Yet another unique chapter of Tamil cinema has come to an end. Though professionally long back, her mortal life came to an end today (14th July, 2025) 

Saroja Devi.

She was distinctive in different ways, from her looks to her acting to dialogue delivery. It was like a whiff of fresh air among the traditionally popular heroines of her time. She differed in several ways; first, her looks. She had a captivating face that could emote quite well. Her dialogue delivery, like a little girl, faced a lot of criticism because of the strong Kannada accent, but later that itself turned out to be her style of delivery. 

Though her debut role in MGR’s famous ‘Nadodi Mannan’ (1958) was brief, her subsequent starrers later with the legend MGR were noticed; thanks to the music of Viswanathan-Ramamurthy and KV Mahadevan for many of her movies. ‘Enga Veettu Pillai’ (1965) and ‘Anbe Vaa’ (1966) were super successes.

MGR-Saroja Devi pair elevated many movies to extraordinary ones. Not that Saroja Devi stuck to the image ‘lover girl’ image for long; her emotionally packed films like with legend Sivaji Ganesan through ‘Palum Pazhamum’, ‘Baga Piriviani’, ‘Valar Pirai’, and ‘Paarthaal Pasi Theerum’, ‘Iruvar Ullam’, all are also noted for her presence as well as matching performances with ‘Nadigar Thilagam’. She was successfully paired with Gemini Ganesan and SS Rajendran, also. Surprisingly, in the later part of her life, she even enacted her role of ‘Iruvar Ullam’ with Sivaji Ganesan for the new-gen actor Vijay in ‘Once More’ (1997). 

She was even chosen by famous directors like Sridhar for ‘Kalyana Parisu’, K Balachander to do an offbeat role in ‘Thamarai Nenjam’, and KS Gopalakrishnan for ‘Kula Vilakku’, which were emotionally packed melodramas. Saroja Devi won the test, and her acting was appreciated. She appeared in multi-starrers with popular heroines of her time like Savitri, Padmini, Vyjayanthi Mala, Sowkar Janaki and Jayalalithaa too. I don’t know much about her other language films, except her outing in Hindi with ‘Sasural’ and ‘Paigam’; both were Hindi remakes of Tamil films. 

The important point I would like to say here is that one can identify actors of that period from their voice and their style of dialogue delivery. But today we cannot as none of the present generation's popular leading ladies, speak their lines.

Saroja Devi was distinctive and popular in her style (thick lipstick, especially, folded twin plaits adorned with butterfly-like ribbons), and also her films as well as her performances. They will be remembered by my generation for their specialties. 

May her soul rest in peace.