Love, Sitara review: Emotions, Secrets and Revelations

Love, Sitara review: Emotions, Secrets and Revelations

What: ‘Love, Sitara’ – a frivolous and fabricated take on family fissures, fractures and forgiveness, and more importantly the human frailties.

In Vandana Kataria’s Love, Sitara, Sobhita Dhulipala plays the titular protagonist – a fiercely independent interior designer who unexpectedly proposes marriage to her Punjabi boyfriend, Arjun (Rajeev Siddhartha), a chef at the brink of international success.

As the couple embarks on the roadmap to nuptial harmony and start preparations for a destination wedding at Sitara’s maternal granny’s home in the exquisite land of Kerala, some hidden truths and uncomfortable revelations rear their ugly heads causing them to confront the long-buried issues, deal and settle them.

Sitara exudes a sense of aesthetics and is rooted in its ethos, but the central conflict lacks heft like its characters. Kataria’s prior collaborator, Sonia Bahl, who had previously penned her Noblemen, crafts a promising story on life's choices, dysfunctional family and forgiveness but the avenues and the large canvas she provides is not exploited to their potential by Vandana who demonstrated a skilful direction earlier. The film is localized to the Tara’s hurried trajectory of self-realization, redemption and her attempts to dig into the travails of her family that includes her mom (Vandana Rodrigues) and maasi (Sonali Kulkarni), her role model , who are ostensibly named as Lata and Hema (Lata Mangeshkar’s names), oozing a sense of deep-rooted envy and sibling jealousy (I won't give any spoilers here!)

‘Love, Sitara’ lacks depth. Some scenes have sparks, but the storytelling falls flat at many places. Precisely the same problem that Kataria's maiden project ‘Noblemen’ (2018, available on Netflix) had succumbed to failure despite a more powerful script and stinging plotline. A more exciting offering on dysfunctional families was ‘Kapoor and Sons’ (2016). The emotions still linger on my tongue. Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ (2015) explored dysfunctionality in an elite, opulent set up with sharp and idiosyncratic humour.

To give credits where due, the film excels in its good looks. Kataria’s forte – production design (from Dibakar Banerjee’s camp) is prominent with some stunning visuals of Kerala’s Ernakulam and Kochi, and the set décor.

Sobhita looks ravishing in her wedding outfits, and I couldn’t help thinking about the traditional attire she embraced during her real-life engagement. The actress does justice and elevates her underwritten character to give us a believable protagonist who gathers force even at the brink of an emotional turmoil. But she aces the edgy and bold characters far better than what she does here. I would have loved more exploration of Sonali’s Hema Chechi and her promiscuity, but what we get are oodles of sulking and screaming. B Jayshree as Tara’s granny looks more genuine in the female brigade, albeit disgruntled.

 

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