Love stories in different phases of life of our hero

Story:

Premam is all about the infatuation, first love, dejection, pain of separation at different phases of the life of our hero Vikram (Naga Chaithanya). Story starts with when Vikram is at school and just like the boys of that age group he gets infatuated for his good looking neighbor Suma (Anupama Parameswaran). He follows her every where and Suma too understands that Vikram will do anything for her. She surprises him one day by introducing her boyfriend. Dejected by his first love he gets addicted to booze and smoking. Later he joins Engineering college and there he falls in love with his lecturer Sithara (Shruthi Hassan). In this relation he builds confidence in himself. As he thinks everything is going in right path, Sithara introduces him her cousin. Not knowing any details about their relation and scared to even ask Sithara, Vikram again slips to his old habits only to be surprised by a twist. In the third phase, he meets up another girl by name Sindhu. Rest of the story is all about what happened to his second love and if he is ready for a third girl in his life.

Performances:

Though the story is all about Naga Chaithanya, it is Shruthi Hassan who stole the show. She is gorgeous in sarees and as a lecturer she is very convincing and emoted really well. Can't believe that she is such a wonderful dancer too. Amazing dance moves and excellent performance. As far as Naga Chaithanya is considered, he looked good in 2 important scenes, when he is shown first time in the Engineering college, and in the introduction scenes in the third phase of his life. Somehow he could not emote well in many scenes only exception is one scene when he steps out of Shruthi Hassan's house in the second part of the movie (twist part). This one scene is enough to undo all the mistakes he did in other parts of the movie. Narra Sreenu & Brahmaji did cameos as lecturers and provided few laughs. Krishna Chaithanya & Praveen acted as buddies to Chaithu and did their best in the supporting roles. We have 2 surprises in this movie.... ;-)

Behind The Screen:

Usually there is a second movie jinx for many directors. Director Chandoo Mondeti debuted with Karthikeya movie. He took a safe bet with this malayalam remake as his second movie. Not sure how much he deviated from the original version. He made sure Chaithu looked different and refreshing in each phase of the story. Music by Gopi Mohan & Rajesh Murugesan is just OK on screen. 'evare....' song by Vijay Yesudas stood out with melody. Photography by Karthik Gattamaneni is good.

Commercial Analysis:

It's a remake of Malayalam superhit 'Premam'. I've not watched the original so not sure how much they have deviated from the original. First half was slow and felt like a drag for a moment but once Shruthi's character is introduced, movie picks up. There may be comparisons with original and may impact on the word of mouth.... otherwise a decent one time watch movie.

Rating: 3/5

- Raghu Chitturi