A new film on the block, led by Shobita, surely piqued my interest. I should have given it a second thought before jumping the gun, though.
An ambitious, career-oriented South Indian woman plans to marry a Punjabi chef in her native Kerala. Both come with their own baggage, especially the complicated family relationships, full of secrets.
The story starts off on the right note, and the characters are well established. However, once things settle, the movie goes downhill as events either happen in a jiffy or feel forced, as if each character is given a problem just to push the narrative forward. A welcome change was that the film didn't highlight the usual North vs. South divide. Still, the overall emotional depth is missing, likely due to amateur writing and uneven pacing.
The film is carried by Shobita Dhulipala, who delivers a decent performance and fits the role well. Rajeev Siddhartha, finally landing a mainstream role, offers a confident performance. Sonali Kulkarni plays her part to perfection. Rijul Ray and Tamara D'souza, as friends, provide solid support.
Setting the story in Kerala made the movie visually stunning. However, I have a major issue with films set in a specific region - you need to justify the setting. Here, they sprinkle in some Malayalam for authenticity, but how is it that the cast of Kerala, being Malayalee, are speaking accented Malayalam while being able to speak proper Hindi? If the makers wanted authenticity, the Malayalam portions should have been dubbed for the artists.
While the relationship issues explored are valid, they don't come across well, leading to a disconnect. The songs are just bad, and you'll want to skip them.
Overall, this turned out to be a below-average affair. It could be on your watchlist only if you've exhausted all other options - it's not entirely bad and has a short runtime.
#pranureviews #LoveSitara #LoveSitaraReview.
