Maddock Films’ Param Sundari (UA) is a love story of a Punjabi boy and a Malayalee girl. In his quest to invest in a matrimonial app startup, Param Sachdev (Sidharth Malhotra) goes to Cochin to meet a girl, Sundari (Janhvi Kapoor), as the data in the app suggests that she is the perfect match for him. His aim is to test the reliability of the app before investing in it. Sundari’s parents are no more and she lives with her younger sister, Ammu (Inayat Verma), in Cochin. Param and Sundari fall in love with one another. But before Param can express his love to Sundari, her guardian, Bhargavan Nair (Renji Panicker), suggests that she marry her childhood friend, Venu (Siddhartha Shankar), who has just returned from abroad after qualifying as a doctor and who belongs to the same caste. Venu is not the only reason why Param can’t marry Sundari. Even otherwise, Sundari is angry with Param when he reveals the reason for his visit. Does the North-South love story fructify into marriage or does Param have to sacrifice his love?
Gaurav Mishra, Aarsh Vora and Tushar Jalota have written a story which is so routine that it is shocking. There is no novelty whatsoever. All aspects of the story, except the circumstances under which Param goes to Cochin, are those that have been seen in earlier films. Aarsh Vora and Tushar Jalota’s screenplay is very unexciting and predictable. The characters are completely laid-back because of which the viewers don’t even want to root for them. Resultantly, there’s no sadness which the audience experience when Venu comes on the scene and becomes an obstacle in the path of the two lovers, Param and Sundari. Again, Sundari’s anger when Param reveals the real reason for his Cochin visit does not have the desired impact if only because there’s no denying the fact that Param truly loves Sundari even if his motive initially may have been suspect. All in all, the screenplay seems to have been either written in a hurry or written as a half-baked attempt. Either way, the result is a dull drama. Furthermore, the intensity of a love story is missing. The several sub-plots (like boat race, etc.) also look like half-hearted ways of prolonging the love story. The dialogues, penned by Aarsh Vora and Tushar Jalota, with additional dialogues by Gaurav Mishra, are nice at a few places but are otherwise ordinary.
Sidharth Malhotra does a fair job as Param Sachdev. There’s lack of fire in his character. Janhvi Kapoor impresses in emotional and melodramatic scenes but is otherwise average as Sundari. Her dances are good. Manjot Singh is entertaining in the role of Juggy. Siddhartha Shankar is endearing as Venu Nair. Sanjay Kapoor is alright as Param’s father, Parmeet Sachdev. Renji Panicker makes a decent mark as Bhargavan Nair. Inayat Verma is reasonably good as Sundari’s younger sister, Ammu. Abhishek Banerjee is okay in a special appearance as Shekhar. Jiyon Jerry (as P. Potti), Tanvi Ram (as Parvathy), Rahul (as Mathukutty), Vidvaan Sharma (as young Param Sachdev), Advaith Shukla (as young Venu Nair), Archith Abhilash (as kid Venu Nair), Heven Z. (as kid Sundari), Pavith Singh (as young Juggy), and the others lend routine support.
Tushar Jalota’s direction is so-so. There’s nothing remarkable about his narrative style. Sachin-Jigar’s music is the best part of the film. Pardesiya is a very melodious song and already very popular. Sunn mere yaar ve is also a nice number. ‘Danger’ is another song with a fine tune. Bheegi saree, Sundari ke pyaar mein and Chand kaagaz songs are fairly well-tuned. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are alright. Song picturisations (by Brinda Gopal and Jani Master) are eye-pleasing but there’s no wow factor in the choreography. Sachin-Jigar’s background music is average. Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran’s cinematography is appealing. Sunil Rodrigues’ action and stunt scenes are functional. Production designing (Manini Mishra and Sharanya Menon) and art direction (by Atin Dubey) are of a fine standard. Manish Pradhan’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Param Sundari is a below-average fare but its music will attract the public to the cinemas initially.
Released on 29-8-’25 at Inox (daily 15 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Maddock Films thru August Entertainment. Publicity: very good. Opening: very average. …….Also released all over. Opening was below the mark at many places and fair at others. Collections improved as the day progressed.
