Family dramas are a tricky genre as they need to be relatable to the audience. They are supposed to be realistic; at least in the last decade, a lot of the films and shows in this genre cater to realism as an important element. A bit of a change from the ones in the 1980s and 1990s, when the films were especially filled with melodrama and hammy performances. Kapoor & Sons, Do Dooni Chaar, Aisha, Dil Dhadakne Do, Gulmohar, Ram Prasad Ki Tehrvi, Paglait, and Khosla ka Ghosla are some of the fine examples of family dramas that hit the right note.
Love, Sitara, directed by Vandana Kataria, is a Zee5 Global Original. The movie is the story of a typical Indian family who are gearing up for a wedding. The family has their own secrets, and they come out in the most unpleasant manner. Love, Sitara is about a long-term couple, Sitara and Arjun, who get back together after breaking up for a brief period and decide to get married. Sitara finds out she is pregnant and chooses to keep the news to herself. Sitara is an interior designer from Kerala, while Arjun is a chef from Punjab. Both come from two different backgrounds, but unlike in other films like Two States, there is no clash of cultures. The wedding is being planned by Sitara at her grandmother’s home in Kerala; she will be joined by her parents, best friends, and Aunt Hema, whom she refers to as Chechi, loosely translated to sister in Malayalam. Sitara looks up to Hema Chechi, who used to serve as cabin crew with an airline and traveled the world. Things in the family get murky when Sitara suspects her father is having an affair with Hema Chechi. In her pursuit to find answers, Pandora’s box opens up right before the wedding, and many unpleasant memories and secrets from the past come to light, which devastates Sitara’s life. Did Sitara’s father have a brief affair? Who was Hema Chechi’s boyfriend? Was Arjun the father of Sitara’s unborn baby?
There are several issues with the film Love, Sitara, starting from the filmmaker not doing enough research on the culture and tradition of how things are done in Kerala. Starting from not casting Malayali actors in the supporting roles to not understanding the rituals around a marriage in Kerala. As a Malayali, I can point out many things in the movie that the director and the writer just got wrong. It seemed like the makers watched “Bangalore Days” and picked up aesthetics from that movie and recreated that in Love, Sitara. From actors speaking broken Malayalam to the faux traditional clothes, nothing was right about the production.
The screenplay had many issues right from the start. There are several scenes added just for the sake of it. The narrative developed by writers Sonia Bahl, Abbas Dalal, Hussain Dalal, and Vandana Kataria lacks depth and emotion. All the anger, resentment, chaos, and tension are felt on a surface level. The writers do not dig deep into a character or a subplot to help the audience figure out what could be the reason behind their actions. There is a subplot about Arjun and his ex-army father not getting along. This was a cliched narrative but could have been explored through a proper back story to express why the father and son never get along. Interaction between the two characters comes across as fake right from the start, and there is no proper conclusion to this whole arc. The subplot about Hema Chechi’s affair is executed in the most shoddy manner. It did not bring out the dilemmas of the two people in the right fashion. Affairs are supposed to be suffused with guilt and a lot of other emotions, but the lack of all that made the whole subplot look tacky. There is another subplot where Sitara outs her aunt Hema, which came out of nowhere. The sudden shift against Hema by Sitara was uncalled for, which shows the screenplay is not seamless at all. The guilt that Sitara suffers from does not generate immense pain. Women being flawed is the core of the movie, but this theme is dealt with by pointing out the mistakes rather than showing them as morally gray people. There are way too many scenes trying to prove the same point repeatedly. The beating around the bush only adds to the length of the film. The film is almost two hours long; a lot of portions could have been edited out.
We feel the writers wanted to shame Hema’s character for being independent. Her arc did not explore redemption but focused more on making her pay for the mistakes she made. This kind of messaging is wrong, especially when the current generation of women is looking up to many older women who’ve lived their lives on their own terms. Sitara’s mother Lata’s arc is hardly touched upon, keeping in mind she is repeatedly shown as someone who grew up in the shadow of her beautiful and popular older sister Hema. Her pain and trauma are brushed over by the writers, and we feel there is a lot of injustice done to her story right from the screenplay level.
The direction is all over the place, and it does not take the narrative forward. The direction by Vandana Kataria is unfocused, and thanks to a scattered screenplay, the movie feels disjointed most of the time. Many portions of the film did not feel authentic, especially Sitara’s grandmother’s home and many scenes set outdoors. There are plenty of stereotypes propagated about Malayalis through this film, which could have been avoided. The ending of the film is predictable, which is the case with many family dramas. It is the conviction with which such predictable stories are told that makes such films worth watching. Sadly, Love, Sitara isn’t a good family drama. It is unnecessarily chaotic, with nothing new to offer.
The performances by all the leads and the supporting cast are mediocre. Sobhita Dhulipala as Sitara is convincing only in some portions of the film. She could not convey the struggles of someone grappling with a dilemma that well on the screen, which is sad as she is a good actress. Sonali Kulkarni as Hema Chechi is a miscast. The makers of Love, Sitara could very well have cast an actor from the Malayalam industry for this role. It is not her fault she could not speak Malayalam well; it is on the director and the writer of the film to get the actors to train in that language. Rajeev Siddhartha is brilliant throughout; sadly, he is not given enough screen time to make the most of his acting chops. He is good in crucial scenes that add gravitas to his character. Virginia Rodrigues as Lata, Sitara’s mother, is a letdown from the start till the end. Her character is not written well, and in the emotional scenes she seems to have lost control, failing to create enough impact.
Love, Sitara could have been a family drama set in any part of the country, not sure why the makers chose Kerala as the backdrop. The director and the writer did not do a good job with the premise, and it stood out like a sore thumb. Love, Sitara is predictable and exhausting.
