Spoilers ahead…
Rakshit Shetty and Rukmini Vasanth play a fully formed couple right from the beginning. They seem so right together that their union seems a matter of destiny.
In the heart-swelling Sapta Saagaradaache Ello – Side A, director Hemanth M Rao, his co-writer Gundu Shetty, and cinematographer Advaitha Gurumurthy give us a very real love story. Except for a sequence at the end where emotional violence on one side is edited in sync with physical violence on another side, this is a romantic drama where almost nothing is heightened, almost nothing is “cinematic”. Given the title, the colour blue inevitably flows through the film, but in muted shades, in sync with the muted-ness of the moments and the performances. Rakshit Shetty has never been this naive, this open, this vulnerable, this much at the mercy of the fates, and his performance is complemented beautifully by that of Rukmini Vasanth. He plays Manu, she is Priya. She has that connect with the audience only a few special actors have. When she is going home in a bus and pulling away from him, she seems to be saying goodbye to us.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/kannada/movie/review/sapta-saagaradaache-ello-a-side-a/
And you can watch the trailer / video review here:
Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.
rsylviana
September 1, 2023
Wow, this is such a gushing review from you BR! Is this film running in theatres with subtitles or is it possible to watch a dubbed version? Also you say about the actress – “She has that connect with the audience only a few special actors have. When she is going home in a bus and pulling away from him, she seems to be saying goodbye to us.”. I’m curious to know, what is this connect you talk about and which other actors would you say have this trait in them ?
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hari prasad
September 1, 2023
This movie has opened to very limited screens ( 2 to be precise) in Chennai which is shocking for a Rakshit Shetty movie.
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Karthik
September 2, 2023
Wow, a glowing, superlative very-thanamana review!
I really liked Kavaludaari which I watched after seeing your positive review. More than the mystery which was engaging to a point, I was more impressed with how the film seamlessly moved from a grim, dark, cold-case type tone to ending almost on a masala-type finish. Plus Achyuth Kumar put in a real scene-stealing performance.
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Karthik
September 2, 2023
Sorry, I meant Anant Nag, not Achuth Kumar.
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Prakash Alagarsamy
September 2, 2023
@hari Prasad are subtitles available???
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Amit
September 4, 2023
The film was poetry incarnate in terms of craft. Scenes linger for as long as they need. There’s a softness to the lens which blurs the harshness of the plot points. I however found the story to be manufactured for the sake of the plot and not organic.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Firstly it is wonderfully established right from the get go that this is a matured couple well in sync with each other. The house hunting, the day dreaming sequence culminates in them finally getting their own place they both like.
Priya tells her wish about wanting to settle sea-side which is a very normal thing. She doesn’t sulk, she is not miserable, she is just exuberantly sharing her dreams. She is also very practical. We get this in the very first scene where she tells him it will take 80 years to compensate for the vehicle on his 12,000 salary.
Priya is truly content in their home as of now. She formally “house-warms” it with a pooja.
From this point to Manu accepting to be a scapegoat in a hit and run case all because he wants them to have a beach house to settle in stinks of deus ex machina. Does Manu not know what Jail is like? Him not discussing it with Priya is deus ex machina as well for a well rounded couple like them. If he had, Priya would have said no and there wouldn’t be a film. It’s not a life and death situation, it’s not like Priya is hell bent on wanting to live in a beach house right now at that instant. The previous scene of house warming makes it clear. And Priya always has exuded hope and happiness and practicality.
The second this is the “villain”. He is again so contrived to move the plot forward. Manu is a driver who has always been on good terms with him. This is not the case of say the guy in Asuran who is eyeing Sivasami’s job.
He suddenly becomes evil and suggests not to get him out. Why would he do that? There’s no motive, he’s not his competitor in any sense and is rungs lower in the hierarchy and pretty much has always respected him.
But apart from these minor quibbles, it was a restrained and poetic film. I do not like how it ended. This was the case with Vadachennai too. Up until the climax, the film operated on one level and switched gears too fast too soon. But hey unlike VC 2, which looks like it won’t come at all, I can hope to be proved wrong come October 20th when Side B rolls.
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brangan
September 5, 2023
Amit: Both the things you mentioned – they are established clearly. I will discuss that below, but want to add just one thing.
