Love,
Sitara
doesn’t
flesh
out
the
people
or
their
problems
enough
to
give
us
a
glimpse
into
their
minds,
observes
Sukanya
Verma.
Love,
Sitara
starts
off
by
quoting
Leo
Tolstoy’s
opening
line
from
Anna
Karenina
—
All
happy
families
are
alike;
each
unhappy
family
is
unhappy
in
its
own
way.
As
if
to
elaborate
on
what’s
in
store,
Sobhita
Dhulipala’s
voiceover
mentions
how
her
family’s
real
superpower
lies
in
concealing
its
true
feelings.
The
sarcasm
behind
her
disclaimer
is
slowly
laid
bare
when
an
award-winning
interior
designer
Sitara
(Dhulipala)
from
Mumbai
arrives
to
her
ancestral
home
in
Kerala
along
with
her
chef
fiancé
Arjun
(a
dispassionate
Rajeev
Siddhartha
with
daddy
issues
the
movie
only
skims
through)
to
plan
their
wedding.
When
the
twain’s
folks
come
together,
it’s
not
their
South
versus
North
culture
clash
but
the
underlying
tensions
within
their
own
family
dynamics
that
render
them
dysfunctional.
Director
Vandana
Kataria’s
relationship
drama
unfolds
over
the
usual
musings
on
marriage
and
an
infidelity
angle,
which
—
for
a
premise
like
this
—
is
almost
always
inescapable.
At
its
core
though,
it’s
a
old-fashioned
tale
of
women
told
by
women
where
the
insecurities
and
infirmities
of
three
generations
of
female
protagonists
are
at
the
centre
of
its
emotional
storm.
Majority
of
its
behind-the-scenes
action,
too,
has
women
at
helm
—
direction,
writing,
editing,
production,
costumes,
choreography.
Heartening
as
that
may
be,
it&’s
nearly
not
enough.
Love,
Sitara
is
much
too
banal
and
blandly
told
to
become
the
slice-of-womanhood
it
set
out
to
be.
Earlier
on,
in
an
interview
to
editor-film-maker
Namrata
Rao
(in
a
cameo),
Sitara
shares
how
she
likes
to
‘design’
her
own
happiness.
Only
all
her
decisions
point
at
her
poor
impulses
and
thinly-veiled
hypocrisy.
A
strong,
independent
professional
harbouring
secrets,
Sitara
is
not
all
that
different
from
Tara
of
Made
in
Heaven
but
there’s
a
starry-eyed
impracticality
to
Sitara’s
follies,
which
the
perceptive
Sobhita
makes
sure
to
distinguish.
What
starts
out
as
an
urban
couple
rushing
towards
a
social
obligation
with
a
‘let’s
get
it
over
with’
attitude
grows
into
a
soap
opera
revolving
around
Sitara’s
family
and
their
muddled
state
of
affairs.
Between
Sitara’s
fretting,
frowning
grandma
‘Amumma’
(B
Jayashree)
with
whom
she
shares
a
fond
camaraderie,
her
docile
mother
(Virginia
Rodrigues),
her
free-spirited
aunt
(Sonali
Kulkarni)
and
a
rivalry
between
them
that
can
be
traced
all
the
way
back
to
their
childhood,
the
young
woman
receives
many
a
words
of
counsel
on
men
and
marriage.
Some
of
these
conversations
carry
the
same
air
of
anxiety
as
the
agony
aunt
columns
of
yore.
But
when
played
out
against
the
serene
surroundings
and
sprawling
homes
of
Kerala’s
regional
allure
by
a
diverse
bunch
of
actresses,
they
acquire
some
mundane
charm.
Problem
is
Love,
Sitara
cannot
decide
what
sort
of
feminism
it
wants
to
portray.
Just
by
the
virtue
of
having
women
at
the
forefront
doesn’t
translate
to
an
empowered
worldview.
The
grandmother’s
roots
of
resentment
stem
from
a
betrayal
but
its
belated
revelation
makes
it
seem
like
a
last-minute
plot
twist
and
not
at
all
genuine.
The
mother’s
stance
on
adultery
goes
from
cool
to
hysterical
in
the
wink
of
an
eye.
The
aunt’s
‘be
selfish’
motto
collapses
as
soon
as
she’s
confronted
by
the
prospect
of
ending
up
alone.
Even
the
headstrong
best
friend
wastes
no
time
falling
for
Sitara’s
childhood
best
friend
because
Cupid
has
an
exclusive
contract
for
Hindi
movies.
Thematically,
I
found
it
to
be
a
lot
similar
to
Jocelyn
Moorhouse’s
1995
ensemble,
How
To
Make
An
American
Quilt
wherein
a
club
of
elderly
ladies
and
their
imperfect
romantic
experiences
from
the
past
help
a
confused
bride-to-be
decide
her
future.
Except
Love,
Sitara
ends
up
being
a
mostly
confused
drama
about
a
clueless
bride-to-be.
The
women
are
either
needy,
in
denial
or
end
up
eating
the
humble
pie.
The
men
are
little
more
than
a
nonplussed
presence
whether
guilty
or
not.
Love,
Sitara
doesn’t
flesh
out
the
people
or
their
problems
enough
to
give
us
a
glimpse
into
their
minds.
Love,
Sitara
streams
on
ZEE5.
Love,
Sitara
Review
Rediff
Rating:
