The Empress: The Dramatic Life of A Powerful and Enigmatic Leader

It's very interested to learn the facts of Jayalalithaa life. So convinced. Simple narration.to the point.

Good read for those who need to know about Tamilnadu politics

Not a shred of new info and insight. Pl do not waste your time. Its useful only if one doesn’t have any idea about who Jayalalithaa was.

Wow...IAM Ammas fan

5star for the book quality. Pure original copy.

A very interesting read with many less known details. I realised JJs life was nothing less of a movie and the book is good in its narrative to keep the story gripping. Where it could have been better is in clarity of historic facts and chronology. It is a tad bit confusing at times when the author vacillates across times. For anyone keen about Jaya or Tamilnadu politics, this is good. This maynot be the best to learn the history, rather a light read to know about Jaya. The author is impartial by and large in her representation of JJ but JJ does come off as someone who is arrogant. In all, a good light travel read..

1) The empress by Kalyani shankar, is a concise political biography of Jayalalithaa, and latter is the first elected woman chief minister of Tamil nadu.2) Jayalalithaa initially wanted to become a successful lawyer, but her mother forced her to work as a actress in South Indian movies, and later M.G. Ramachandran or M.G.R brought her into the male dominated politics of Tamil Nadu.3) In many of her interviews Jayalalithaa had said that Because of M.G.R she joined politics, and he is everything to her, and in the initial years of her political life it was M.G.R who had the complete control over her Life.4) M.G.R, the South Indian movie super star, and the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who after his expulsion from the DMK ( A Dravidian political party ) founded the AIADMK, and it is because of his Robinhood image and the tremendous fan following amongst the tamilians, which brought his political party to the power, and he himself ruled as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 to 1987.5) But after the sudden death of M.G.R, there were complete chaos in the AIADMK, Because he didn't announced any successor after him, and the party had splitted into two factions, one was led by janaki ( wife of M.G.R ), and the second one was under the guidance of Jayalalithaa.6) Infact the death of M.G.R proved a turning point in the political career of Jayalalithaa, as she was very close to M.G.R, and in politics it's the perception that matters, and the people of Tamil Nadu Thought she was his real successor, and they supported her faction, and the faction which was led by janaki failed in convencing people and later she herself quit the politics, and afterwards both the factions of AIADMK united under the dynamic leadership of Jayaram Jayalalithaa.7) And it was under her guidance that AIADMK came to power in tamil nadu for four times- 1991, 2001, 2011, 2016. Although she had to step down two times from the post of chief minister of Tamil Nadu, because of her conviction in the disproportionate asset case, and both the times she had chosen a puppet by the name of O. Paneerselvam, who ruled as chief minister in her behalf, and the latter served her loyaly like a servant to his master.8) One thing which is said about Jayalalithaa was that she was very intolerant towards criticisms, she threatened press many times, filed uncountable number of cases against them, although she was a very good administrator, known for her clarity of thoughts, and the ability to understand the situation very quickly.9) Her government were known for many achievements, but one thing which is her USP was the ' welfare schemes ', like free good quality food to poor, mid-day meal scheme for students, cheap medicines, mineral water, financial aid to women, and according to the political pundits the support which she garnered from the women of Tamil Nadu was one of the main reason that her party was elected again in the 2016 assembly election, which is a achievement in itself, because from 1967 the people of tamilnadu alternated between DMK and AIADMK, and it was only her mentor M.G.R who was given the two consecutive term from 1977 to 1987.10) The Author also talked about Sasikala Natarajan and her influence on Jayalalithaa, and how the former gained so much of wealth by using Jayalalithaa, and in tamilnadu, Sasikala and her family were known as ' Mannargudi Mafia ', Infact after the death of Jayalalithaa, Sasikala Natarajan tried to capture power by using money but because of her ill-gotten wealth she was convicted in the disproportionate asset case, and right now she is enjoying the hospitality of Central prison of Karnataka.11) Although it is a very short political biography of Jayalalithaa, but it contains good amount of information on Jayalalithaa, and the language of the book is very easy to read, and the Author also included various photographs of Jayalalithaa in this book, and i will recommend this book to those Readers who are interested in reading about Indian politics and especially about Tamil nadu politics. I will also recommend to Readers that before reading this book try to read this book, ' Jayalalithaa's journey from movie start to political queen ', by vaasanthi.I hope you like the review, thanks for reading, Jai Hind.My ratings : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ( 4/5 )Table of contents -* A cult figure?* Early years* Beginning of a political career* Relationships* Entry into politics* Jaya's political life after MGR* Jaya : The woman with an iron will* Towards the end* PostScript* Larger than life* Shoes too big to fill* Sasikala takes over

The journalist Kalyani Shankar has made good observation about the enigmatic leader Amma.