If everyone behaved “logically” in films and literature, half the stories would not exist 🙂 It is the film/book’s duty to convince us that the idiocies that characters indulge in are part of their mental makeup, which is when we buy them — as I did. (And you clearly didn’t 🙂 )
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Firstly, the film established Manu as the less mature of the two. He likes speed, he likes to stop and gaze at high-rises (while she only wants his shoulder to sleep on, on the bike). So the house they move into – it is a compromise. It is not the house of her dreams. He wants to give her that.
And the OFFER allows him to do that. The fact that he is not a great thinker is again established when he asks for more money — and it’s a piddly 5 lakhs. You’d think he’d go higher.
The “villain” — I agree — was not as nuanced as the rest of the film, but he is simply a boot-licker who wants to protect himself at all cost, and if Manu comes out and exposes Preetham, his own life as he knows it is gone. (Recall that he now gets a fancy new car. He may not be able to do that with another employment.)
Again, the nuances in the writing shine through. You think the boss is going to go back on his offer to Manu. But no. He remains a good guy till he dies. You think the boss’s wife is going to be evil. But again, her first reaction is to “honour her dead husband’s wishes”.
The film has established earlier her hysterical love for her son. So when the “villain” poisons her ears — like Manthara to Kaikeyi — she starts looking out for Preetham and agrees to the whole plan.
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Amit
September 5, 2023
BR:
That’s true indeed but I feel when someone does something illogical within the film’s universe there has to be a convincing reason for it.
**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD”
Regarding Manu’s rash driving: Don’t you think this is more a red-herring than a character trait? There is a mis-direction when the actual hit-and-run happens and we are misled to believe and think “Oh no Manu, you didn’t!”
Manu’s rash driving is not mentioned or explored anywhere else at all nor is he seen doing so anywhere. If this were a slightly more explored character trait, I think the ensuing scenes would have landed more coherently, at least for me.
He “likes” to rash drive -> He’s an adrenaline junkie -> He doesn’t mind going to jail when there’s a lumpsum offered to him as he sees it as just another high-stakes experience to go through which also rewards him financially while also enabling the grand-gesture of making Priya’s dream come true. (Also I thought it was 15L to 35L negotiation, might have misheard)
I think just one very small scene (or even just a shot) where Priya is happy but there’s a tinge of sadness of it not being her dream home, just one smile with a hint of sadness like in here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv7QDQz-5bA&t=140s (there might be better examples of an actress doing the same but I couldn’t remember anything of the sort) and Manu seeing it and sensing it would have made me 100% accept his decision without any qualms.
It’s just that Priya is so radiant throughout that it was like “Why fix something if it ain’t broke?” and I absolutely loved everything before he goes to jail and perhaps selfishly wanted that film to go on a little longer.
On the villain aspect, I think I have come around – some people are only good until the certain (societal) structures are present and will take the first chance to be evil and trample on someone if such an opportunity were to present itself.
I liked that the rich man stayed good till the end and I had no trouble believing the wife as well. Her initial thoughts were to honour her husband’s wishes but when it comes to a dead husband’s wishes and welfare of a living son, it’s not even a choice.
By the way did you notice a parallel to Maryan? Sea imageries dominate both films. Maryan too goes away for money for the sake of his lover and he too is literally “Sapta saagaradaache ello”. They both have the heroine pining to meet the hero. While we get lovely jail meeting scenes here, we get that excellent phone call between Maryan and Panimalar. The heart and engine of both films is driving towards them getting back together by any means possible and as an audience we too want both the couples to be reunited. And Maryan was too poetic while this was poetic enough.
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mvky
September 5, 2023
This is such a heart touching review about a superb movie. Unfortunately love stories sell no more. There has to be action, high moments, massy and other ingredients to make them acceptable to one or other section of audience. Cinema is dead and circus is born. Circus review will be more appropriate. When you write beautiful reviews for beautiful movies, I feel happy and also sad. Knowing the fate of them at the bo and waiting for the OTT release. waiting for B side. Will there be a hindi version where the hero like Karthik aryan or ranveer will dance like mad for 10 minutes and then there will be forced duets, forced melodrama and the works.
