than his contemporaries and maybe equal to or more than that of Rajinikanth, the one and only superstar and Kamal Haasan, the man born for movies. What makes Vijay so bold is the fact that he took the step forward to cash in if that is the right word to use here on his popularity and form a political party and contest an election. This is what makes him stand out from others as for instance Rajinikanth had the idea of joining politics many a times, but somehow started having cold feet every time and seemed reluctant or unsure as to what ideology he has to follow and of course Kamal Haasan; though he floated a political party and later aligned with one of the two old Dravidian parties, he is never known as the man of the masses. We are yet to realize the enormity of the achievement of Vijay at this moment because he decided to take on the two grand old Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu and also the very powerful ruling party at the center, the BJP. One does not know where he garnered this strength or whether this was his premonition of victory as one may call it or sheer luck on his side, no one will know the answer for that for sure not even Vijay himself. This is what gives him the tag of being bold and being there at the right time to fill a void or vacuum in Tamil Nadu politics left by MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha and for that matter even Vijayakanth to a certain extent.

Now if we come to the beautiful, J. Jayalalitha was the embodiment of both the bold and the beautiful. From being the heroine of MGR for more than 20 films, then learning the nuances of day-to-day politics from him, then facing the humiliation of being pushed off the gun carriage that carried MGR during his funeral to rising as a phoenix to take control of the party started by MGR and ultimately become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu six times for more than fourteen years altogether and be fondly known as “Amma” to the people of Tamil Nadu. Her feud with Karunanidhi are legendary and she was a person who was known to have hands-on control over everything; whether it was running the government when she was in power or the party when she was in opposition. If anyone befits our headline, it will be undoubtedly J. Jayalalitha. There is a lady who can match this tag at the present time in the Tamil film industry. Her name happens to be Trisha Krishnan and though she is not in politics presently and one can only speculate whether she will enter politics in the future or not it is a million dollar question. It’s like history is repeating itself; like MGR and Jayalalitha, Vijay and Trisha are more of friends than mentor and mentee for that matter, but with MGR, his wife and family were very much opposed to Jayalalitha and here Vijay and his wife are in court for a divorce and there are widespread rumors that his relationship with an actress is the main cause for the divorce application. One can only speculate about this as there are no authentic news or evidences to substantiate this claim. But for Trisha, she has established herself as one of the leading actresses in South Indian cinema and has been a part of some of the most big budjet films; be it period dramas or action flicks. She has been able to hold a niche for herself in whatever character she been asked to perform. She has been the leading lady for all the contemporary stars including Vijay, Ajith, Vikram, Suriya and many more. What will happen in the future for her no one will know for sure be it in her personal life or public life, but for the moment she does carry the tag of the bold and the beautiful and rightly so.