Periyanna

Periyanna
Directed by	S. A. Chandrasekhar
Written by	Suresh. K
Screenplay by	S. A. Chandrasekhar
Produced by	Jaya S. K. Subbiah
Starring	Vijayakanth Suriya Meena Manasa
Cinematography	Selva. R
Edited by	Saleem-Vasu
Music by	Bharani
Production company	Jaya Subhashree Productions
Release date	14 April 1999
Running time	148 min
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Periyanna is a 1999 Tamil film directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar featuring Vijaykanth and Suriya in the lead roles. Meena and Manasa play other supporting roles, the soundtrack for this film composed by debutant music director Bharani. The film released on 14 April 1999 to negative reviews and performed poor commercially. It was dubbed in Telegu as Brahmanna.

Plot

Suriya, the main character, killed the villains who murdered his family and has been sent to jail. During his time in jail, a well-respected collector celebrates his daughter's birthday in prison. The collector's daughter is impressed by Surya's talent in singing and convinces her father to grant her special permission to learn music from him. During this time, they fall in love with each other and opposition grows from both the girl's parents and the police department they elope. They come to a remote town where they witness the murder of a collector in the railway station during broad daylight, but no one seems to care. They then see that the man who murdered the collector is the chief of the village, so they try to oppose him. In their time at the village, they learn about his past and change their mind about him. He promises them to get them married. The movie then moves towards the climax as whether the village chief will be successful in getting those two lovers married or the girl's father will be successful in separating them using the legal system against them.

Cast

• Vijayakanth as Periyanna
• Suriya as Suriya
• Meena as Shenbagam
• Manasa as Ganga
• Manorama
• Anandaraj
• Manivannan
• Vaiyapuri
• R. Sundarrajan
• S. S. Chandran
• Devan as Minister Varadharajan
• Vinu Chakravarthy
• Ajay Rathnam
• Rocky Rajesh
• Thalapathi Dinesh
• Kumari Sachu

Production

S. A. Chandrasekhar had initially planned to make the film with Vijayakanth and Vijay in the lead roles, but the project failed to materialize. The film re-emerged in 1998 with Vijay's busy schedules prompting Chandrasekhar to select Suriya to appear in a lead role alongside Vijayakanth. Roja was initially approached to play a leading role in the film, though the role was later handed to Meena. Another leading female role was handed to Manasa, sister of actress Easwari Rao, with the director changing her stage name to Manasa from Ganga as she was known in Kaakai Chiraginile.

The film was launched in late 1998 with Vijayakanth, Suriya, director S. A. Chandrasekhar and veteran producers A. L. Azhagappan and Ibrahim Rowther in attendance.

Soundtrack

Bharani who earlier wrote lyrics for Vijay's debut film Naalaya Theerpu (1992) was selected to compose the music thus making his debut. The soundtrack contains 7 songs and lyrics for the songs were written by Bharani, Vasan, Arivumathi and Pulamaipithan. Actor Vijay had sung three songs for Suriya in this film with "Naam Dum Adikkira" song was well received while another song "Nilave Nilave" was also successful.

• Naan Dum Adikkira - Vijay
• Roaddula Oru - Vijay
• Juddadi Laila - Vijay, Swarnalatha
• Nilave Nilave - Hariharan, Sujatha Mohan
• Nilave Nilave (sad) - SN Surender
• Pacholai Keetukulla - SPB, Chithra
• Pollachimalai - Malaysia Vasudevan, Swarnalatha, SN Surender

Release

The film became average at the box office.