Peerumedu: J Jayalalithaa is fondly remembered for the welfare schemes that ensured food for everyone in Tamil Nadu. In this side of the border in Kerala, a woman in the tea estate belt in Idukki feels nostalgic about a black and white era when the reigning actor of Tamil filmdom descended on the laborers' quarters and fed her.
The year was 1971. Lourde Mary had just turned two years old. The crew of the MGR-Jaya starrer 'Annamitta Kai' wanted 17 children to shoot a song in which the leading lady took care of the laborers' children. Mary was in Jaya's hands when the song 'Pathinaru Vayathinile Pathinezhu Pillayamma…' was shot.
When the four-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu was laid to rest near MGR in Chennai on Tuesday, Mary could not help shed a tear for the woman who once put her to sleep with a sweet lullaby. Mary wanted to meet Jaya once more. Whenever she went to Chennai, she expected to have a glimpse of the actor-turned-politician. "But I hesitated because I was not sure of getting an appointment," she said.
The movie was shot in the Ashley Estate at Kuttikkanam. Jaya was gorgeous in a laborer's simple attire.
There were 17 cloth cradles hanging from the branches of a big tree in the estate. Jaya was carrying Mary while the other children slept smug in the cradles.
Mary's parents acted in the movie too. Her mother Teresa was seen handing over the baby to Jaya after breastfeeding her. Her father Andrews acted as a blind beggar rescued by none other than MGR.