10 Factors That Made ‘Classmates’ An Evergreen Classic

Campus life is always the best part in anyone’s whole life. That is the time when most of us taste the freedom for the first time in life. That is the space which develops and makes us an individual in all senses. Campus and the life we had then is always close to our heart. And Lal Jose left no stones unturned to bring back our campus memories, when we watch the movie.

What is a college without active politics called? “A School”! All of those who have studied in a college in Kerala will agree to this. In ‘Classmates’, we all saw the realistic portrayal of college politics. The political feud between Satheesan Kanjikuzhi and Sukumaran can be seen in every other college. We all were able to relate to the games they play to undermine each other, because we have either played it or witnessed it in our college times.

If you haven’t stayed in the college hostel, even for a small period of time, you have missed out on a lot. And all the ex-hostelers out there will agree on this. The two line song, “Kadala vettikkum Ouseppe prantha, koottu nilkunna father mooda; father vadivellu mooda chooda”, brilliantly describes the situation of every hostel mess. ‘Classmate’ was successful in creating the real life hostel atmosphere on the screen.

No one will disagree with the statement that the friendship bonds we create during the college days, are the one that lasts forever. This is subtly yet clearly shown in the movie. We all have that one close and tight friendship, like the one between Sukumaran and Pius. The one friend on whom we will always play our pranks but will never leave him alone in a fight. And now when we watch the movie again, we realise, how brilliantly Lal Jose had spread out this concept of friendship throughout the movie.

Most of the time, when a movie is based on the college life, one finds it really difficult to relate to them. We find them to be difficult to digest. But that was not the case with ‘Classmates’. From Sukumaran to Ousepp, we could find a match for each and every character in our real life. It was like we all have interacted with these characters, at point or another, in reality.

No campus life is complete without love stories. Some will be known to all while we will be like “really??!!”, when we come to know about other few. In the movie also, the same was shown. While the relation between Sukumaran and Thara was known to everyone, living and non-living, in the campus; it was a surprise for all when the love of Murali and Raziya was revealed. In fact, this factor is one of the main reasons for the movie being a rage among the youth.

Can anyone of us really forget “Ente Khalbile” in our life time? This is the song that made Vineeth Sreenivasan a singer known to all. The other three tracks were also nothing less than brilliant. It is rare, when the whole soundtrack of a movie is holding the top positions, one after the other, in every other music charts. This was the case with the songs from ‘Classmates’. This shows that all the songs have that Oomph factor.

‘Classmates’ is a youth entertainer, a suspense thriller, a romantic flick, a campus story and a family-drama, all at the same time. The movie had the elements to keep every section of audience glued to the film and the mixture of all these elements were to the dot perfect. Scriptwriter James Albert deserves a standing ovation for this.

A movie becomes a classic, when it is able to bring explicit changes in the movie genres and real life culture. ‘Classmates’ was able to do that only. It re-launched the genre of campus movies and Prithviraj became an unavoidable part in this type of cinema. And in society, the movie initiated the trend of college reunions in Kerala; as the prime setting of the movie was the reunion of a batch of students. Till then, there were only unofficial get together by students. But, after this movie, college authorities began to take in alumni re-unions as a serious matter and it became a trend.

On an in-depth analysis, ‘Classmates’ core concept is the point that ‘life gives you second chance’. We all have regrets in our life, on what we have done, on what we have lost and on what we could have achieved. But, if your remorse is from the bottom of the heart, then the life will definitely give you a second chance to rectify those faults and clear your conscience. If you remember the final scene, where Prithviraj is seen leaving the campus in a car and when he looks back, he sees his batch mates, exactly as they were 10 years before, happily waving him off. This subtly depicts that, he was able to successfully get hold of the second chance and that he is finally happy.