- Date of Release: 29 August 2025
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Language: Hindi
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Param Sundari
Introduction
Imagine going to a Chinese restaurant and ordering a dish called ‘Schezwan Fried Rice’, only to believe that this is the authentic style Chinese food that you get in an Indo-Chinese restaurant. The new Hindi film Param Sundari is exactly that – it wants you to believe that it is a cross-cultural film about two drastically different cultures, while assuming that the people of a particular culture behave in a certain way. The culture in focus here is the Malayali culture of Kerala as viewed from the gaze of the skewed lens of Bollywood. And this is display ridiculously in a woeful scene involving the protagonist and his North-Indian sidekick friend who land in Kerala for the first time – being enamoured by the English spoken by their cab driver only for the makers to show that he is consuming a bottle of toddy before barging his car in a nearby hurdle. What does that tell you about the thinking of the makers – that every Malayali speaks English, consumes toddy, wears the Mundu (again multiple references present in the film), and is equipped to climb coconut trees at will (goddamn, even a proposal takes place with a character on top of a coconut tree to blend into the culture). It is the most superficial piece of cinematic sh*t that I have seen all year, making this affair a Param Cringefest!
Story & Screenplay
The story of Param Sundari is itself a derivative of multiple films like Chennai Express (2013), where the originality is in the form of mediocrity. This is because instead of Chennai, most of the drama unfolds in Kerala, making this film more like a tourism video of the state. There are two images of Kerala for Bollywood – either treating them as a ‘problematic’ state (sanitizing the actual word here) like in The Kerala Story (2023), or stereotyping every bloody character in a film like Param Sundari. I mean why else would you name your protagonist “Thekkepattu Sundari Damodharan Pillai” (Jahnvi Kapoor), making her appear to be a Malayali through her looks and attire but brutally exposing yourself when a character cannot even speak a single line of Malayalam fluently. Why would you set your drama in Onam – making most cardboard cutout characters play random festival games that ends with a boat race with the protagonist winning the hearts of folks around him. If stereotyping was an art then Iyer from Taarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma would be the poster boy of it – with Aiyyayooo being played in the background.
The dumbness of the writing can be experienced first hand through its characterization. Param (Sidharth Malhotra) is a bratty capitalist who himself is a nepo-baby of entrepreneurs given how he is known to waste his father’s money on random startups, with his latest leap of faith being an app called ‘Find Your Soulmate’ (why not Save Your Souls though?). This is an irony for any capitalist whose first step is background verification of the founder whom he is funding. But clearly, logic had left the building while penning this dumb drama that is further dumbed down when Param’s father asks his son to ‘live-test’ the app by falling in love with his match – a girl far away in Kerala, because how else would north meet the south outside films like KGF (2018) or Pushpa 2 (2024).
The chronicles of a Punjabi boy in the alien state of Kerala needs to be converted in a book called ‘A Stereotype Masterclass For Dummies’, because the writers employ every single trick in the book to sell you the idea of authenticity. But even on the romantic front, the drama seems like a derivative of so many films. For instance, there is an early fight scene reminiscent of Chennai Express. There is a church scene that has a direct inspiration from DDLJ (1994) with literally Param being Raj to Sundari’s Simran. If this was some accreditation for the film, the title of the film remains a derivative of Kriti Sanon’s dance number from Mimi (2021) that goes by the same name.
The weak writing can be judged from a particular subplot involving Sundari who confides in Param that she had to give up dancing and take up responsibility after her mother’s death. But the drama never circles back to this plotpoint at the end – something that can best be described as half baked. But the stereotypes find a voice every now and then – even as a character randomly replies – Rajnikant; Kamal Haasan, a random connotation towards an argument. It remained oblivious of the makers thinking that people from North India are ignorant and haven’t watched many Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu or Kannada films on OTT – so obviously they would think Rajnikanth is a Malayali. Tch tch…what do I even say to this now!
The pattern of the film is simple – insert a stereotype after every 5 minutes. So this is how it looks like – Param and Sundari share a dreamy moment, they fight and she climbs a coconut tree, they patch up but he is judged as an outsider (an unintended commentary on Sidharth being an outsider too, ofcourse the makers didn’t think of it) by the brickering Malayali uncle of her who makes him don a Mundu before entering a temple. There is an elephant named Rukmini somewhere, a third ‘Malayali’ wheel in the form of a character called Venu (Siddhartha Shankar), a crash course on Onam, a random attack scenes with machate, a wild realisation at the airport, some more coconuts, and a random conclusion. Sir Isaac Newton who was the first to pioneer the concept of derivatives (read : Calculus) would be a proud soul, just don’t convey this to the makers – else his soul would be given a Mundu to blend into this ridiculously derivative film. The only thing missing was – Ayyaiyyayoooooo (oh wait, did I spot that too somewhere?).
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are atrocious with dollops of stereotypes added to the lines, making the drama a pinnacle of cringe, or should I say Param Cringe. The music is actually good and when the songs play out, I had the best time given how melodies are soulful and original. The BGM though has a ‘Thidik Ta’ quirk every time a Malayali character appears onscreen – because the coconuts, Mundu, Toddy, and their attire is not enough to convey the same. The cinematography captures the lush green landscapes of Kerala wonderfully well, and in that regard, it does showcase the beauty of the state. The editing pattern is random – with every incident restricted to unfold in isolation without a transfer of emotions from one scene to another. Director Tushar Jalota misses the mark by a countrymile, stumbling on the basic building blocks of casting and the representation of the culture from Kerala, reducing it to a broad stroke and stereotypically so! He is unable to lift any scenes in the film too, almost operating on auto pilot in a plane that could crash-land any minute. This piece of direction has got to one of the worst in recent times.
Performances
The performances are woeful as well by the members of the cast. Abhishek Banerjee as Shekhar is absolutely wasted here. Siddhartha Shankar as Venu never really threatens to be a nemesis for Param in this triangular love story – almost coming across as the weakest cricketing nation in a Tri-Nations Cricket tournament. Anand Manmadhan is such a talented actor with noteworthy performances in films like Ponman (2025), but he is reduced to be a stereotypical caricature here. Inayat Verma is such a talented artist too – but this may well be her weakest outing yet given how she struggles with the Malayali language. Manjot Singh as Jaggi is treated like a sidekick who hardly has any significant contribution to the screenplay.
Sanjay Kapoor plays a derivative of Anupam Kher from DDLJ, and he is just about decent here as Param’s father. Renji Panicker as Sundari’s uncle is pretty good while doing a lot to expose her onscreen daughter’s casting. This brings me to Jahnvi Kapoor who looks beautiful but really cannot speak a word of Malayalam fluently. And here more than her insipid performance, I would question the casting decision here – why wasn’t an actress from Kerala cast for this role? Why do you want to further expose a typically weak actor in a character wherein the dialect always remains optional? Sidharth Malhotra as Param is again average in a film that required him to be charming. Sure, he looks good looking but when will be learn the art of dialogue delivery or playing with his expressions? This is his 13th year in the industry, and if he is still struggling with the basics of his artform then there is nothing really left for me to say! Wake Up Sid! Oh, that was a derivative criticism on my part – apologies!
Conclusion
Param Sundari is a GREAT FILM…………to be nominated for the Face Palm D’or Award for Best Picture. In other words, it is a Param Cringefest in a Kerala representation for Dummies. On a side note, I really want to know if Malayalis utter such words when in love – ‘Dimaag Ka Coconut Khaali Ho Gaya, Aur Dil Toddy Pee Ke Naach Raha Hai’. I expected this to be bad, but the film surpassed that metric right there! Available in a theatre near you.