CHENNAI: Veteran actor Jayanthi, who had acted in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam movies died in her sleep on Monday, said the family members. She was 76. Her son Krishna Kumar confirmed that she had been recovering from prolonged illnesses but finally lost the battle.
Belonging to the K Balachander school of acting, she played key roles in such classics as ‘Bama Vijayam’, ‘Ethir Neechal’, ‘Punnagai’, and ‘Velli Vizha’. As a character artist, her roles in ‘Sengottai’, ‘Manidhan’, ‘Gopala Gopala’, ‘Housefull’, and ‘Pudhalvan’ among others won acclaim.
She played a range of characters — from a naive village damsel to a brash princess brought down to earth by the hero — in more than 500 films in various languages. Born in 1945 in Ballari and called Kamalakumari till she assumed the screen name Jayanthi, she was groomed as a classical dancer by her mother Santhanalakshmi with active encouragement by father Balasubramanyam.
She has the distinction of being paired with Kannada thespian Rajkumar in 45 films and he’d recall that she was the first to address him as Raj. After making her debut in ‘Jenugoodu’ (1965), she appeared with him in ‘Chandavalliya Thota’ in her second film. Many of her female leads with Rajkumar acquired the status of cult classics.
The cameo as Onake Obavva in the Puttanna Kanagal-directed ‘Nagarahavu’ showed her prowess at acting. Her portrayal of a sex-deprived wife of an impotent husband in ‘Edakallu Giddada Mele’ was acclaimed by viewers and critics alike. She was open to experimenting with unconventional characters, playing a commercial sex worker in Kanagal’s last film ‘Masanada Hoovu’.
Her marvellous acting earned her the moniker Abhinaya Sharade and six state awards and a Filmfare award. In her personal life, she stoically bore pain and bitterness. After separating from her first husband Peketi Shivaram, a director, she married Rajashekhar and made a film for him in the mid-1980s.
She even dabbled in politics, unsuccessfully contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Chikkaballapura on a JD(S) ticket in 2004.
