Today is the 40 death anniversary of Vijayasree, Malayalam cinema’s
original pin-up girl
It will be 40 years on Sunday since the woman whom director
Bharatan called the most beautiful he had ever met, the one who oozed oomph
enough to be termed ‘Marilyn Monroe of Malayalam’, and whose ravishing looks
drew huge crowds to her films, bid goodbye to life.
“She is the most beautiful woman I have ever met,” said
director Bharathan to his associate, Jayaraj, once. The woman in question was
Vijayasree, whose 40th death anniversary falls on Sunday.
No other actress had as many male admirers as she had. No
other actress had as many hits as her in such a short span of time. No actress
had made such a sudden impact in Malayalam cinema.
“People went to the theatre to see her, and that is something
that has not happened before (her time),” says Jayaraj, Bharathan’s associate,
who paid a tribute to her in his film ‘Nayika’. “She was as much a crowd puller
as a hero.” It was indeed Vijayasree’s striking good looks that created magic
and made her the greatest pin-up girl of Malayalam cinema.
She was verily the Marilyn Monroe of Malayalam and like
Munroe, she too met with a tragic end at a very young age. Vijayasree was just
21 when she died.
Though in cinema for just four years, she was part of many of
the biggest films of the period.
Most of the 40-odd films she acted in were hits. She struck
gold with Prem Nazir, the reigning demigod of Malayalam cinema, as they starred
in hit after hit, such as ‘Lankadahanam’, ‘Marunattil Oru Malayali’,
‘Aromalunni’, ‘Manthrakodi’, ‘Padmavyooham’, ‘Ajnathavasam’, ‘Ponnapuram
Kotta’, ‘Veendum Prabhatham’ and ‘Ankathattu’.
“Theirs was the most successful pair in Malayalam cinema
ever,” says R. Gopalakrishnan, one of the senior-most still photographers in
Malayalam cinema. “I cannot think of a single film of theirs flopping.”
Nazir had already formed popular combinations with Sheela and
Jayabharathi, but Vijayasree usurped the place as his best screen mate in no
time. Vijayasree was so popular that two unfinished films of hers, ‘Youvanam’
and ‘Vandikkari’, were released, as one film after her death, and that was a
hit too. Raghavan was the hero of her last film.
“She was also my heroine in ‘Prethangalude Thazhvara’,” says
Raghavan. “She was extremely beautiful of course, but she was a capable
performer too.”
Her charm continues to enchant 40 years after her death. The
videos of hers on Youtube have recorded more than six lakh hits.
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