Premam - The Good Things

Making a good romantic movie is a very difficult job. The story is always going to come across as a cliché because at the end of the day, it is always going to be boy-meets-girl...wait.. it can be boy-meets-boy or girl-meets-girl (Don't wanna offend THE community).
So, the story is always going to be person-meets-person, person falls in love with person, and the stuff that happens before falling in love and after falling in love. Boring, isn't it?

So, how do you make the movie interesting and engaging despite the banal story? 
Well, watch this movie called "Premam" and you will know how. Premam has kind of the same story but the director takes this story and focuses on the story-telling. The Director, by the way, his name is "Alphonso Puthren". I have watched his movies so many times that I kind of think I know him personally. So, I'll call him "Alfie".

To give a generic review of 'Premam', the movie is awesome. The story, the music, the acting; everything is just awesome and everybody should watch this movie. It is my personal favorite in the romantic comedy genre.
But, the most interesting part about the movie is the way the story is told.



Like I said, Alfie focuses on story-telling instead of the story.
What am I referring to when I say 'story-telling'? I'm referring the technical aspects of movie-making which are editing, cinematography (best part about this movie) and background music. Instead of making the story unnecessarily complex, these 3 aspects are used brilliantly which make the movie extremely engaging and entertaining.

The film starts with "Special thanks" to God, Sun, friends, foes, ex-girlfriends, Rajnikanth and Kamal Hasan (who are not related to this movie in any capacity whatsoever), etc...
So, you know the theme of the movie is going to be a bit goofy. This goofiness is pretty evident in the way this movie has been edited which is the first aspect.

LOOK AT ME splitting these aspects in Tarantino-esque 3 chapters..............

1)You will see random shots of butterflies, raindrops, cockroaches,etc between the scenes. It's like the director is challenging us to keep up with the scene and focus on the dialogues.
This weird editing makes a normal scene funnier that it is.
If I was to show you a scene where a guy is talking to his wife and his lady-friend(you know what I mean) at the same time and suddenly, I cut to a scene with monkey juggling two water-melons, you will be surprised but you will find it intriguing because it is kind of symbolic to the original scene.
Also, it will be funny because you know, a monkey juggling anything is just funny.

2)Camera work is extremely weird which is the best part of this movie. Often, you'll see that the camera is behind a tree or a random person in the frame or far away from the characters.. And most of the times, the camera is never steady, always moving.
This creates an illusion that someone is hiding in the bushes and shooting these events. I've never seen such camera work in any movie before and hence, I thought this is a very refreshing take on cinematography.
The shaky camera is used to keep up the pace of the scene which would have seemed a bit slow if the camera would've been steady.

3)Using background music efficiently has always been a huge problem for Indian film-makers; examples being punjabi guy is introduced in a scene with some random bhangra noises and a south-indian guy is introduced succeeded by 'Aiyoo'.

But, Alfie has used 3 different BGM themes for 3 different story arcs. However insignificant the scene might be to the main plot, the background music is used very significantly. Below are a couple examples to get you all hyped up about the BGM.

The badass bass guitar where George and his friends get 'SUSPENDED FOR 2 MONTHS' 

The weirdly funny Shehnai when Celine tells George that she is engaged(not a huge spoiler).





I guess reading these aspects has made you excited enough to watch 'Premam'(on Hotstar). Please watch.. or not, it's a free world; but I know what I would do if given a choice.

PS : If you do decide to watch the movie, get ready for the funniest breakup song you've ever seen.

Bro Out.