An ode to Amma called Manorama!

“Fondly called as Aachi, veteran Tamil actress Manorama was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai following chest pain, and is likely to undergo angioplasty”..read the newspapers all over the South circuit. I was suddenly jolted to realise the intensity of news – an actress who was adored on the screen for her antics, Manorama holds a special place in the hearts of Tamil audiences all over.

Manorama, one of the celebrated character artists on screen, has some unique traits as a personality on the whole. She is a transcending reel life character who represents the chunk of women in real life – loud, candid, funny and motherly. Manorama portrays the characters so well on screen that, sometimes we confuse her on screen antics to be her real life ones. Every joke cracked, every loud profanity used and that typical trademark facial expression when amused or shocked – Manorama carries a niche that cannot be replicated or copied by anyone else.

One moment she would be uniting the hero and heroine on screen and the very next, raising her angst against the prevailing corruption in the country, making Kamal Haasan’s ‘Indian’ (Bharatiyudu) start a war. She has this magnanimous frame, a very bold and endearing demeanour that connects well with middle class south Indian households and their descendants everywhere.

Manorama is said to have many friends in the industry; I cannot vouch for that. However, she made some friends unknown to her outside in the real world. People who connect with her in real homes and neighbourhoods, folks who praise her screen characters and women, who often imitate her antics in the real sense with all seriousness.

She played a mom, she played an aunt, she played a mother in law and she played a sister – all of them true to the core of Tamil standards, not to forget the parameters that depict a simple South Indian woman. Manorama, is battling with a chest pain; a thousand prayers must be echoing the walls of her hospital room as she does.

A true ‘amma’ in every sense; Manorama continues to be that aunt I always wanted to have in order to strike up a witty conversation in the backyard.

Love you, Aachi!!