Premalu

Premalu (transl. Love) is a 2024 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy film directed by Girish A. D. and produced by Bhavana Studios, in the company of Fahadh Faasil and Friends and Working Class Hero. The film stars Naslen and Mamitha Baiju, alongside Sangeeth Prathap, Shyam Mohan, Meenakshi Raveendran, Akhila Bhargavan and Althaf Salim. In the film, Sachin Santhosh, a graduate from Kerala, plans on moving to the United Kingdom, but instead goes to Hyderabad and take a GATE course, where he meets and falls in love with Reenu Roy, an employee of an IT company.

Premalu
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Girish A. D.
Written by	Girish A. D. Kiran Josey
Produced by	Fahadh Faasil Dileesh Pothan Syam Pushkaran
Starring	Naslen Mamitha Baiju Sangeeth Prathap
Cinematography	Ajmal Sabu
Edited by	Akash Joseph Varghese
Music by	Vishnu Vijay
Production companies	Bhavana Studios Fahadh Faasil and Friends Working Class Hero
Distributed by	Bhavana Release
Release date	9 February 2024 (2024-02-09)
Running time	156 minutes
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Budget	₹3 crore
Box office	₹136 crore

The film was officially announced in July 2023 under the tentative title Production No. 5, as it is the fifth production for Bhavana Studios, and the official title was announced in December 2023. Principal photography commenced the same month in Thiruvananthapuram. It was shot in Kochi, Hyderabad, Polachira, and wrapped by mid-September 2023. The film has music composed by Vishnu Vijay, cinematography handled by Ajmal Sabu and editing by Akash Joseph Varghese.

Premalu was released worldwide on 9 February 2024 in theatres to critical acclaim from critics with praise for its performances (particularly Naslen and Mamitha), script, soundtrack, direction and humor. It ranks as the fifth highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time and the third highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2024. A sequel titled Premalu 2 is in development and is expected to be released sometime in 2025.

Plot

On the last day of college in Salem, Sachin Santhosh finally confesses his love to his classmate, Anjali, who rejects him. After moving back to his hometown, Aluva, he plans to move to the UK for higher studies, leaving all his troubles behind, but his visa application gets rejected owing to insufficient funds, leaving him with one more chance to re-apply after six months. Meanwhile, he is aimlessly living his life, helping his father with deliveries from his bakery. On one such delivery, he meets his childhood friend, Amal Davis, rekindling their friendship. While he is still contemplating on what to do next, Amal suggests joining a GATE course in Hyderabad with him, until he can re-apply again for his visa and also as a backup, should the application fail again. He agrees and moves to Hyderabad with Amal.

In Hyderabad, Reenu Roy, a girl in her early twenties, has just joined the development team of an IT company, Ospyn, where a pompous man named Aadhi is the senior developer. Reenu moves in with her friend Karthika, and another roommate, Niharika, The Wanderlust's apartment. Aadhi has a crush on Reenu, but he parades himself as her "bestie" and well wisher. Sachin and Amal meet Reenu and her team at a wedding, where the former are the groom's guests (Sachin and Amal's GATE professor) and the latter are the bride's guests (The bride, Sravani is their teammate in office). Sachin falls for Reenu and they all strike a friendship during the wedding. Due to unexpected circumstances, Reenu and Karthika choose to return to Hyderabad with Sachin and Amal in their Mini Cooper.

Reenu is very comfortable with Sachin and finds his antics funny and friendly. Sachin, who made up his mind to quit GATE and move to Chennai with his college mates, decides to stay back in Hyderabad. He finds a job at a fast-food restaurant to stay in Hyderabad and wants to find out more about Reenu. Amal tries to hint about Sachin's crush through Karthika at a pub, but she shoots him down saying Reenu is looking for someone mature and accomplished unlike Sachin, who does not have a plan even for tomorrow. After a lot of soul searching, Sachin decides to confess his love to Reenu directly, but she rejects him and says she wants someone who is mature and settled in life.

Sachin dejectedly decides to move to Chennai with his friend from college. However, Reenu realizes that she has developed feelings towards Sachin, but she is unsure. She tries in vain to convince him to come back, Sachin does not respond to her calls or messages.

After a couple of months, Sachin and Reenu meet at Karthika's engagement party. Reenu tries to talk to him, but Sachin acts like he has moved on and informs her that his visa application has arrived and he is leaving for the UK the next morning. Aadhi suddenly accosts Sachin and Amal and demands to have a conversation with them. Sachin and Amal, both being very drunk and tired of Aadhi's antics, mocks Aadhi and remarks that Reenu will reject him as well. To prove Sachin and Amal wrong, an overconfident Aadhi asks Reenu in front of everyone at the party whether she loves him, and she brusquely replies 'no', sparking further taunts and horse laughs from Sachin and Amal. Humiliated by this, Aadhi vows to exact revenge on Sachin and Amal, and leaves the party. Sachin is still not interested in talking to Reenu and sleeps at the party.

