Thaliavi is a biographical drama about one of India’s most fascinating politicians, J. Jayalalithaa, the six-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The release of the film starring Kangana Ranaut in the titular role was postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The film that was to release in June of last year will now release on 23 April 2021. Check out the trailer and reactions to it.
The film follows the life and fortunes of J Jayalalithaa first as a film star, protégé of M G Ramachandran and then as one of Tamil Nadu’s most towering political personalities. MGR’s role is essayed by a cleverly made-up, barely recognisable Arvind Swami in the film.
The movie will release simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The trailers are cut differently depending upon the language they are released in. While the Hindi trailer concentrates more on Jayalalithaa’s character, the Tamil trailer focuses more on MGR.
Thalaivi means leader according to Google, but is also colloquially synonymous with ‘boss’. Jayalalithaa was certainly a ‘boss’ and a hugely inspirational story.
Ranaut has the talent and the personality to pull this off. It is perhaps fitting that someone as fierce and combative; who made her own way as Ranaut has, should play Jayalalithaa.
There is no doubt that the filmmakers have worked hard to recreate the personality and the physicality of Jayalalithaa.
There is no doubt that Kangana Ranaut is one of the finest actors in the Hindi film industry. The trailer fittingly was released on her birthday; 23 march 2021. Fans are looking forward to the film release.
Ranaut has portrayed the many different ages and stages of Jayalalithaa’s life portrayed in the trailer faithfully; gaining and losing weight as required by the script.
The trailer seems to promise a narrative that examines the North-South tussle; more particularly the tussle that Jayalalithaa herself frequently had with North-dominated central politics.
Ranaut was recently in the news for winning the national award for her roles in Manikarnika: Queen of Jhansi and Panga. She had previously won three national awards as well. Fans are convinced that her performance in Thalaivi will fetch her her 5th national award.
Some of the tweeple thought that the prosthetics and the makeup weren't convincing. Some thought that Vidya Balan would have been a better choice to play this role. A few of the tweeple also expressed the view that the film seems to have rather too much drama; making this more of a masala film than a real biography.
There is also the view that this film will not do well in the North as Jayalalithaa is irrelevant to that geography. However, if this is a story well-told – Jayalalithaa’s was a fascinating life after all – it will do well. Geography or no geography.
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