Actress, Dancer Padmini Passes Away - A Salute To The Doyenne of South Indian Cinema

'Maraindirunde paarkum, marumamenne?' sang Padmini in that blockbuster, Thillana Mohanambal even as she danced to the tune of Sivaji Ganesan's nadaswaram. I must have been about five years old at that time and still remember the chill that went down my spine as I saw the various bhavas that flitted across the great lady's face, as she sang malarndirukkum mugathil navarasamum. A brilliant actress, a danseuse par excellence - Padmini was a phenomenally gifted artiste who delighted her audience the world over.

That she is no more came as a massive shock to me. At 74, she still was going great guns - or so it seemed. In fact, I remember reading a news item a couple of months back about her return from New Jersey to Chennai and how she wanted to get back into acting. As a result, the news of her passing away was a big bolt from the blue.

A student of Bharatnatyam since the age of four, Padmini, along with her two sisters Lalitha and Ragini, mesmerised everyone who saw her movies. Having been in tinsletown since she was 14 years of age, Padmini has acted with every single big actor there is (was) - M G Ramachandran, 'Sivaji' Ganesan, Raj Kapoor, Prem Nazir and Raj Kumar. She was the first actress who made a big name for herself in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi movies; what's more she herself did the dubbing in all the languages.

Dance was the sisters' first love - even after making it big as actresses, they used to perform on stage. Their troupe, called Dancers of India, performed the world over, enacting epics such as Ramayana, Krishna Leela etc. The actress moved to the USA after her marriage in 1961. But whenever her sisters came to visit, they would join her on stage for at least one performance. Such was her love for dancing.

This love has been passed down the family - her nephew Vineeth and niece Shobhana, both actors, are also excellent Bharathnatyam dancers in their own right.

Padmini was to dance what M.S Subbulakshmi was to Carnatic music. She has given performances at the Rashtrapathy Bhavan, and has danced for Queen Elizabeth, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, President Rajendra Prasad, President S Radhakrishnan, Lady Mountbatten and many others. During the India-Pakistan war in 1965, she famously went to the warfront and performed for the wounded jawans.

Padmini has acted with all the big names in the industry. She has wowed everyone - her fans, her fellow actors, her critics. One of her favourite co-stars, 'Sivaji' Ganesan once famously said 'I know only one dancer, it is Padmini'. Such is her popularity that she is one of the few artistes, along with her Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behthi Hai co-star Raj Kapoor and Nargis, to have a commomerative stamps issued in their honour by the Soviet Government.

She has enjoyed a very long innings in tinseltown and she will be sorely missed. There will never be a multi-dimensional, talented artiste of her ilk ever again.