Unpretentious and relentlessly simple, the film is worth a watch
An embryo, three generations, four females and males occupy the core of their complex lives Love, SitaraA film made with the familiar ticks of a dysfunctional family drama. Does that make it a trite affair? Not quite.
The Zee5 film, directed by Vandana Kataria, revolves around a married couple who learn before going through with it that marriage is actually nothing but a bed of roses.
The witty and humorous Hindi-Malayalam film is punctuated by moments of high intensity that pit sister against sister, woman against man, individual against family.
The flow of the story is a touch uneven and the resolution and closure are that Love, Sitara It seems to be somewhat simple, but the emotions of the men and women who plot are not always predictable.
Screenplay, directed and written by Sonia Bahl, the film centers on the upcoming marriage of a Mumbai-based Malayali interior designer Shovita Dhulipala and Punjabi chef Arjun Anand (Rajeev Siddharth) playing the former grandmother (B) in a small-town Kerala home. Jayashree).
Family reunification is the culmination of a now-off, now-relationship. It just gets worse. In the space of a few days, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Buried secrets surface, tensions rise, and angry outbursts throw the marriage under a cloud.
The lid is blown off the secret love affair. And a marriage hits the skids. When the skeleton comes out of the closet, a long-suppressed truth causes a rift between the two sisters, one ‘happily’ married the other a confirmed spinster.
In the turmoil that ensues, family members are forced to reconsider choices they and their close relatives have made in the past and are currently in the process of pondering.
On the face of it, no one in the family and neighborhood has an apparent concern in the world. The bride-to-be Sitara (Shovita Dhulipala) is a super-successful interior designer. Bridesmaid Anjali (Tamara D’Souza), best friend of the title character, is a busy photojournalist. and Sitara’s aunt, Hema (Sonali Kulkarni), an airhostess whom she wants to visit.
The North Indian man who is going to be a part of the family has plans to own a restaurant in Singapore. Sitara’s father Govind (Sanjay Bhutiani) heads a hotel chain. So, on the professional front, they are in complete control. Their problems arise from the personal sphere.
In the opening scene of the film, Sitara is told that she is pregnant. The news unnerves her as her ovaries are believed to be damaged. Alarmed, she returns to Arjun (Rajeev Siddharth), with whom she broke up months ago, and proposes to him.
Now it’s the man’s turn to be surprised. But he not only agrees to marry Sitara, he agrees to go with her and tie the knot in Kerala in the traditional way surrounded by friends and family.
After the couple lands in Kerala and is joined by Anjali, who isn’t sure if it’s a good idea for Sitara to take the plunge, some of the film’s focus shifts to Ammumar (B. Jayashree), the wise, chatty and indomitable grandmother who has an obsession with male-female relationships. There are ways to illuminate obscurity.
The old woman has clearly seen more of life than anyone else. Truth bombs continued to explode around him. He doesn’t lose his cool. Sitara’s mother, Hema’s older sister Latha (Virginia Rodrigues), does. His reaction to a crisis becomes the main flashpoint of the film.
Everyone in the family is either keeping a damaging secret or being kept in the dark about an inconvenient truth. They jump from one crisis to another in bargaining. Their indiscretions range from something as innocuous as smoking to much more serious matters such as concealing a pregnancy or continuing an extramarital affair past the due date.
The grandmother, two sisters and Sita face revelations and forgotten infidelities that threaten to derail their relationship. The pursuit of happiness, they realize, is a path always strewn with thorns, especially when lies are perpetuated to avoid facing the truth.
A minor squirt of pre-climactic mush concessions, Love, Sitara A refreshingly non-judgmental, fair-minded and snappy-fingered take on the grief that men and women do to themselves and those around them as they either try to pull the wool over each other’s eyes or call each other’s bluffs.
The rigmarole, presented with a sprinkling of humor, adds up to a gripping pastiche of human indecency, marital abuse, pre-marital second thoughts and emotional intimacy. The film is bright enough to hold up to frequent storm tracks.
A vibrant color palette (Cinematographer: Szyman Lenkowski), a generally brisk pace (Editor: Parmita Ghosh) and a busy storyline where the past constantly impinges on the present and where the romantic and the illicit, tender and techy and bouncy and gently poignant achieve easy coexistence.
As Sitara and her family make their way through love and anger, confessions and complaints and apologies and demands swirling around them, they discover that the truth is often unpleasant and uncomfortable but it can never be useful.
but Love, Sitara Definitely don’t want to harass or reform anyone. It tells a lively, entertaining story about a complex family that is endearing despite its history of ambivalence, confusion and compromise.
Veteran stage and film actress B. From Jayashree to Mukti Bhavan producer Sanjay Bhutiani, Live Up Love, Sitara in her first on-screen role we don’t usually see in Hindi films. Virginia Rodrigues, Tamara D’Souza and Rizul Roy (who plays a doctor and a family friend) do their job with utmost sincerity.
Shovita Dhulipala and Rajeev Siddharth present a strongly dynamic portrait of two different people, lost and stressed, looking to find love back without sacrificing their individuality.
Unprecedented and unfailingly simple, Love, Sitara It has a ring of enduring relevance. It’s well worth a look.
