Param Sundari Review: It has been raining rom-coms lately, torrential, unrelenting, glistening on cinema screens everywhere, and one must admit, it is a welcome storm. After years of choking on the gunpowder smoke of action spectacles and the globe-trotting vanity of espionage dramas, audiences deserve a reprieve. The industry has too often been obsessed with the lone, brooding, empire-building male archetype, flexing his sinews as if testosterone alone were enough to shoulder the burden of narrative. But there are times when the heart craves something simpler, something softer, a cinematic sigh, a romantic detour. Enter Param Sundari, Maddock Films’ latest, a Tushar Jalota directorial that on its surface seems like the offspring of Chennai Express and 2 States, but in truth carries a tender pulse of its own.
At the centre stands Param Sachdev (Sidharth Malhotra), a Punjabi man sculpted like a Greek statue yet hollowed by his dependence on algorithms and venture-capital whims. His father’s fortune bleeds away in failed startup bets until fate introduces him to Shekhar (a deliciously earnest Abhishek Banerjee), who has coded into existence an app called Soul Mates. The conceit is disarmingly simple: somewhere in the latticework of data points, the algorithm will divine your one true love. Param scoffs, but when his father threatens to strip him of his entrepreneurial freedom, he clings to this digital oracle. One month, one app, one soulmate, or nothing.
