1. Dharmendra who had the rare privilege to work with Jayalalitha in a Hindi film thinks Kangna Ranaut has the versatile personality to play Jayalalitha, “I worked with Jayalalithaji in Izzat in 1968. Back then she was not into politics. But she was a very fine actress. Kangana fits into the part well. One needs a strong assertive personality with a good command over the emotional and verbal language to play Jayalalitha. Kangana has it.”
2. Because Kangana Ranaut is every inch the queen of biopics. She has played everyone, from Abu Salem’s alleged love interest Monica Bedi in Gangster to Parveen Babi in Woh Lamhe, to Manikarnika the Queen of Jhansi. Playing Jayalalitha is Kangana’s greatest challenge and boy, is she up to it!
3. We have had several Jayalalitha biopics including Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar where Aishwarya Rai played Jayalalitha, and a web series by Gautham Vasudev Menon entitled Queen (get it?) in 2019 where Ramya Krishnan played the unvanquished politician. But none as fiercely competitive and rigorously focused as Kangana. Unlike Aishwarya who played Jayalalitha uniformly as ‘Aishwarya’ (petite, slim stunningly pretty) Kangana changes her body pattern as per the character’s age and requirement. If Robert De Niro was the Raging Bull, Kangana is the Raging Belle.
4. Producer Shailesh Singh has proven his skills repeatedly at biopics. He has co-produced three biopics, director Hansal Mehta: Shahid, Aligarh and Omerta. This man knows how to get real without losing his cinematic sensibility.
5. Because Thalaivii is not really a political film. It is about a legendary politician, yes, but it’s a love story that spans two decades between an actress-turned-politician and her mentor M G Ramachandran, played by Arvind Swamy. This can’t go wrong.
Image Sources: Instagram/kanganaranaut, YouTube/Zee Studios