Premam (2016 film)

Plot

The film opens in 2000, where Vikram (Naga Chaitanya), is shown to be a shy and modest young man who loves Suma (Anupama Parameswaran) who, unfortunately for Vicky, is loved by all the boys in the area. After a desperate attempt to write a love letter, Vikram is unable to give it to Suma due to her strict militarian father (Prudhvi Raj). He later gives the letter to his neighbour, a young girl, who is seen to be continuously hanging around Suma, to give it to her. Suma soon starts getting closer to Vicky, even coming to visit him at his home. However, he is shocked when he learns that she is already in love with another man, and only wanted help from Vicky to be able to communicate with her lover. Despite his friends and family trying to tell him that she is merely using him to achieve what she wanted, Vicky open-heartedly helps Suma whenever she needs help, showing his love for her.

Later, in 2006, Vicky is a thug student in college, who goes around making trouble with his friends, Vasu (Praveen) and Siva (Chaitanya Krishna). After getting suspended for 2 months after beating their rival group led by Arjun (Noel Sean), they re-enter the college only to start ragging on the very first day. They apprehend a Marathi-Tamil lecturer, Sithara (Shruti Hassan), assuming her to be a student. She lets them go, but later punishes them when she finds out they were consuming alcohol in the class. Vikram begins to fall in love with Sithara. Meanwhile, the P.E. coach (Brahmaji) fails attempting to help lecturer Kantha Rao (Narra Srinu) to fulfil his love for Sithara. Vikram tricks both of them and slowly begins getting closer to Sithara. Later, he even begins calling her on phone. However, He feels scared when Sanjay (Arvind Krishna), Sithara's cousin, shows up, and expresses closeness to her. Realising he is feeling jealous, Sithara tries to get closer to him, eventually reciprocating his feelings. After celebrating Gudi Padva together, They both realise that they are in love with each other. After joining their annual day functions for a dance performance, Vicky and his friends are unable to get a good choreographer. Sithara, revealing she is a state level dancer, volunteers to help them, and they win the dance contest. Sithara is soon forced to go on a month leave to her hometown. A month later, however, it is revealed that her bus met with an accident, rendering her amnesiac, forcing her to leave the college. Vikram leaves to her hometown with his friends, but is heart-broken when she fails to recognise him, even after he shows her a bracelet she made specially for him.

10 years later, 2016, Vicky is one of the top chefs of Hyderabad, unfortunately still single with haunting memories of Sithara. He spends time with the manager of his restaurant, E.K. (Srinivasa Reddy). One night, he happens to meet Sindhu (Madonna Sebastian), who later reveals him that she is the young girl to whom he had asked to deliver Suma's letter, revealing she did not deliver but instead read it. Initially taking it as rude, Vikram forgives her and begins to spend time with her, eventually falling in love with her. He befriends Arjun at Arjun's bachelor party, and on the suggestion of his friends, decides to propose to her without further delay. However, she reveals him that she has a previous engagement, forcing Vicky to react violently. After ignoring her for days, he finally gives her a chance to speak, and she reveals the marriage was cancelled after her fiancé, Ravi substance abused her. After attempting to make peace with him over the phone, Ravi swears at Vicky, forcing him and his friends to bash Ravi. They convey social and economical reasons for their beating him and tells him they misunderstood him for a conductor. However, he reveals that he understood who they are, with an angry Vicky throwing a ball at him, causing him to fall off the building and land in a garbage box, fractured and unconscious. Vicky and Sindhu get married. Sithara and her present-husband Sanjay come to meet them after being invited by Vasu on Sindhu's request. After seeing a special Shrikhand dessert present there, she recalls the same dessert Vicky made her for Gudipadava, resuscitating her memory. However, she realizes he is better off without her, and decides not to reveal anything to him.

In a post-credits scene, it is shown that the reason for Vicky's restaurant's name being S-Star is that an astrologer had predicted his future wife would have a name starting from S. Vicky recalls his life in the last 16 years, recalling that each of the girls he loved had a name starting from S.

Music

The music was composed by Gopi Sunder and Rajesh Murugesan. Four tracks are obtained from the original Malayalam film Premam released in 2015. The tracks are Evare, originally Malare sung by the same singer vijay Yesudas in both the versions and another songs are Kalam Kettu and Pathivaayi Njan sung by Shabareesh Varma in Malayalam and rendered by Naresh Iyer and Karthik in telugu.The tracks Chinna Chinna sung by Renjith Govind, Aalap Raju in Malayalam and rendered by Karthik in Telugu.

Production

Premam is the Telugu remake of 2015 Malayalam film of the same name, directed by Alphonse Putharen. Chaitanya and Shruti Haasan plays the characters portrayed by Nivin Pauly and Sai Pallavi, while Madonna Sebastian and Anupama Parameswaran reprises their role from the original.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews upon release in Telugu region. Jeevi of Idlebrain.com gave the film 3.25/5 and said "Plus points of the film are casting (especially Naga Chaitanya), beautiful moments and realistic approach by director. On the flipside, there are a few dull moments in second half due to a few forced comedy elements (Sathya teaching dancing etc). On a whole, Premam is a film of moments that explores love in it’s purest/idealistic perspective. You may watch it!". 123telugu gave a score of 3.25/5 and said "If you stop drawing comparisons from the original and go with an open mind, Premam is one romantic entertainer which will keep you hooked throughout and makes up for a good watch this festival season". Indiglitz.com said "A fairly entertaining rom-com. Musically and lyrically superb. One of the career best performances by Chaitanya. Comedy wins. A happy festival watch."

Netizens' negative reactions towards the film

Despite the support towards the 2016 film due to the large Telugu fan-base behind the lead actor, fans of the original Premam film had slammed the Telugu version in online circles. There was a general consensus among netizens regarding poor casting of the film especially in the replacement of Sai Pallavi with Shruti Hassan. Even prominent film directors had issued an appeal to the Indian film industry to stop producing movie remakes as they exhibit poor quality compared to the originals. The release of the Telugu version had irked many movie-goers to the extent that they had shown their objections against any future remakes of the original classic.