SitaRamam Review

During a scene in a train, Ram, played by a terrific Dulquer Salman, searches for a mystery woman who keeps writing letters to him anonymously. Just as he is about to search the last coupe in the train and just as the door opens, the train passes through a tunnel, and everything goes dark and as the train comes out of the tunnel, the light comes back and we see the woman.

This terrific staging serves artistic as well as the commercial purposes. Artistically, it calls to how Ram had been seeing her without actually being able to see her (anonymous letters), and commercially its just a beautiful( pun intended) entrance for the woman. I don't wish to spoil who the woman though most people could guess who it is.

The film has a non linear structure, going through between the present and past, the past being the soul of SitaRamam, and the present acting mainly as a framing device for the love story. The present has a Pakistani girl, Afreen, (Rashmika Mandanna in a role thats just a cakewalk for her) looking to deliver a letter from a certain LT.Ram to his lover Sita, played by the beautiful Mrunal Thakur, who is good but doesn't reach greatness due to the language.

Let's get some of the better stuff out of the way. The music, camera, visuals are very great, something that's been said many times but still requires acknowledgement.

The first thing that lessens the experience of the film is the Oman subplot, which is given a treatment of utmost importance and seriousness, but doesn't seem to have any kind of repercussions later. Also the present day portions especially in the opening, are a bit too long winded till you reach the Ram and Sita flashback, and they also are not that interesting, up until a 3rd act twist which brings closure to Afreen. The second half also has some purposelesness issues where the narrative feels like its slightly meandering. And what's this deal about giving Bhumika Chawla these cameo side roles. Such a good actress, man

But the real magic of the film is the first half, which could be a case study for the emotional power of cinema itself.

The film never reaches that high again despite being one of the best films this year