Paramathma (ಪರಮಾತ್ಮ)

Pawan Kumar, the writer behind many of Yograj Bhat’s hits, has quit the commercial movie industry to croudsource and make movies that he believes in. A prime example of what might have driven him to do this is Paramathma (ಪರಮಾತ್ಮ). Directed by Bhat for a masala audience, this movie is an abomination. Bhat has been force fed a big budget and a big name star and what he has created is a huge disappointment for anyone who loved his earlier movies.

The movie revolves around the antics of Param (Puneeth Rajkumar). This character fails his exams on purpose, but climbs Mt. Everest, learns martial arts in China and many other directionless achievements before saving a girl and falling in love with her. He pursues her back to her ancestral home in Malnad (where else?) and wins her heart.

The one word that best describes Paramathma is mental. The director and actors must surely have a few screws loose up there to have played a role in this insane piece of work. In Bhat’s movies, the smartass hero walks around spouting philosophical and sarcastic truisms. But, Puneet does not have the charm of Ganesh/Diganth and all of his lines here are equally inane. The viewer is tortured with Guinness Book of Records-like achievements of Param, which have no use in the plot. There is a CGI rendered squirrel in the movie, please don’t ask why, because no one knows. And finally, the girl’s Malnad home can only be called an asylum. All together, this is a disastrous venture into the commercial space by Yograj Bhat. The only saving grace in the entire movie is the song Paravashanadenu, beautifully written by Kaikini.