The next morning, Amal and Sachin leave for the airport and Reenu joins them. En route, Aadhi and his goons ambush them, but Reenu saves Sachin and Amal by incapacitating Aadhi with the pepper spray that Aadhi himself had given her and the other female staff in their office for self-defense. Reenu confesses her love to Sachin and says "From now on, we are in a long-distance relationship. Let's see how that goes" and bids farewell at the airport. At the end, there is a throwback to a previous scene of Karthika, Niharika and Reenu sitting together on the terrace, where Karthika asks Niharika to find a boy for Reenu. Then, Niharika accepts the task and throws a beer can over the terrace saying that whoever it lands on will be Reenu's future husband; it lands on Sachin as he is walking with Amal.

Cast

• Naslen as Sachin Santhosh
• Mamitha Baiju as Reenu Roy
• Sangeeth Prathap as Amal Davis
• Akhila Bhargavan as Karthika
• Shyam Mohan as Aadhi
• Mathew Thomas as Thomas, Amal's cousin (special appearance)
• Meenakshi Raveendran as Niharika a.k.a. "Wanderlust"
• Althaf Salim as Shobhi Sir
• Shameer Khan as Subin
• George Vincent as Vaisakh Murali
• Ranjith Narayan Kurup as Thomas' Fried Chicken manager
• K.S. Prasad as Sachin's father
• Gopu Kesav as Reenu's father
• Rahul P. P. as Vikas
• Sanju K Thomas as Sanju
• Dileep Mohan as Jain
• Syam Pushkaran as Pambavaasan (cameo appearance)

Production

Development

On 4 July 2023, Girish A. D. announced that he would collaborate with Naslen K. Gafoor and Mamitha Baiju for his directorial after I Am Kathalan, which also features Naslen in the lead role, making his third collaboration with the actor. Tentatively titled Production No. 5, the project would mark as the fifth production for Bhavana Studios; they would fund it in association with Fahadh Faasil and Friends and Working Class Hero. The film's official title, Premalu, was announced on 1 December 2023.

Filming

Principal photography began with the first schedule on 9 July 2023 with an inaugural puja ceremony at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. The project was expected to be shot with a span of 75-days across Kochi, Hyderabad, and Polachira. Filming wrapped by 15 September.

Music

Main article: Premalu (soundtrack)

The film's musical score and songs are composed by Vishnu Vijay. Academy Award winner MM Keeravani's superhit number 'Ya Ya Ya Yadava' by KS Chithra and P. Unnikrishnan from the 1996 film Devaraagam was reused in the film to subsequently become a rage upon the film's release. Veteran KG Markose rendered a song titled "Telangana Bommalu" after a brief hiatus from films.

Release

Premalu was theatrically released on 9 February 2024. A Telugu dubbed version was released on 8 March and a Tamil dub followed a week later.

It was released by Bhavana Release in Kerala. Overseas rights acquired by Phars Film Co and Yash Raj Films. It was distributed across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by Sri Venkateswara Creations,Annapurna Studios and Showing Business. In Tamil Nadu, distribution rights were acquired by Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies.

The digital streaming rights were acquired by Disney+ Hotstar and the satellite rights were acquired by Asianet. The film had its digital premiere on the streaming platform from 12 April 2024. That same day, the Telugu dub premiered on Aha. Premalu will also be available to stream in Tamil and Hindi soon.

Box office

As of 21 March 2024, Premalu has grossed over ₹95 crore in India, with a further ₹40 crore in overseas, for a worldwide total of ₹135 crore.

Reception

Premalu received critical acclaim from critics with praise for its acting, music, script, direction, humor and technical aspects.

Nikhil Sebastian of Pinkvilla gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Premalu undoubtedly marks Girish AD's finest work since Thanneer Mathan Dinangal. If you're looking to escape from the stresses of life for two and a half hours and immerse yourself in laughter and enjoyment, then look no further—booking a ticket for Premalu is the perfect choice". Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Similar to Girish AD's Thanneer Mathan Dinangal and Super Sharanya, this Naslen, Mamitha Baiju-starrer too effectively employs situational and observational comedy. Yet, Girish ensures that Premalu stands apart from his previous works".

Anandu Suresh of The Indian Express gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Similar to Girish AD's Thanneer Mathan Dinangal and Super Sharanya, this Naslen, Mamitha Baiju-starrer too effectively employs situational and observational comedy. Yet, Girish ensures that Premalu stands apart from his previous works." Gayathri Krishna of OTTplay gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Naslen and Mamitha Baiju-starrer Premalu serves as a decent romantic comedy, which makes it watchable again, much like Girish AD's earlier films".

S. R. Praveen of The Hindu wrote "Though Thanneer Mathan.. was quite a winning debut for Girish, Super Sharanya was only half as satisfying. He has upped the game in his third outing, as Premalu is a winner with its fresh, humorous treatment of a run-of-the-mill story." Aswin Devan of The New Indian Express wrote "The distinctive style we have seen in Girish's previous films like Thanneermathan Dinangal and Super Sharanya, is all the more pronounced in Premalu".

Sequel

On 19 April 2024, a sequel titled Premalu 2 was announced by the team during the film's success celebration. The film is scheduled for release in 2025.

External links

• Premalu at IMDb