Premalu Review - Joyous Entertainer

Ashwin Ram

Premalu is a romantic comedy starring a bunch of fresh actors from Mollywood. Girish A.D of Thanneer Mathan Dinangal fame has directed the film.

Premise:

Sachin  (Naslen K Gafoor) goes to do a GATE course in Hyderabad right after finishing college. There he meets and becomes friends with Reenu (Mamitha Baiju), an IT employee who is in her probation period. She is kind-hearted and cares for him a lot, but the poor boy misinterprets it as love. What happens in their lives after he opens up his feelings for her is the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

It is a simplistic film in all means and it is not a complaint, because anything that is basic must be relatable and many moments in the movie instantly connect. The characters are written in such an adorable manner that we get to feel and root for them at plenty of places. The Nativity is well maintained, some intricate points that would happen in Hyderabad are covered carefully, hence the title detailing too. There is enough depth in the situations that we tend to respond to the behavior of the characters. When Sachin is innocent, it allows us to pity him and when he behaves like an amateur idiot, we naturally tend to scold him. There is no big dull moment, the flow is entertaining and makes us watch it with a smiling face throughout. It is a cute little puppy love story, maybe that's why Sachin gifts a toy puppy for Reenu’s birthday as a metaphor. That scene also has the sweetest and the most humane moment of the movie, Reenu decides to get up from the dining table, moving away from her parents as Sachin and his friend couldn't manage to grab a place with a group, presented so naturally. But towards the end, the film feels a bit too much, it's never dumb, but it was not as free-flow as it was because Reenu carries a lot of guilt subconsciously while falling for Sachin. Also some starting points of certain situations in the story like Reenu deciding to visit her hometown and taking her parents on Hyderabad City trip with all her friends, etc did not fall in place. And, there was no closure to the love-life of Amal Davis, which is a continuity issue with the writing.

Performances:

Unknown artists perform superbly, each and every character feels very lively because of handpicking possibly the best person to play. The fresh faces add so much innocence to their roles, which easily makes the storyworld relatable. Especially, the lead pair and their chemistry has worked out beautifully, that we pray for them not to part ways. Mathew Thomas has played a cameo role in which he fits the bill.

Technicalities:

Neat background score (Vishnu Vijay), that travels fluently along with the subject without any sort of overdo. But the songs could have been better, they are fine while listening, they match the montage shots and all, but don't stay for that long like how the music of Hridayam ruled over us. The cameraman (Ajmal Sabu) has perfectly presented this simple flick by finding the right balance without going in dark tone or by randomly applying all the colors in the world, also he has found a knack in showing the Hyderabad City so good on-screen. Such a calming edit pattern (Akash Joseph Varghese) with no unwanted special effects, it blends well for the tone of a film it is, however the length could have been a little lesser.

Bottomline

A simple yet a delightfully youthful flick that is packed with a lot of cute moments to attract and laughable comedies to keep us engaged, holds well despite the long runtime.

Rating - 3/ 5