Monday, June 1, 2015

Review of Premam (Malayalam Movie)

Image Courtesy: www.onlookersmedia.in

Cast: Nivin Pauly (George David), Sai Pallavi (Malar), ANupama Parameshwaran (Mary George), Madonna Sebastian (Celina), Krishna Shankar (Koya), Shabbareesh Varma (Shambu), Manniyanpilla Raju (College Principal), Eva Prakash (Celina Child), Althaf Salim, Jude Anthony Joseph (Dolly D’Cruz), Alphonse Putharen (Roney Varghese), Soubin Sahir (PT Master), Vinay Forrt (College Lecturer), Aishwarya Raghavan Nair, Renji Paniker (George’s father)
Direction: Alphonse Putharen
Produced by: Anwar Rasheed
Written by: Alphonse Putharen
Music: Rajesh Murugesan
Cinematography: Anand C Chandran
Edited by: Alphonse Putharen
Production Company: Anwar Rasheed Entertainments
Distributed by: A & A Release, Tricolor Entertainment
Release Date: 29th May, 2015
Duration: 142 minutes
Language: Malayalam

Premam is a romantic-comedy film by Alphonse Putharen. The basic plot of the movie is to show the life of teenager, who gets infatuated, falls in love, goes through his share of heartbreaks, cries his heart out, drinks, smokes. The movie has got great reviews from various parts of Kerala, but, I was not very happy to watch the movie. The way storytelling is done did not appeal to me at all. One of the most beautiful emotion i.e. love  is the central theme of this movie, but it did not appear so. More than 80% of the time, the boys are drinking, smoking and talking about love life. Director intends to talk about one girl at one point of time (there are three in this). What was the obsession behind showing that the girl is having strong contenders around, since lot many are wooing a single girl. I would agree that, the attempt to show a teenager’s life and habits is clear, but still, lot of drags were felt in the movie. The movie might turn out to be a commercial hit, since many youngsters may be able to relate with these, but I had a strong disconnect with the whole movie. Lot of subplots is there in the movie without any reason. Neither did those sub plots add any value to the movie nor any meaning to the plot.

Nivin Pauly plays the main protagonist of the movie as George David. Timeline shows George’s birth in 1984 and it quickly moves to 2000. The opening scenes are definitely good where George is trying to write a love letter to Mary (Anupama Parameshwaran), whom he met in Church. Shambu (Shabareesh Varma) and Koya (Krishna Shankar), George’s great friends, accompany him to woo Mary. The initial few scenes are definitely very good, but as the movie progresses, it starts dragging, many scenes were repetitive and predictable. George had to face failure in his love for Mary.

The timeline moves further, George and gang enters college, and they do lot of mischievous activities as well, don’t mind getting suspended, come to the classroom drunk. At times, I felt that Nivin is being asked to imitate Mohanlal. Up for ragging, comes across a guest lecturer Malar (Sai Pallavi). George feels infatuated by her in the beginning, which slowly develops to love. That also does not give a happy ending.

Timeline moves to 2014, there we get to see the third phase of George’s life as an entrepreneur running Café Agape.

What happens thereafter? How does George deal with his heartbreaks? What went wrong between Malar and George? Did a girl enter in the third phase as well? Who is she?

The movie has definitely its own moments of humour: George writing love letter to Mary, his dialogue about Mary not required to change her name after marriage since her father’s name is also George, his calling friends in the midnight to ask whether he can call Mary or not, many of his teenager antics, he and friends standing in awe when a traditional looking Malar does break dance etc.

Certain scenes were just added without any specific purpose, logic or relevance. One such scene was the college festival function, where one person from George’s group dance drops at the last moment and somebody from outside were brought to fill in the gap.

Songs have definitely added meaning to the plot. Songs clearly mention the transition happening to George when he moves from infatuation to serious love to life-long commitment.

The best moment: The dance sequence in the college festival.

Premam is watchable for its laughter moments and is also believable. It has its own flaws as well.

Rating: 2.5/5 (Average +)

No comments:

Post a Comment