Jayakanthan’s ‘Cinemavukku Pona Chitthalu’: on the influence of film personalities on the masses

Kamsalai, the heroine of Jayakanthan’s novella Cinemavukku Pona Chitthalu, is a microcosm of the wider political landscape of Tamil Nadu, susceptible to the charisma of film personalities. She belongs to an era when former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran wielded enormous influence over Tamil society.

A diehard fan of ‘Vaathyar’, as Jayakanthan refers to MGR, Kamsalai — whose real name remains unknown — lives on the margins of Chennai and represents the innumerable admirers of MGR who refused to see what lay beneath the glitter of filmdom.