Some fifteen years ago, Jayaram's son Kalidas had taken a break from acting in Malayalam movie to focus on his studies. Before that he had delivered two exemplary performances as a child artiste in Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal and Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum, winning National Award for the latter. Though he chose to make his adult debut in Tamil, Kalidas has not gotten his roots as his first Malayalam movie as a hero hits theatres this week.

Poomaram was in news not just for being Kalidas' Malayalam debut, but also for its title song that went viral. The movie is directed by Abrid Shine, who previously gave hits like 1983 and Action Hero Biju, that also impressed the critics too. While 1983 was about a village youth's obsession with cricket and Sachin Tendulkar, Action Hero Biju was a honest portrayal of a police officer. With Poomaram, Abrid Shine looks at happenings behind the functioning of college youth fests, interspersed with student politics. And this time too, it looks like the director hasn't disappointed us. Check out what critics are saying about the movie,

New Indian Express says, "Poomaram is very realistic that it doesn't establish heroes or heroines. It belongs to all. There is a dance teacher pepping up his student, a makeup woman's complaint about not being paid enough, a tea vendor expressing her adoration for Meera Jasmine's hair-do, Poomaram is their movie too. It makes us chuckle too, like the part where the jury is waylaid by a disappointed contestant and her team members and how relationships sprout."

Behindwoods says, "Abrid Shine has succeeded in taking a very wafer-thin subject and creating it into a decent film with his neatly written screenplay. A high dose of intellect does not make it everyone's cup of tea. But the usage of real-life personas to play some characters appears very artificial as they are not natural actors. If the director had not tried to include the deep subject of 'peace' into this campus film that was more about the youth and their youth festival, it would have turned out to be a warm and different entertainer."

Sify says, "The movie brings us closer to those participants, who are practicing hard to win the trophy for their college. Though the story is happening almost entirely inside some campuses there are no efforts to add those usual ingredients like romance, fight, politics and the likes, which are considered mandatory for all the campus stories in Malayalam. It is to the credit of the writer-director that a fresh narrative style has been adopted, though some glimpses of Action Hero Biju is seen here and there. At just above 2 hours and 30 minutes the film feels like a tad too long and the story loses the focus for a while during the second half."

So it looks like Kalidas Jayaram has a winner in hand. But the question that fans want to know is - how successful the movie will be compared to the debut of Mohanlal's son Pranav, that is Aadhi?

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 16, 2018 01:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).