Priya (1970)

Malayalam star Madhu’s directorial art-house debut, edited by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in his first association with Malayalam cinema. Gopan (Madhu) becomes a sexual debauchee when he gets a job in a Bombay advertising agency. He married his cousin Devi against the objections of her father. Migrating to Bombay, he gets his typist Thulasi pregnant, forcing her into prostitution. Later, he visits a brothel and meets Thulasi again, who has renamed herself Priya, but he does not recognise her. She entices him into her room and kills him, tearing him to pieces with her poisoned nails. She is jailed and Gopan’s disillusioned wife accepts the care of her husband’s illegitimate child. The story is told in flashback as Gopan’s friend (Bhasi) tries to trace Gopan in Bombay. Madhu attempted a change of image in this negative role, also casting Bengali star Lily Chakraborty in her only Malayalam film. The film was critically acclaimed in Kerala for its realism and for confirming the conventional image of Bombay as sin city, where most of the film is shot on location, with numerous dingy night scenes.