Premam Hidden Detail; Puthren Appreciation
Alphonse Puthren is a brilliant director. I recently watched an interview with Vineeth Sreenivasan, where he spoke highly of Nivin’s comeback and mentioned a recent video of him looking just like George from Premam. That made me revisit the film, which I had first seen in theaters as a young boy.
On rewatching, I noticed a subtle yet beautiful detail—alongside George and Malar’s love story, there’s an unspoken romance between two background characters, Vimal and Anjali. Despite having no dialogues or explicit storyline, their story is carefully woven into the film through a few fleeting shots, leaving it open to interpretation.
Anjali is a student in the class, and Vimal has a one-sided crush on her. Initially, we see a shot of them together, followed by a moment of eye contact. Later, when Anjali is absent from class, Vimal checks for her and is visibly disappointed. In a canteen scene, we see Anjali laughing and enjoying a meal with another guy while Vimal watches from a distance, disheartened.
Puthren’s brilliance lies in how he crafts even these minor background moments with such depth, making Premam an endlessly rewarding film to revisit.
No words can truly capture the depth of this unspoken one-sided romance or the brilliance of the director in portraying it.
