(11) Premalu, not Premam
I end with personal rants, as usual, and talk a little bit about the movie Premalu at first.
Now, let’s get into Premalu
[Spoilers for Premalu ahead, in case you care. It’s not a thriller, so you really needn’t care.]
In between all of this madness, I watched the wonderful Malayalam movie Premalu, twice. It’s one of the sweetest rom-coms I’ve seen of late. Plus One feels closer to my stage of life, so there is an appeal to that. But Premalu is a movie that feels so young, and of course, so Malayali. I loved it. The rewatch value is so high, because there are so many small jokes and references that you can catch each time you watch it.
When I watched the movie the first time, I watched it alone. I was sitting in the left-most seat, next to a family, right next to who I assume was the father. I put my feet up because I have no ability to sit still, so the uncle didn’t look spectacularly pleased with my lack of restraint. But once the movie started, we were both laughing together, at the exact same moments, and smiled at each other at the interval.
The ability of movies, and especially comedy movies, to bring audiences together in a way that has the whole theatre uncontrollably laughing is a gift.
My immediate reaction when the movie ended was pure envy. How are people able to put together these movies, and have it be enjoyed by so many people. I wish I could do that.
Girish AD removes the filminess of the rom-com, still retaining the composure and humour of a rom-com. Of course, there’s an airport scene. Of course, there’s a random fight scene. But when compared to a Hridyam, Thattathin Marayath or even Premam, the filminess of this movie is close to nil. I think I mean melodrama when I say filminess. Premalu manages to be so funny and cute, without being melodramatic.
There were many things I loved about the movie. First off, I love the lead in the movie, Mamitha. I’ve seen her in a bunch of things before, and knew she was special. Very few people who are that hot can also pull off being funny. Olivia Munn was my only previous example for it.
I loved how it showed kids borrowing from rom-coms from the recent past, like Premam, to know what to tell and how to act, when in love. It’s enjoyable especially for my age group, because we were the ones who grew up watching these movies in school. And it’s from these movies, most mallu kids my age would have learned how to behave in love.
I loved how they take digs at Hridyam, right at the beginning. They even play the theme music slightly, in case there were idiots who haven’t seen Hridyam ten thousand times like me, and so wouldn’t have been able to identify it without the music.
Premalu doesn’t have the angst of Hridyam, doesn’t have the stylisation of Premam, doesn’t have the amazing music of Thattathin Marayath. Premalu is the very down to earth cousin, leaning more on the comedy side of the rom-com.
I also am a strong believer in movies influencing people. I believe movies can make lots of things look normal, thereby pushing the needle forward in terms of progressiveness, without necessarily being a movie with a social agenda.
And this has been happening with a lot of new Malayalam movies as well, where they are able to normalise a lot of things so much that even older people don’t really flinch or notice it anymore when it happens.
Let me explain with an example.
Reenu is wearing shorts in so many scenes in the movie, including the final one. Because of course, she was just coming from her home to say goodbye, and then impulsively jumps into the car to drop Sachin at the airport.
Reenu wears shorts at home, not just in Hyderabad, but also in her hometown of Pathanamthitta. It’s not something spoken about. I don’t think most people would have even noticed it. That’s the nicest part. It’s so normal, and it isn’t sexualised at all.
Girls are drinking, and they don’t get into trouble. They are just chilling, sitting on the terrace, eating chips, drinking beer. Having a normal time. Just like everyone does. It’s so wonderful to see these small things in a way that doesn’t have some disastrous consequences.
Reenu’s parents are normal and chill. They are not scandalised by the fact that she has male friends. Usually mallu movies make the dads progressive, and moms damn terrible. Here, both seem very chill.
Now let’s get to the love story itself.
As soon as Reenu turns down Sachin’s proposal, he packs up and leaves the city. He doesn’t bother her, he doesn’t ask her again, he just leaves. Even when Reenu tries to reach out to him, he has the self-preservation skills to not pick up or reply. This is very unusual in a rom-com. To just immediately leave, as soon as the girl turns you down, and not incessantly pursue them.
This gives Reenu space to realise how her life is like without Sachin in Hyderabad. She realises it quicker, because her friend, Karthika also leaves Hyderabad. So now she’s lonely. Normal reactions. Absolutely normal feelings to have.
Her friend Karthika is leaving to get married. She can’t control that situation. But she has some control over the situation with Sachin. You realise that you miss hanging out with someone when they leave, and the intensity amps up when you realise you also now don’t have the social group you used to hang out with before, so you try to hold on to whatever you can. This is what I assume people call love.
I loved how they created the character of Reenu, and how naturally Mamitha brought it to life. She’s a very normal human being. There is no excessive poetry about her eyes or her hair. But she’s obviously very pretty. She dresses very well. None of these are major plot points, there is no thattam that is making a boy lose his mind. I don’t even think the fact that she’s pretty is even mentioned more than once. I love that.
After breaking up with her college boyfriend, Reenu is now only looking to marry. And she wants to marry someone older and more mature than her.
Hard relate, sister.
But then realises that what she may want theoretically, may not match what she actually likes or is attracted to.
I’m sitting in the theatre making mental notes as though this is a TED talk I’m learning from.
When she first meets Sachin, she tells her office senior that talking to Sachin is like talking to her school friends. There is an ease you have with people the same age as you. Going through the same things as you. A slight silliness, which maybe someone older has grown past.
Girish AD really pulled off what Sally Rooney tried to. I’m going to be murdered for this comparison. It’s not the first rich girl, poor boy love story ever. There’s a lot more nuances, and obviously Normal People and Premalu are not siblings, but I just wanted to be controversial.
