Priya Movie

It was fairly common in 1979 and 1980 to hear songs from the movie blaring out loudly over public loudspeakers across Tamil Nadu.

Extensively shot in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Priya stars one-time Bollywood queen Sridevi, Tamil superstar Rajnikant and Kannada film actor Ambarish.

A confluence of elements contributed to the success of this movie - its star cast, overseas shooting and decent songs.

In the movie, Priya (Sridevi) is a film star, who is exploited by her producer Janardhan (Major Sundarrajan). Janardhan has such a tight control over Priya's financial and personal affairs that he even refuses to let her get married to her boy friend Bharat (Ambarish).

Just before she flies off to Singapore for a film shooting, Priya seeks the help of Lawyer Ganesh (Rajnikant) to assist her in getting away from the clutches of Janardhan.

How Ganesh helps Priya overcome her problems accounts for the rest of this movie, which includes a side story of Ganesh falling in love with a Malay-Indian girl.

Entertaining as it is, the movie is not without its irritating moments. The fight scenes are so crude that they are beyond belief.

As for Ambarish, his acting in Priya must surely rank as the nadir in the annals of the motion picture industry. He's just plain awful. Mercifully for Tamil film viewers, Ambarish focused his energies almost exclusively on Kannada films after Priya..