His antics in Vallavan were not striking enough to get the stamp of a comedian, leave alone a face that could pass off in the crowd as another typical Chennai guy. It was this aspect, “the typical” next door image that was well extrapolated by his brother, Venkat Prabhu, eventually giving birth to the “college buddy feel” comedian – Premji Amaren. “Enna kodumai Sir Ithu” (What a pain Sir!) – the serious dialogue from the movie “Chandramukhi” – was twisted, complete with facial expressions of Premji and sprinkled all over Chennai 28 – quite a hit and signaled the arrival of a fresh face for humor into Kollywood!

The very same trend was repeated in Saroja, again directed by Venkat – the image was much similar to Chennai – 28. The good for nothing, loser image, with real audacious out of point thinking dialogues – was an instant hit amongst all youngsters alike.

Apart from the above two movies, his other efforts, were received with lukewarm feelings by audience. Be it Sathum Podaathay (more or less a cameo role), Thozha, Santosh Subramaniam or for that matter even the damp squib – Sathyam.

What sold well for Premji in both Chennai -28 and Saroja that was not found in other movies?

Premji’s image of a next door/street buddy comedy positioning largely depends on “humorous criticism” and situation based antics. While the ace-up comedians such as Vadivelu or Vivek have mastered the art of “self-based” comedy or creating separate comedy tracks on concepts and improvising dialogues, Premji is still on baby steps.

His ability to improvise dialogues or carry on situations seems to be limited by his experience nevertheless if he is focused, he could establish his space – that is currently limited to “ a gang based comedian” and not individualistic!. This fact was very apparent in his role in Sathyam – where he had to largely depend on Nayanthara to invoke laughter but miserably failed.

His closest peer (or rather rival!) will be Santhanam – who has established himself for synchronizing body language, especially facial expressions with “typical” Chennai guy dialogues!.

Given his background on standup comedy, very pointed to improvising dialogues or rather crude satires – puts him at ease when he carries comedy tracks!

The Tamil movie industry has enough space to have another orbit – Premji - hence the need to create a unique identity is necessary!

Goa and after!

I’m sure going by the theme of Venkat’s next movie – Goa – Premji will have a meaty role and needless to mention the “crowd” familiar junta who will share screen space with him – all are gonna rock as a whole. But if Premji is quite serious about carving a role for himself in the humor space – which is quite barren – he may want to consider focusing on being independent, creative, and work on his antics and concepts!

Tamil audience are quite parched and waiting to see this new comedy hero scaling heights and needless to mention, his mere presence, the very first entry shot of Premji in Saroja – evoked wide laughter and claps ( me as well!!!) just to see his facial grin and fantasizing eyes!!!

“Evalavo Panniteenga, ithe panna maatengala:)”

Raj Shen
<rajshen77@gmail.com>

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