RSVP’s Love, Sitara is about love.
Sitara (Sobhita Dhulipala) is pregnant before being married and, to save face, proposes to friend Arjun (Rajeev Siddhartha). Well, Arjun is the same guy whose marriage proposals Sitara had turned down in the past. Anyway, Arjun agrees to marry Sitara, but when she tells him later that she is pregnant because of an affair she has had with another guy, he refuses to marry her and goes away to Singapore. Meanwhile, Sitara has gotten to know about a secret affair which her father, Govind (Sanjay Bhutiani), had had with her maternal aunt, Hema (Sonali Kulkarni). She exposes aunt Hema and dad Govind in front of the family because of which Sitara’s mother, Latha (Virginia Rodrigues), gets angry at Hema and Govind. Following the tension, Hema, who is unmarried and lives with her mother, Amumma (B. Jayashree), leaves home.
What happens thereafter? Does Sitara abort the child or deliver the baby? Do Arjun and Sitara meet again? Does Hema return to her home? Does Latha forgive Hema and husband Govind? What is Amumma’s stance all through?
The story (credited to nobody) is quite weird as there are several questions which remain unanswered. Why does Sitara not tell Arjun about her pregnancy before she proposes marriage to him? And if she had hidden such an important piece of information, what exactly prompts her to reveal what she had concealed thus far? Why does she suddenly decide on speaking the truth? The screenplay, written by Sonia Bahl and Vandana Kataria, is ordinary. As the drama unfolds, the audience get the feeling that almost everyone in the family is anything but clean — and that’s not a nice feeling. The revelation of the past by Amumma also looks weird because it has no bearing on the present and so the audience wonder whether Amumma is trying to connect all the episodes. Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal’s dialogues are quite nice.
Sobhita Dhulipala does well as Sitara. Rajeev Siddhartha performs ably as Arjun. Sonali Kulkarni makes a fine mark in the role of Hema. B. Jayashree is alright as Amumma. Virginia Rodrigues makes her presence felt in the role of Sitara’s mother, Latha. Sanjay Bhutiani is okay as Sitara’s father, Govind. Tamara D’Souza (as Sitara’s friend, Anjali), Rijul Roy (as Sitara’s friend, Dr. Majeed), Sudhanva Deshpande (as pilot Arvind), Neerja Ramachandran (as Arvind’s wife), Ikhlaque Khan (as Arjun’s father) and the others are adequate.
Vandana Kataria’s direction is average. It is not clear what she intended to convey through the film. If her aim was to express that love is paramount, the message comes through in quite a weird way. Sangeet and Siddharth Haldipur’s music is quite melodious. Lyrics (by Rashmin Dighe, Garima Obrah and Joshua Newton) are fair. Uma-Gaiti’s choreography is okay. Shrikanth Sriram’s background music is appealing. Szymon Lenkowski and Siddharth Kale’s camerawork is of a good standard. Production designing (by Meghna Gandhi and Natasha Gauba) and art direction (by Pradeep Nigam, Bhagyashree Pande and Sathyajith Sathyanathan) are alright. Paramita Ghosh’s editing, with additional editing by Namrata Rao, is quite sharp.
On the whole, Love, Sitara is too ordinary to make a mark.
Released on 27-9-’24 on Zee5.