This romantic drama comes with its share of ups and downs

Express News Service

Premam Poojyam is about how external factors cause distractions in a love that is essentially divine and soulful. The film, which marks doctor-turned-director Raghavendra’s debut traces a doctor’s romantic life, his views about love, heartbreak and a lot more. 

The film opens in a hospital and the protagonist, a famous cardiologist, Sri Hari (Prem), is treating a patient Joyitha (Aindrita Ray) who develops feelings for the doctor. She accidentally gets hold of his diary, and it takes us to a flashback. The film profiles the Mandya-based Sri Hari from his college days. A pure Kannadiga by heart, he aspires to become a doctor and his parents manage to admit him to a good college.

While there, it is love at first sight for him when he sets his eyes on his collegemate Sherlyn (Brinda Acharya). For a person who treats ‘love’ as divine, and worships it, Sherlyn comes across as an angel. The first half of the story mostly revolves around the boy-meets-girl saga. Sri Hari doesn’t really believe in physical intimacy before marriage, and is content with just seeing the love of his life. In fact, the story convincingly explores romance and religion through Prem and Sherlyn.

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The actual picture begins when Sherlyn gets married, against her wishes, and leaves Shri Hari heartbroken. Taking control of his life, and coping with heartbreak, he goes on to become a well-known cardiologist in the city and finds happiness in serving people. But, in a twist of fate, his paths cross with Sherlyn yet again. Will this reunion be a positive or negative sign for Prem is what constitutes the rest of Premam Poojyam.

Raghavendra, a doctor by profession, fulfills his passion as a filmmaker and has taken a lot of responsibilities in his directorial debut. A subject like romance is simple, but difficult to convince. It does seem like he has taken a couple of pages from one’s personal life and added it to this film. His love for romantic films and Shah Rukh Khan is seen in Premam Poojyam, but he does get a bit carried away.

This film does have fascinating visuals but isn’t quite a compelling watch. The romantic drama is too long for its own good. The director also enlightens us about Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which is popularly known as broken heart syndrome. Naveen Kumar’s brilliant cinematography is the highlight of the film. Prem, who is known for his romantic films, stands out with his performance and holds the film to some extent. Despite the screen space, Brinda Acharya doesn’t manage to make the best use of it. Raghavendra could have utilised the presence of Aindrita Ray in a much better way. Even the humour portions featuring Sadhu Kokila and Anand doesn’t really add much to the film.

Raghavendra, who also doubles up as the composer and lyricist of this film, has come up with 12 songs. While these are mostly interwoven into the story, it does extend the film’s duration. Premam Poojyam is a film that attempts to explain the filmmaker’s idea of purity of love, heartbreaks, and how it can be fixed, and has just like an ECG, it ends up with its fair share of ups and downs.