Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Shruti Haasan, Madonna Sebastian, Anupama Parameshwaran, Praveen, Srinivas Reddy and others
Director: Chandu Mondeti
The superhit Malayalam film, Premam, has been remade in Telugu with the same name with Naga Chaitanya in the lead. Chandu Mondeti has directed the remake with Anupama and Madonna Sebastian from the original Malayalam film keeping their roles. Shruti Haasan is the third female lead.
The story revolves around Vikram or Vicky (Naga Chaitanya) and his lady loves in three different stages of his life. As a teenager, he falls for Suma (Anupama Parameshwaran) and one day decides to propose to her. Unfortunately, she chooses that very moment to introduce him to her boyfriend.
A heartbroken Vicky then joins engineering college where he falls for a young lecturer, Sitara (Shruti Haasan). She loves him too, but tragedy befalls when she has an accident and loses her memory.
After college, Vicky becomes a successful restaurateur. And into his life comes Sindhu (Madonna Sebastian).
Who is Sindhu? Whom does Vicky marry at the end? That forms the rest of the story. It is not easy to remake a successful film, especially a love story. But director Chandu Mondeti has done a neat job as he has completely changed the nativity of the film to suit the Telugu audience.
And Naga Chaitanya steals the show. After Manam, this is his best performance. He has portrayed the different stages of Vicky, from a teenager to an adult, convincingly.
Anupama fit the role of the teenage girl perfectly and there are a few interesting scenes between her and Chaitanya. Shruti’s role as the lecturer is lengthy compared to the other two. She has pulled it off well. Madonna Sebastian has kept the same momentum going as in the original film.
Interestingly, Venkatesh appears in a cameo and the scene is one of the best in the film. The Narra and Brahmaji comedy scenes evoke a few laughs and in the second half, Srinivas Reddy takes over the comic scenes. Praveen and Chaitanya as Naga Chaitanya’s friends have done a good job too. Karthik Ghattamaneni’s cinematography is neat and the music too is good in parts.
Among the drawbacks, the film is missing a few emotional scenes, especially in the climax. Nagarjuna has given the voiceover and also appears in the climax scene.
In all, Premam is a good remake and the director has done a good job. Naga Chaitanya’s matured performance is definitely the highlight of the film.
