Poomaram: Girls from St. Teresa’s win hearts!
Abrid Shine’s third directorial venture ‘Poomaram’ was released last Friday (March 15) after a lot of postponing. The movie, which marks the debut of Kalidas Jayaram as a lead actor, is a musical campus entertainer. A bunch of newcomers have been introduced to the industry with this movie.
Scripted by Abrid Shine, Poomaram does not follow the conventional pattern of a campus flick. The entire movie is a set around a five-day university youth festival. Maharaja’s college and St. Teresa’s are the top two contenders for the championship. Both the colleges have a glorious history and are rivals when it comes to the youth fest. St. Teresa’s have been winning the title successively for the past five years. This time, both of them leave no stone unturned to ensure victory.
Maharaja’s led by Gautham (Kalidas) is determined to bring back the title, while the girls from the rival college are led by a passionate Irene (Neeta Pillai). There’s a sea of differences between their approaches but the ultimate goal is to win the title for their respective colleges.
When two colleges sweat it out for the title, we expect to see some animosity and back stage cheating but Poomaram doesn’t have anything like that. Abrid Shine has cleverly stayed away from cliches and so the audience do not root for any group. In fact, the leaders of the two colleges – Gautham and Irene – do not even exchange dialogues. Despite that, Irene and co. manages to make a lasting impression.
Almost all the students who appear in the movie are fresh faces. The girls from St.Teresa’s were easily the most impressive. Neeta Pillai as their chairperson has given a wonderful performance. She has a strong screen presence and the way she inspires her mates when they go down gave glimpses of a talented actor. Neeta is sure to get a lot of plum roles in the near future.
Another notable performer among the girls was Archita Anish Kumar, who played the role of Malavika. Archita is a well known name in campus youth festival circuits. Abrid Shine spotted her at last year’s youth festival held in Thodupuzha. In Poomaram, she gets to showcase her extraordinary dancing skills. Being a real life dancer and a regular at such festivals, she could get the act correctly. All credits to the director for finding the right talents and getting the casting spot on.
Meanwhile, Poomaram continues to do moderately well at the box office. The word of mouth is largely positive and is expected to pull more audience to the theatres. Abrid Shine has co-produced the movie with Dr Varghese under the banner of Dr Paul’s Entertainment.
