Queen – The Eternal Glimpse of Jayalalithaa Onscreen

Growing up in Chennai, one could never surpass the cult political figure of Jayalalithaa. I still remember seeing banners as tall as a 5-floor building glorifying her and seeing all that one would imagine that she is showing her political supremacy. But the day when she died or even the day when she got convicted, sympathy on her grew big, especially among woman. I still remember women in my close circle saying it a political conspiracy to defame her.

But yes, not denying the fact that I’m personally more attracted towards her for her diction and attitude. There wasn’t a single political leader whom I had known showed so much confidence and resilience like her. Well, that too being a woman is not the phrase I want to use.

Since her death, I have seen and read so many blogs, vlogs, news articles etc. that spoke about her as a person. The ones who dared to talk about her when she was alive are now so openly showing off with the facts they have in hand. Man, they’d have been nowhere if she was alive.

Now I realize why she was so vehemently keeping them low profile. The most awaited of them all was a biopic. But much to my dismay, seeing Kangana Ranaut playing Jayalalithaa is the shittiest of all things one could imagine. No wonder, some movie makers lack aesthetics in casting the replica of a woman like the iron lady.

The day I saw the poster of Queen, played by Ramya Krishnan, I was quite intrigued. She is the erstwhile Sivagami Devi of Bahubali fame. Without delay, I downloaded MXPlayer and within 72 hours of downloading, I finished watching. My friends asked me, “Have you gone mad?” I pity them as they never admire anyone the way I do and they never realize what it means to admire a person like her. The least they could say is, “you’ve become her propaganda secretary.” Whatever guys, they probably don’t know the meaning of real admiration.

Fortunately, Gautham Menon has personified the iron lady with so much subtlety in Queen, which is quite affirming for a viewer. Be it her school days as a student to reckon with or as an actress or a public personality, he made every single character do their best with grace. And yes, grace and perfection is an inborn trait of Jayalalithaa as a person. That’s the reason why she stood apart from all her contemporaries, be it movies or politics or anything that she did. If someone can replicate the same thing onscreen, he/she deserves something more than an appreciation.

Despite all these positive thoughts on the web series, this series lacks something and that is the dynamic voice of hers. If the makers can sort it out, this series will go to the next level. Going forward, I’m eagerly waiting to see the political career of Shakti Seshadri (replica of Jayalalithaa) in the upcoming season of Queen as that’s the period which shaped up the iron lady in her.