Writer: Abrid Shine
DOP: Gnaanam
Cast: Kalidas Jayaram, Neeta Pillai
Language: Malayalam
Poomaram happens over the eve and five days of MG University youth festival where Maharajas college is trying to usurp five times running champion St. Theresa's college. Kalidas plays the chairman of the former and Neeta Pillai is chairperson of the latter.
Abrid Shine's brief two film old body of work is characterized by unconventional storytelling. His first film '1983' was the more cinematic of the two and I had quite enjoyed that film. His second feature, 'Action Hero Biju' followed the happenings in a police station and it was a film I detested because of its middle class pandering and sensibilities. I was not too sure whether to go for Poomaram on back of that but finally went for it due to the not so bad reviews and its supposed treatment. Also, I didn't want to encourage nepotism in Malayalam cinema by going for it blind.
The film begins on a very bad note through a very cringe worthy opening credits where Kalidas' family is introduced with very artificial and polite interactions. That plagues Kalidas' performance throughout and director has to share the blame for that. In contrast, it is Neeta Pillai who steals the show as the leader of rival college. It works like a docudrama and is at its best when it is in this mode. Casting of other supporting characters is really good but film is still rife with cheap laughs and sympathy generated out of unconventional characters due to their appearances and disabilities. It even got a reload of AHB with all its problems. The ending is also problematic where, like in AHB, director compromises the aesthetics of it up to that point with a cinematic ending. Thondimuthal Driksakshiyum was a revelation in getting performances out of non-actors and you can see the other side here with some extremely unnatural and overly polite sequences in it, which sticks out like a sore thumb, especially during the beginning parts of the film.
It is not to say that I didn't enjoy the film. It could've been easy for the director to play up the class and caste difference between the colleges by giving it a good bad binary portrayal but he opts to do it in a realistic and subtle manner with the casting choices and mannerisms. The good and bad of arts festival culture in Kerala is portrayed well, especially its extreme competitiveness. Overall, it is a good watch with a very unique treatment but with some of the same problems carried over from AHB.
Rating: 3/5
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