Premam movie cast: Naga Chaitanya, Shruti Haasan, Aravind Krishna, Madonna Sebastian, Anupama Parameswaran
Premam movie director: Chandoo Mondeti
Presenting one love story well in a movie is a huge task. Imagine recreating three love stories in one film with characters enacting all three roles equally well and still managing to keep each one unique. That’s Premam for you.
A boy falls in love with a girl in school, misses her. Falls in love again with a teacher in college, misses her too. And falls in love again but gets her! This is what the movie tries to say with its apt tagline: ‘Love stories end, feelings don’t…’
But such is human nature, when we see a romance — a theme which has been explored innumerable time in films and literature — we tend to relate it to something that already exists. Premam incidentally is similar to the perfectly executed 2004 Telugu recreation Na Autograph of the Tamil original, Autograph.
However, similarities aside, Premam is the Telugu remake of the Malayalam film by the same name. But compare the two and the Naga Chaitanya vehicle falls short.
From the thick-bearded Nivin Pauly folding lungi to the chemistry between George and Malar in Malayalam, the locale and subtlety could not be completely achieved by Vikram (Naga Chaitanya) and Sitara (Shruti Haasan) in the Telugu film. The cinematography and the attention to detail also fail to capture the natural flair of the Malayalam film.
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However, minor changes in the script are impressive, especially the way Vikram, alias Vicky, is projected. While Pauly excelled when he portrayed George in the first and second love story in the Malayalam version, Chaitanya pumps up the flavour in the third story where he plays it as an urbane chocolate boy. However, the idea that the director worked on this trendy outlook and tweaked the script to “reflect to the Telugu sensibilities” is not something that Tollywood fandom will take lightly.
Watch: Premam movie Trailer
The performances look forced and don’t have the X-factor that the original film had. Chaitanya and Shruti aren’t able to flow naturally with the script. While Chai is able to compensate for his action overdrive in the first 30 minutes (first phase) with his performance in the next two stories, Shruti is underutilised in the movie. Her expressions oscillate between a straight face and an occasional grin. The other two ladies, Madonna and Anupama, know exactly what to do in the film and they complete the story.
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This Premam has more comic relief from Srinivas Reddy, Praveen and Brahmaji. Lastly, the common cameo show from Venkatesh and Nagarjuna make the crowd’s hooting reverberate in the hall.
If you have watched the Malayalam version, this one will make you a little nostalgic and a little wistful. Especially, after listening to the similar background score and a few songs with same beats.