She was an unusually unique artiste. For she won as much acclaim-n-appreciation for her roles opposite South maestros like M G Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan as she did with the first Showman of Hindi Film Industry Raj Kapoor. Padmini was a legendary actress and when she passed away on Sunday due to a massive heart attack on a dark night, Indian Cinema lost a luminary that will always shine as one of the brightest stars. Ever. She was 74.

The second of the three Travencore sisters, besides Lalitha and Ragini, Padmini was born in Poojappura in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, on June 12^th 1932. She made her debut in a Tamil film ‘Manamagal’ in 1949. Pappi (As she was fondly called) never looked back. She went on to rule the South Film Industry and acted in various languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. She starred in many hit films with veterans Sivaji Ganesan and M G Ramachandran.

Padmini acted in over 250 films. She was a top star in Bollywood as well as Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu and could speak all of these regional languages fluently. Her voice never needed to be dubbed for her parts. She was a trained classical dancer under Guru Gopinath and made her film debut when she was 17, in Uday Shankar’s dance extravaganza, ‘Kalpana’ which also marked her debut in Hindi.

The actress with a gift of talent earned recognition in the Hindi Film world with Raj Kapoor’s ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’. Her innate grasp of Classical Dance form made her simply class apart. She went on to do ‘Aashiq’ and then the magnum opus ‘Mera Naam Joker’ with Raj Kapoor. She also acted in ‘Mr Sampath’, ‘Payal’ and ‘Mahabharat’. She had a film career that spanned over 40 years.

Popularly known as ‘Natya Peroli’, Padmini earned a cult status with her legendary Tamil film ‘Tillana Mohanambal’ in 1968. Those molten lava eyes conveyed in-depth expressiveness reeking power, reverence and an all-round-personality. She won the Best Actress Award of the Film Fans Association in 1954, 1959, 1961 and 1966 besides winning the prestigious ‘Kalai Mamany Award’ from the Tamil Nadu Government in 1958. Her superb dancing skills won her ‘The Best Classical Dancer Award’ from Moscow Youth Festival in 1957. She also won Filmfare Award in 1985. The erstwhile Soviet Union released a postal stamp in her honor. And during the Indian-Pakistan war in 1965, she went to the war front and performed for the wounded Indian soldiers. She also performed for the sick in hospitals in Madras.

In the early 1970s Padmini quit stardom after her marriage to Dr K T Ramachandran and left for the US. There she founded the Padmini School of Fine Arts in New Jersey. This school is today one of the largest Indian Classical Dance institutions in America. Her final goodbye was a Malayalam film ‘Vasthuhara’ in 1991. She was an institute of inspiration. No wonder her niece Shobhana went on to become a National Award Winning actress in her own right.

Padmini's charisma as a dancer allowed her to cross all regional boundaries and she excelled in many different styles from Bharatnatyam to Western. Along with Vijayanthimala, Padmini could also be credited with popularizing, refining, and setting the standard and expectations for Indian Popular Cinema’s classical style of dance.

To watch Padmini dance in her films from the 1950s and 60s is a revelation. Many of her dances highly integrate pretensions of classical movements and facial expressions originally meant for the traditional stage. The transition of the performance of classical styles, as presented by Padmini, from stage to film screen feel like a natural metamorphosis. The construct was incredibly popular, and the movie going public grew to demand classical style dances in not only Padmini and Vyjayantimala films but all films.

One becomes strikingly aware of the link and influence between classical dance on modern Indian Popular Film's general dramatic presentation and song picturization style. In this regard it was dancers like Padmini and Vyjayantimala who helped mould and evolve Indian Popular Cinema into the form it is today.

Her heightened love for the stage made her give performances at the Rashtrapathy Bhavan, New Delhi and on the stage in front of personalities like Queen Elizabeth, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, President Rajendra Prasad, President Radhakrishnan, Lady Mountbatten, and Premier Bulganin of Russia.

In 1981, her husband passed away at the age of 48. She is survived by son Premanand who is an official with the Warner Brothers. He has acted in one Malayalam film and has produced three documentaries.

Padmini was truly a gifted artiste who lived for her Art. She has had an illustrious career spread over five languages. Her contribution to the world of Indian Cinema in terms of Acting and Dancing is incomparable. It won’t be easy to fill a void left by her departed soul. May she rest in peace.