Chaitanya’s growth as an actor comes to the fore. Camaraderie develops between the brash student and the graceful lecturer, amped up by a playful, no-holds-barred background score. The second act is the most crucial portion of the film, with the arrival of lecturer Sithara (Shruti Haasan). The transformation of the shy, meek teenager to a thug isn’t seamless, making the episodes look compartmentalised. Six years later, we see Vikram as a rugged college student flaunting his muscle power. The one-sided teenage romance is innocent, awkward, imperfect and fun. Set in Tadepalli, the story begins in 2000 when an overtly gawky Vikram (Chaitanya) is besotted with the pretty girl of the locality, Suma (Anupama Parameshwaran in a brief, well-enacted part). In fact, while watching the freshly-minted Telugu version, it takes a while to shake off images from the original. In this age of multiplexes where language isn’t a barrier, films like Premam earn a loyal following that unwittingly gets possessive about the film. The story unfolded in a realistic setting, be it conversations over ‘puttu’ in a Kerala college canteen or Malar (Sai Pallavi) presented as she is, pimples et al. One can be cynical and brush aside Alphonse Puthren’s Malayalam film, Premam, into three romantic episodes in the life of its protagonist or get immersed in one of the chapters, recollecting incidents that happened to people around us. It could be the time one spent in high school, fawning over a good-looking teen in the neighbourhood, or years later, when brashness gives way to a slightly matured outlook, realise there’s a time and place for everything. The film draws you in, mirroring some aspect of your growing years. Every once in a while comes a film that isn’t just another slice-of-life, coming-of-age story.
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