Reenu isn’t shown to be excessively rich. Sachin is not shown to be excessively poor.
The movie, through these characters, was able to highlight so well the small ways in which how you grew up, how much money you had, and how that money was being spent influence your entire lifestyle.
Reenu lives in a beautiful flat which I’m 100% sure her parents pay the rent for because there’s no way she can afford it on a salary of Rs. 35,000.
Sachin has never been in an A/C compartment in a train (it’s a hilarious scene in the movie) in his life, but clearly has collateral to get a loan and money to pay to get a visa to go to the UK.
It’s not rich vs. poor, in a very straightforward way. It’s the class difference, the access to a certain lifestyle, not necessarily reflecting exactly how much a family’s net worth is.
I don’t think I did a good job of explaining this, but I hope you understand. Girish AD uses the CBSE and state syllabus demarcation, to explain this difference.
Amal Davis teaches Sachin that just obsessing after a girl makes no sense. It could be considered stalking. He coaches Sachin- if you like her, you need to make a connection with her. Talk to her, hang out with her.
Sachin is a good student, and genuinely puts effort into building his connection with her. So much so, that when he inevitably proposes, you feel invested. He’s not just basing this off of, “Ohmygod you were so pretty that one time I saw you.” He’s helped her, and she’s helped him. And they are friends.
Love itself is not over romanticised to the point of putting a female on some pedestal. The loose motion conversation is one of the funniest shit (pun intended) I’ve ever heard. It’s such a normal thing, but it’s not what one would usually see in a courting situation in a rom-com. That’s how down to earth Girish AD managed to bring the movie. It’s amazing.
Reenu and Sachin are not insane. He’s not going to drop everything, just because she said ‘I love you’ and waste all the money and effort he spent into getting the visa to go to the UK. Reenu says they are going to be in a long distance relationship. This was the most twenty-one year old decision to make at the airport.
It’s as much romance as these young adults are capable of, which is why I titled this piece Premalu, not Premam. Because there is an intensity with which people talk about love, using words like premam, ishq, pranayam, etc in other movies, as though it’s an ethereal experience or something.
Sachin has a crush on Reenu when he meets her the very first time, because she’s cute; obviously. But he falls more and more for her, because of all the little things she does for him, and the effort she puts.
He starts saying that maybe the reason he likes her so much is because he doesn’t get such attention or care from his parents (which we are also very clearly shown), but his line of thought is cut off by Reenu when she very harshly turns him down. But she was in the middle of a work crisis herself. Absolutely normal reactions, on both sides.
What Sachin had started to say was something we all know, but I thought it captured the idea well. Reenu has lovely parents, and has the capacity to take care of someone else, because she’s being taken care of well. This was the Normal People comparison I was trying to draw.
Girish AD isn’t romanticising love. Girish AD is making love normal.
So that’s it about the movie, I suppose.
Now let’s go back to the bit I said in the beginning about being envious when this movie ended.
I had exactly two thoughts or feelings, you can say, once this movie ended.
Sitting there, waiting for the theatre to clear out, I thought- I wish I could write something this funny, that connected with so many people, and made someone else think about it, like how I’m thinking about it.
Walking out of the theatre alone, I realised what a beautiful brief interval of time youth is, when there are possibilities, and you think things are possible. When you move into your first apartment, get your first salary, sit on the terrace and drink with friends. The ‘youth’- ness of the movie really got to me. I felt very nostalgic for a time that I can see I’m drifting further and further away from.
Life goes so quickly, man. It’s insane how quickly things change. How much ever we try to recapture that feeling, the leisure and time and brain space you have when you are young, that allows you to just be and let things happen to you, doesn’t come back.
We can try to emulate it, and we must a little, because what’s the fun otherwise. Because life goes on, and we can’t just stay stuck in the past, or be content with the mundaneness of adulthood. Not just yet, I think.
I have an obsession with youth, and every day after the pandemic lockdown, I’ve seen how much further and further away I’m getting from that ‘youth.’ Weird note to end on, but like whoever said,
“Youth is wasted on the young.”
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My friend just texted me asking, “Where’s the blog post?” Every time I’ve texted him this week, this is the only thing he has replied with. When he asked me the first time, I said:
“I’ve been living life, bro.”
Which I think he found amusing. Either which ways, he’s not saying anything else to me except, “Where’s the blogpost?” So I’m trying to publicly shame him into texting me anything beyond that.
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But truly, I feel like I’ve been living more life in the last two weeks, than I had in the last two months at least. The week I moved back to my parents’ place, I didn’t have time or brain space to write anything. But I didn’t want to break the streak, so I just sent an old short story I wrote.
And then, last week, I think I went a little insane with boredom, and couldn’t sit still long enough to write anything. I kept pushing it to the weekend. And I ended up meeting some friends, old and new, on Saturday, and the “party” went on till Sunday afternoon. By the time I reached back home on Sunday, I was wiped out.
This week, I thought I’d do better. So I’m writing this on Friday already, and I’ll send it out as soon as I’m done. Overcompensation. I’ll be back to Sundays next week, hopefully.
This week has also been slightly insane. I don’t know where life is going. I wish I could say I’m going with the flow, but I’m doing this thing now where I do the opposite of whatever my first instinct is. I feel like a dog trainer, training a dog, which is also me.
I need an instructional manual to adult. This whole activity of being an adult, and creating social relationships needs to be codified somewhere.
Someone I met this week joked, “I’m glad you come with an instruction manual,” when I kept giving disclaimers about what I mean when I say and do the things I say and do. I want a similar instruction manual for other people and about how to do normal human interactions and relationships. Why am I the only one walking around giving an instruction manual?
None of this makes any sense. But I rant and I digress.