On Saturday, a court in Bangalore sentenced Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalilthaa to four years in prison and ordered her to pay a Rs 100 crore fine for amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 66.65 crore. This conviction forced her to step down from office immediately. All in all, it's clear that she's in a pretty tight spot.

But the formidable Tamil politician has a long history of thinking quickly on her feet. Decades ago, when she was a lithe starlet in the Tamil film industry, she made a name for her wicked dance moves in song sequences. In many of these, she is paired with MG Ramachandran, another legendary film star of the south, and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Here are some of Jayalalilthaa's classics,

1. Izzat (Hindi)



Jayalalithaa plays an adivasi woman in this 1968 film. The son of the village headman, the Thakur, falls in love with her but refuses to marry her.

2. Pudhia Bhoomi (A new land, Tamil)



Jayalalithaa is a village woman who nurses an injured surgeon after he has a brush with dacoits. The surgeon falls in love with her and permanently moves to the village to serve as the village doctor.

3. Kavalkaran (Guardsman, Tamil)



Jayalalithaa falls in love with her father's driver and marries him despite her father's wishes, which forces her to disown him and his wealth. The story is about the couple's struggles to live together.

4. Pattikada Pattanama (The village or the town?, Tamil)


Jayalalithaa plays a sophisticated woman, educated in London, who falls for a villager when she returns to India. They marry against her parents' wishes, but a rift grows between them as they come from different worlds. She leaves her husband, who then tries to teach himself Western mannerisms to win her back.