Veteran Tamil actress S N Lakshmi passes away

Chennai: Veteran Tamil actress S N Lakshmi, famous for playing the role of a mother in most films, passed away here last night suffering a heart attack. She was 85.

She was admitted to a private hospital a couple of days back and the end came around 1am this morning. Her body was brought to her residence at Saligramam here, where people from the movie world paid their last respects. Her body will be taken to her native Virudhunagar district where the last rites would be performed tomorrow. The versatile Lakshmi had acted in several Tamil and Telugu films, her memorable ones being `Michael Madhana Kamaraj,` `Mahanadhi` and `Kadhala Kadhala.` She had acted with top stars like M G Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan. Condoling her death, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said that Lakshmi, a recipient of the state government`s prestigious titles like `Kalaimamani` and `Kalaiselvam,` had acted in more than 1,500 films and 6,000 dramas. " Her death is a great loss to the film world," she said. PTI