Vyajayanthi Movies and Swapna Cinema’s Sita Ramam (dubbed from the Telugu film of the same name) is a love story.
Lieutenant Ram (Dulquer Salmaan) is posted in Kashmir and is part of the Madras Regiment. After a heroic deed, he becomes a national hero of sorts and gets a lot of fan mail. One such fan addresses him as her husband and introduces herself in her first letter to him, as Sita Mahalakshmi (Mrunal Thakur). Besotted by her, Ram sets out in search of her. The two meet and sparks fly. Battling family opposition, Sita leaves her home to marry Ram. But before they can get married, Ram is sent on an important mission.
Twenty years later, Pakistani army man Abu Tareeq’s (Sachin Khedekar) grand-daughter, Afreen (Rashmika Mandana), is assigned the task of delivering a letter written by Ram two decades ago, to Sita. The task is onerous because Afreen neither knows the whereabouts of Ram and Sita nor anything else about them. She seeks the help of her friend, Balaji (Tharun Bhascker), to track down both of them but not much information is available about the two. Ultimately, Ram’s senior in the army, Brigadier Vishnu Sharma (Sumanth), reveals explosive information about Ram. Does Afreen succeed in delivering the letter to Sita? Does Afreen also meet Ram? Why is their love story one of a kind?
Hanu Raghavapudi has written a wonderful story which has a lot of layers. The love story has its heart in the right place. It is so pure that the audience takes to Ram and Sita like fish takes to water. The screenplay, written by Hanu Raghavapudi, Rutham Samar and Raj Kumar Kandamudi, moves at a fair pace and on several tracks so that boredom never creeps in. Since the film is the love story of an army man, the two dramas (love and army) move concurrently, adding to the excitement of the audience. While the light scenes are entertaining, the emotional scenes tug at the heart strings so hard that the weak-hearted would end up in tears at several places. The scene in which Ram receives his first lot of fan mail is emotional, because he is an orphan. The scene in which Ram meets his ‘sister’ is also emotional. Other emotional scenes are the ones in which Ram and Sita are to get separated, the scenes of the Pakistani prison, the scene in which Afreen learns something about her childhood, etc. Several revelations in the pre-climax and climax are wonderful. Dialogues (by Sanjay Upadhyay and Neha Shitole) are brilliant at many places.
Dulquer Salmaan lives the role of Ram. He is extremely endearing and acts extraordinarily. He gives several emotional moments to the viewers. Mrunal Thakur looks supremely beautiful, has worn chic sarees, and has performed splendidly. The audience’s hearts go out to the two lovers. Rashmika Mandana lends tremendous support as Afreen. Tharun Bhascker is lovely in the role of Balaji. Sumanth leaves a fine mark as Vishnu Sharma. Vennela Kishore has his moments as Durjoy. Shatru makes his presence felt as Vikas Verma. Gautham Menon is natural to the core in the role of Major Selvan. Prakash Raj stands his own in a brief role as Brigadier Y.K. Joshi. Sachin Khedekar shines as Pakistani army Brigadier Abu Taariq. Ashwath Bhatt leaves a fine impression as Ansari. Jisshu Sengupta is very good as Sita’s brother. Rukmini Vijay Kumar is pretty dignified as Rekha. Murali Sharma entertains as Subramanyam. Praneeta Pattanaik makes a mark as Radhika. Bhoomika Chawla is good as Vishnu Sharma’s wife. Tinnu Anand (as Anand Mehta), Rahul Ravindran (as the Indian diplomat in Pakistan), Sunil (as the train ticket examiner), Ananth (as Seetaramaiah), Rohini (as the radio jockey and journalist) and Priyadarshi Pulikonda (as journalist Marthandam) provide decent support. Others are adequate.
Hanu Raghavapudi’s direction is excellent. He has handled the pure love story with the sensitivity it required. Vishal Chandrasekhar’s music is melodious but none of the Hindi songs is popular. Lyrics (Kumaar, Jai Atre, Mandar Cholkar, Vishal Chandrasekhar, Varun Grover, Vaibhav Joshi and Neha Shitole) are weighty. The ‘Jiya’ song is lyrically very rich and is also well composed. Choreography (Brinda and Leelavathi Kumar) is nice. Vishal Chandrasekhar’s background music is impactful. P.S. Vinod and Shreyas Krishna’s cinematography is fantastic. Action scenes (choreographed by Vijay) are thrilling. Sunil Babu’s production designing, and Vaishnavi Reddy and Faisal Ali Khan’s art direction are of a good standard. Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao’s editing is super-sharp. Dubbing is very nice.
On the whole, Sita Ramam is a wonderful love story which touches the heart. If, in spite of this, it will not be able to realise its potential, it would be because of the abrupt release and almost complete lack of promotion and, therefore, awareness among the public.
Released on 2-9-’22 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Pen Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: dull. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.