L Vijayalakshmi was an actress who was popular in the 1960s and had acted with almost top leading actors such as M. G. Ramachandran,
Sivaji Ganesan
,
Prem Nazir
,
Gemini Ganesan
, who went to enthrall the audiences with her dancing and acting skills.
She belonged to an era when Vyjayanthimala and Padmini made waves In Tamil and Hindi cinema. This actress made her debut in Telugu films. It was made a point to her that in every Telugu film she acts, she has to dance even. She did find dances in Telugu cinema were more classical than even Tamil films. She found the dancing in film those days were ‘modified traditional’ dances and hence she also reached a zenith in her career as in those days, people flocked to see her dances in movies.
She has worked with excellent choreographers such as
Vempati Pedda Satyam
and Pasumarthi Krishnamurthy, who gave her good dance numbers to perform in movies. She got her break in Tamil cinema during 1960 with two films ‘Aalukkoru Veedu’ and “‘Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar’.
When she was in the peak of her career, she got a proposal for her marriage, and her father felt it is time for her to tie a knot with Suraj Kumar De Dutta. After her marriage, she had settled in abroad. This actress was a gifted dancer with a pleasant look. She was born in Ernakulam but was brought up in other cities such as Chennai (Madras those days) and Pune even.
Her father noted her dancing interest when she was just nine years old and had trained her under many Gurus such as Guru Sukumara Pillai and Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai. She used to perform in arangetram at R.R. Sabha (Madras), and this opportunity made her a very renowned and famous dancer in Chennai.
She also learned more intricacies from veterans such as Swaminatha Pillai and learned ‘padams’ from Mylapore Gowri Amma, which helped her in improving her dancing skills. She gave Kollywood and Tollywood a golden period through 1960-70 with her magical and magnetic performances. Her classical dance numbers in movies could captivate the audiences but also could bring out a new style in Indian cinema.