What is the movie about? :: Each and every college has been going through tough preparations to win the overall championships in the year’s youth festival. In a programme which consists of so many colleges, Maharajas College and St. Teresa’s College have been the favourites, with the latter having defended the title for years. With other colleges including UC College and Sacred Heart College on the trail, the two colleges have their students practicing so much to give their best. The college chairpersons of each college, Gautham (Kalidas Jayaram) and Irene (Neeta Pillai) promises their teachers, students and the managment that would return only with the overall trophy. Both leaders are experts in poetry and skilled in more than one art, as they have talented teams at their hands, ready to make it big on the grand stage.
So, what happens with the events to follow? :: While Gautham’s team consists of naturally skilled students, Irene has a group of extremely hardworking and disciplined girls who are determined to keep the promise made to their principal to keep the trophy at their college for another year. While the former focuses on giving the best out of their best students, the latter has come with a fine plan to focus on their strengths and get the best out of those competitions which could bring them the most points. There are these teams who seem to battle each other, and there are the teams from other colleges which look forward to an opportunity to pounce on those points which get divided, and go straight up on the list. So, the year’s competition seems to be something which can bring the surprises and twists, and it is to be seen how things would end.
The defence of Poomaram :: There is a realistic take of the youth festival in this movie, and there is nostalgia invoked from it – this is not that fake nostalgia which was brought to the big screen by 1983, an exaggerated movie on cricket. Poomaram just feels so real, with realistic performances written all over it. If you have studied in an unaided arts college in Kerala, it will be very easy for you to relate to this movie, and if there is a certain amount of melancholy rising like waves on a stormy night, there is no surprise. Well, even that wouldn’t be necessary, as this reflects your college in one way or the other. Poomaram strikes you exactly at that part of your heart where it hurts the most, with memories of the college days. The songs are beautiful, and it adds to the strength of these reflections. There is also the presence of messages, and one has to love how the movie ends with that image of the enlightened.
The claws of flaw :: The movie does has a certain slowness in its proceedings in the second half, and some repetitions of the whole thing. The strength of the beginning and the middle part is only further strengthened by the end. The delay in the release of this movie also seems to have affected the bookings, as one does feel that it has been an eternity since this movie’s first song was released and the flick was ready to arrive at the theatres. There are occasions when Poomaram has been reduced into a joke instead of the celebration of nostalgia that it should have been. Everyone might not like this movie that much though, as the philosophical side of the flick can go over the head of the regular movie watcher. Those who have been eternally looking for entertainment won’t find that much of the same in this one, which is more of an experience raher than anything else.
The performers of the soul :: The movie has Kalidas Jayaram in the leading role, but we see that he is no hero; he plays a character who is one of us – there might be the elements of those college chairpersons or arts club secretaries whom we had met during our college days in him. Kalidas who had won the national award for the best child actor by acting with his own father in Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal, has the much awaited debut here, and it is a lovable and natural one. We see him as the chairperson of one of the most prestigious institutions not only in the city and the state, doing a wonderful job with all the simplicity, and there is no moment when we cease to admire his natural work. One wouldn’t call this work a challenge for someone who has proven his skills at such a young age, but this is a fine start for him, as there is the certainty of bigger things to accomplish for him.
Further performers of the soul :: Neeta Pillai plays the female lead in the movie, even though she or any other character in the movie where not in any of the posters of this flick. She plays a wonderful leader of her team of best friends in this movie, as she is there as an inspiration as the college chairperson, someone who was determined to win the trophy every single year from the first day she joined there for BA English Literature course. In this role, Neeta reflects what a perfect leader should be, and with her strong words, we can be sure that there will be more from her for us to witness on the big screen. Kunchacko Boban and Meera Jasmine makes little cameos which don’t mean much except for having them there in the movie. Joju George is the one face who is quickly recognizable here, as he plays a cop again after the same director’s Action Hero Biju. There is also a long list of new faces doing well.
How it finishes :: The movie refers to the story of a young student in Oxford University who was part of a competition about Jesus turning water into wine. He couldn’t write anything for a long time, until with only a few minutes left, this young man who was to be known later as Lord Byron, just wrote the following line: “The water met its Master, and blushed”, one of the best possible description of the miracle. There are many more similar talks about famous literary figures, artists and philosophers including Henry David Thoreau, William Shakespeare, Kalidasan, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. There is the idea about what is more important in our lives, and what matters to be the winner, at what cost. It focuses on its messages and realistic reflections really well, with a divergent philosophical side. Poomaram might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is that cup of tea, which can be loved by anyone at one point of the movie or the other, for it is a special kind of poetry of our own memories.
Release date: 15th March 2018
Running time: 152 minutes
Directed by: Abrid Shine
Starring: Kalidas Jayaram, Neeta Pillai, Joju George, Kunchacko Boban (cameo), Meera Jasmine (cameo)
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