The "Premam" Hype

The “Premam” Hype

Movies these days are considered hit based on the box office collection on the first week and most of the movies even if they are mediocre will achieve this status, as there are many ways of clever marketing the producers handle, like releasing a single first the the single, then the audio, the teaser and then the trailer and then the video of the song and by the time the film gets released it becomes so predictable that we could conceive what is about to happen in the films, About 10 years back I remember seeing the film posters in the Metro plus second page with the the theatre names on top and the more the names, more it has the chance to become successful and there were some films which used to run for 200 or 250 days straight and these films were really successful, only if the movie is that good the cinema owners found it profitable to still screen it , Classic example Chandramuki which ran around 400 odd days. I mean they were surely a hit for such a phenomenon to take place.  So enough of beating around the bush and let me come to the movie I am going to talk about, Its Premam and It is still running in Chennai at Sathyam – 224 days and counting.

So since it is such a rare phenomenon which happens very rarely, Whats so hip about Premam. First of all, It’s a Malayalam film is Tamilnadu and for many Chennai people it might be the first or the second Malayalam flick. Second it is a comedy! Yeah not a slapstick but most of the film is comic and rib tickling.  It is not a usual flick so as to say but not that one of a kind film as well.  The best part of Premam which I think makes it work is its simplicity, What I mean is the way team has focused on to the simple things in the film makes is really wonderful to watch. Right from the beginning of the film, it is quite interesting to see how different the camera angle is focusing constantly into inanimate objects rather than on the scene (The butterfly at first, the rain in between and the birds at the end – some of the objects the director focuses on). 

It’s a Love story and the film follows Nivin Pauly life in his three phases – School, college and adult, Now there are many who say that it is similar to Autograph of Tamil, But it is no way in comparison to it and the film is so refreshing to watch that  you never feel gloomy in any part of the film.

The Leading ladies:

One of the Main aspects of the film is that it has three heroines and most of them are New faces – Sai pallavi, Anumapa and Madonna Sebastian. I must say it is quite a bold move by the director and it had works really well and I think it has worked really well for him. Either they are really talented or he has made them act so well. Sai Pallavi’s Character Malar is a Tamil Teacher from Kodaikanal in the film, I think this one aspect is hugely relatable to tamil fans and it is quite beautiful to watch George and Malar communicate in broken tamil, their story is the only place where the film becomes somewhat serious and adds to the depth of the movie. Other than Malar the other two character are fully comic. Celine’s character, I think was underplayed a bit, I think some more treatment could be given, But anyways it is still loved by the audience.

Now coming to Nivin Pauly – One of the backbones of the movie so as to say, The thing what is surprising is his transformation from a kid to an adult in the film, He is so convincing as a kid and a 30 year old at the same time, Sheer brilliance is what I can say. The cinematography and Music are other high points of the film and the background score of the movie needs special mention. There are some tracks which were made specially for the second love of the film – Lost hope which I find really good, even in the film it is quite subtle and brilliantly shot. Alphonse Putharaen has not changed his team very much from the debut in Neram and even the cast remains the same with some added entourage. He keeps his films with a Tamil connection in them and this time it has worked well for him. I cannot say that Premam is Best Malayalam film of all times, there are far more brilliant films than premam, But Premam is surly one of the iconic films of this era which has worked well with the current mindset

The Remake:

Yes! They are remaking it in Tamil(not confirmed) and Telugu. You can see a lot of speculations about Shruti Hassan as Malar and Naga Chaitanya as George and they are true, But the question is that will it be better than the original? I think it would be very difficult to recreate such a brilliance. The major issue would be the story as such, if taken in Tamil I done know how would they portray the story? Where will they set the characters? It would go terribly wrong if they get a flaw in this case. Next main thing is the lead, I am not even sure to go for the options here- May be Dhanush or Simbu other than that I have no choices.

I seriously have no hope for the remake, I think the audience like the orginal better and it would be a real shame to spoil that. But if they make something better than this I would really be the first one to watch it!. One of the recent news is that they have relaunched it in Kerala as of today !!!