Premam vs Premam: When my world turned upside down!
I watched the much talked about Malayalam movie Premam earlier this year, almost a year after its theatrical release. Though I didn’t understand a word of the language, I instantly fell in love with the film. Maybe it was the music, the locations, visuals, acting, chemistry, love, pimples, Java, or god knows what… the film was pure magic! Later, I came to know it was being remade in Telugu, my native language. I felt it was a bold move, maybe a stupid one too...Premam is a piece of ART, and ART is sacrosanct, not to be tampered with. Were the makers committing blasphemy? To find the answers, I waited with bated breath for the Telugu release. Caught the film during the first weekend, and then the unexpected happened. I walked in expecting to see a ‘copy paste remake’ but what I instead got was an ‘upgraded version’ of the original. It felt as if the original Premam was put on a treadmill and made to lose all the flab, in place of which it grew muscles – muscles calle...