The creative combination of the most popular director, Yograj Bhat and the biggest star today, Puneet had whipped up the collective expectations of cine-goers in Karnataka. Two previous efforts proved abortive when Puneet was supposed to act in “Gaalipata” and then the ambitious “Lagori” for various reasons. When “Paramathma” was announced it was deemed to be the icing on the cake of both their careers. Fans were speculating about whether the film will be a Puneet film with the Yograj touch. The audio sales only sent the expectations soaring. The film has been released, got a sensational opening and is doing pretty well but most fans of both Yograj and Puneet are pretty disappointed. As a film lover I am too. It's purely a Yograj film with Puneet doing what Ganesh and Diganth did in his previous films!
The problem with Yograj Bhat is that he has not grown as a filmmaker after the success of “Mungaru Maley”. He's comfortably ensconced in a cocoon from which he fails to emerge and success has stunted his creative growth. You can call it complacence too. You cannot say he's lost the plot because there's none in his films and he's proud of that. That's fine. You only miss a plausible plot when the proceedings onscreen get lackadaisical. Smart lines alone can never sustain a film. I'm complaining only because the spark he showed has not lit up into a resplendent fire. After “MM” most of his plots have been similar including “Paramathma”. His heroes are motor mouths, laidback, jobless, live off their father's earnings and follow a girl from the city to a scenic spot only to lose her in the end. There was a rabbit in “MM”, a wild boar in “Gaali Pata” and now we have an embarrassingly digitalised squirrel.
The slight difference in “Paramathma” is that Yograj knows he has a superstar heading the cast. So our hero literally traipses to the top of Mt. Everest, has learnt martial arts at the Shaolin temple, made a killing at the bourses and even spent time as a mendicant. Emotionally, this is Yograj's strongest film but the screen is again crowded with characters and in the bargain, scene stealers like Ananth Nag and Rangayana Raghu get badly fleshed out roles. Puneet slips into the typical Yograj hero's role with ease and performs effortlessly. Deepa Sannidhi disappoints while Aindrita is wasted. The film is technically tacky. The initial sequences where the hero's conquests and achievements are being established make you feel you're watching a play with bad sets. Harikrishna has again come up with catchy numbers while Santosh Pathaji's close-ups are definitely not flattering.
I wish Yograj moves out of this milieu, tries to push the envelope and think out of the box.
S. Shiva Kumar, sshivu@yahoo.com
