Ramakanthi has credit of screening most Jaya's films

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who passed away on Monday, was an actor first, who cast her magical spell on cine lovers. It was her pairing with uber charismatic actor M G Ramachandran that cemented her stardom in Tamil film industry. Ramakanthi, one of the oldest talkies near Central Market in the city, has the credit of screening most Jayalalithaa movies, all in Tamil. MGR-Jayalalithaa movies were shown umpteen number of times in those days, as first release, second release and so on.

Vasanth Rao, the second generation exhibitor, told DH, when ‘Ayirathil Oruvan’ with MGR and Jayalalithaa’s maiden film as lead pair was released in 1965, it ran for packed houses. Directed by renowned film director B R Panthulu, it undoubtedly laid the foundation for the hit pair that went on to act in 28 films till 1973. ‘Kaavalkaran’ (again with MGR) and ‘Maadi Veettu Mapillai’ (with another prominent actor Ravichandran), bot-h released in 1967, were scree-ned here. ‘Nam Naadu’ (1969) was also screened here.

Re-released
‘Adimaipenn’ that hit the screens in 1969, remains one of the best releases, at least for Ramakanthi. The film completed 50 days’ run, a pride in matters of other language films in those days. It was screened five times at different intervals, only to attract cine lovers repeatedly.

Any MGR-Jaya starrer had a decent run for four to five weeks and Ramakanthi, know-n for screening Tamil films, was the only place one could catch the action on screen, says Vasanth Rao.

This theatre, ever since it was established in the year 1952, remained the perfect place for watching Tamil films, It was only for the last one decade, Kannada films became a regular feature here, claims Rao.