Love, Sitara is the kind of movie in which an uncomfortable secret view pops up to say hello at the most inopportune moment. It’s going swimmingly well for fashion designer Sitara (Sobhita Dhulipala) until a blast from the past threatens to derail her upcoming nuptials with the chef Arjun (Rajeev Siddhartha).
The discovery – ill-timed for Sitara but well-timed for the plot – strains her dynamic with her family. The clan clearly worships furtiveness: Sitara’s grandmother (B Jayashree), father Govind (Sanjay Bhutiani), mother Latha (Virginia Rodrigues) and aunt Hema (Sonali Kulkarni) all have something to hide. While that something is earth-shattering for the characters in Vandana Kataria’s movie, viewers might find it hard to keep up with the steady stream of revelations.
Love, Sitara was completed in 2021 but has been released on ZEE5 only now. The 105-minute film takes place mostly in a part of Kerala that is teeming with Hindi speakers. The story begins with a quote that Sitara attributes to “somebody”. The narrative is barely penetrated by the depth of the line from Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel Anne Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Kataria’s screenplay, co-written with Sonia Bahl, refuses to get swept away by the gush of confessions. Sitara’s dilemma isn’t mined in any meaningful manner, nor is Arjun’s perfectly understandable reaction to being kept out of the storm of secrets.
The most memorable character is Sonali Kulkarni’s Hema. An outspoken singleton, Hema has the most to lose when the skeletons are set loose. Sadly, the moralising that chases Hema doesn’t allow her predicament to get the airing it deserves.
Sonali Kulkarni has a lovely scene in which she reveals Hema’s vulnerability. Apart from Kulkarni, Sobhita Dhulipala and Rajeev Siddhartha acquit themselves honourably. But none of the other actors can adequately carry off the subterfuge with which their characters are burdened. The cast includes Tamara D’Souza as Sitara’s friend Anjali, whose chief contribution to the mess is to laugh uproariously at just about everything.
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