Premalu

<p>On the final day of college in , Sachin Santosh professes his feelings for his classmate Anjali, but she bluntly rejects his proposal. Sachin moves back to his hometown of , where he deals with his parents’ soured relationship and plans to pursue higher education in . However, his visa application is rejected due to shortage of funds, leaving him with another opportunity to apply after six months. Sachin begins helping with his father’s business. One day, he runs into his childhood friend Amal Davis, who asks him to accompany him for a in . Desperate for a change, Sachin agrees and moves to Hyderabad with Amal. Meanwhile, Reenu Roy, a vivacious young woman from , joins the development team of an in . Reenu moves in with her friend and colleague Karthika and her friend Niharika. Aadhi, Reenu’s arrogant looking and pompous colleague from , secretly holds a crush on her, but masquerades himself as her “bestie”. Sachin and Amal attend the wedding of their professor Shobi, whose bride Shravani is a colleague of Reenu. Sachin is attracted to Reenu from the moment Sachin sees her. Despite engaging in a tiff with Aadhi at their very first meeting, they strike a friendship with Reenu and Karthika. After the wedding, Reenu and Karthika decide to go back to Hyderabad with Sachin and Amal in their though Aadhi initially disagrees. Sachin, who had planned to quit his course and take up a job in , decides to stay back for Reenu and persuades Amal to get him a job at his aunt Mary’s . Sachin and Amal move into Reenu and Karthika’s neighbourhood and invite them over for a party at a . At the party, Amal tells Karthika about Sachin’s feelings for Reenu, but Karthika dissuades them, saying that Reenu is looking for an accomplished and matured person and that she will definitely reject someone like Sachin, who does not have any concrete plans or career. Sachin decides not to disclose his feelings to Reenu. They continue to become closer after a few events, including a train journey and an excursion in , which angers Aadhi. Sachin ultimately confesses his feelings to Reenu, but she rejects him and inadvertently hurts him by saying that this cannot be his first rejection. A heartbroken Sachin moves to and takes up odd jobs to make ends meet, while ignoring Reenu’s calls and messages. Karthika shifts to to be with her fiancé Vikas. Reenu, who feels now alone realizes her mistake done to Sachin and begins to realize her true feelings for him and misses him. After few days, Sachin and Amal attend Karthika’s pre-wedding party where they meet Reenu. Sachin pretends to have moved on and tells her about his UK visa approval and his scheduled flight to UK the very next day. Aadhi suddenly confronts Sachin and Amal. Being tipsy and tired of Aadhi’s insinuations, Sachin and Amal disparage Aadhi and assert that Reenu will also reject him. Overconfident, Aadhi publicly proposes to Reenu, but she unhesitatingly rejects him, resulting in further taunts from them. A humiliated Aadhi swears vengeance and leaves. Sachin, still detached to Reenu’s sincere attempts, passes out drunk at the party with Amal. The next morning, Sachin and Amal depart for the airport and Reenu joins them. On the way, Aadhi chases them along with few thugs. Amidst the tension, Reenu tells Sachin that she misses him and does not want him to leave. She finally confesses her feelings for Sachin, which makes him happy. Aadhi and the thugs interrupt the moment and begins to beat Sachin and Amal. However, Reenu averts the assault using a that Aadhi himself had given her for . They escape and arrive at the airport on time. Reenu and Sachin hug and bid farewell to each other and commit to a . The movie then cuts to something that happened a couple of months ago. Reenu, Karthika and Niharika are drinking on the rooftop of their shared apartment. Niharika tosses an empty can off the roof, foretelling that Reenu will marry whoever the can lands on. Hearing an old man curse in anger, they flee. However, the can is shown to have actually fallen on a drunk Sachin, who along with Amal, staggers off, kicking the can. On 4 July 2023, announced that he would collaborate with and for his directorial after , which also features Naslen in the lead role, making his third collaboration with the actor. , the project would mark as the fifth production for Bhavana Studios; they would fund it in association with and . The film’s official title, , was announced on 1 December 2023. began with the first schedule on 9 July 2023 with an inaugural ceremony at in . The project was expected to be shot with a span of 75-days across , , and . Filming by 15 September. The film’s musical score and songs are composed by . The track “Ya Ya Ya Yadava” by and from the 1996 film , which was originally composed by , was reused in the film to subsequently become a rage upon the film’s release. Veteran rendered a song titled “Telangana Bommalu” after a brief hiatus from films. was theatrically released on 9 February 2024. A dubbed version was released on 8 March and a dub followed a week later. It was released by Bhavana Release in Kerala. Overseas rights acquired by Phars Film Co and . It was distributed across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by , and Showing Business. In Tamil Nadu, the distribution rights were acquired by . The were acquired by and the satellite rights were acquired by for Malayalam and by for other languages. The film had its digital premiere on the streaming platform from 12 April 2024. That same day, the Telugu dub premiered on . is also available to stream in Tamil and on Disney+ Hotstar. received positive reviews from critics with praise for its cast performances, music, script, direction, humor and technical aspects. Nikhil Sebastian of gave 4/5 stars and wrote “Premalu undoubtedly marks Girish AD’s finest work since . 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 gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote “Similar to Girish AD’s and , 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 gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote “Similar to Girish AD’s and , 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 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 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 wrote “The distinctive style we have seen in Girish’s previous films like and , is all the more pronounced in “. has grossed over 93.65 crore in India (₹62.75 crore from Kerala) and a further 42.25 crore overseas, for a worldwide total of 136.25 crore. The film collected 62.75 crore from the home state of Kerala and is among . also secured a spot in the top 10 list of highest grossing Malayalam films in the overseas market, Rest of India and worldwide. On 19 April 2024, a sequel titled was announced. The shooting for the film will begin by the mid of June 2025 with the film currently scheduled to release during Christmas 2025.</p>