Review from the heart is easily distinguishable by review not so. Gharonda was such a lovely film with good hummable songs. Your mentioning it made me go back a few years when ordinary looking folks were loved for a change.
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raghavendrao
September 5, 2023
For me , this movie was a snoozefest.I was just not convinced by the lead actors actions.just how much of the blanks are the audience expected to fill in for the lapses in character ?
1) Manu taking the critical decision of being the scapegoat when he knows that all she wasnts really is to lean on his shoulder (and spend buffer time with him if possible -as in the house warming scene)
2) ‘Putti’ not having any qualms of using up the ill gotten money
3) Pavithra Lokesh deserved her own movie of how a single mother worked her way financially and got her daughter to give auditions – whereas – we have the daughter contemplating suicide?really? and we need to believe that she is the thinker in the relationship
Dialogues could’ve been snipped in half and we would not have missed anything (“Neenu nanna sagara ….” or ” nanage alegala shabda keli khushi aguthe” don’t we know it lady?the title says it!)
There was not anything really interesting going on on the technical side either – the addictive title track is chopped off in less than a minute .
The staging was not blah – so much of talking – Godhi Banna.. atleast had one terrific long shot of Anant Nag sir explaining his loss in life..whereas here ..?
I’m not looking for logic or magic – (btw the movie opens with ‘Putti’ logically explaining why his excessive speeding will cost them financially!)
Atleast the basic threads need to be tied up properly.
One more pet peeve is the excessive marketing done and hailing this movie as cinematic masterpiece on the afternoon of the release.There are excellent directors in Kannada ( SathyaPrakash of Rama Rama Re / Karthik Saragur of Jeerjimbe..) who deliver with none of the social media fuss
What did i like :
I liked the use of elements towards the last 20 mins or so where water becomes a bad omen for Manu ( water tanker escape/tape recorder drowning/rain on the marriage day)
I liked the fact that earlier Manu joked about the color of poop (during house hunting) and in the 2nd half spends his time in Jail cleaning toilets.BTW does bad teeth=bad person?(no, not you Ajay Devgn)
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kaizokukeshav
September 29, 2023
This movie is pure poetry. Can’t wait for part-2. A wonderful love story after a long time. Crushed by Rukmini Vasanth !
Director decided to remove any small amount of practicality in the characterization and explored what would happen in such scenario.
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Hari
October 3, 2023
I’m always wary of watching movies described as ‘poetry’ (which to me screams ‘high on visual style and low on substance’), but I caught this recently on Prime and found it only slightly better than I had feared.
I really enjoyed the first half an hour of the movie. I liked the fact that we are introduced to a couple who are already in a relationship. It was refreshing to have been spared the meet-cute and the blossoming of love. That has all happened already, and the depiction of the lead couple’s romance was very believable, and yet very enjoyable.
And then we get a very stretched-out, done-to-death prison drama, with all the associated tropes you can see from a mile away – the scheming inmate, the torture scenes, a failed escape attempt, yada yada. I’m quite thankful to have watched this on a mobile device (long live the developer who thought up the ‘+10’ button.)
And is it really a twist anymore to have Achyuth Kumar ‘revealed’ as a bad guy? And I couldn’t really sense a motivation for his character. Just spite, maybe?
In spite of all this, I still want to catch Side B, for two reasons. One, Rukmini Vasanth. She has absolutely nailed her character, and commanded a surprising amount of screen presence even while sharing frames with the formidable Rakshit Shetty.
Second, the movie ends with an interesting ten-year time skip, and the prison set appears to have been mercifully done with. The setup for side B is quite interesting. I only hope it would be more prosaic than poetic.
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Prat
October 3, 2023
I was very excited by the reviews for this one and it began well but I do not understand why it morphed from an intimate love story to a needless, mundane prison drama. The whole movie should have been compressed into a first half with the prison parts not exceeding 15-20 minutes. Looking forward to Side B nonetheless because the story actually seems to proceed in that one. Rukmini is a revelation, and what a beautiful title track! I could have used more such songs in the film.
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karthik299
October 11, 2023
What a beautiful movie this was and a very suiting review!
Could relate to every line of yours and the movie had ample emotional moments. The inmate explaining why he likes Priya, and the music was just the right amount. During that clock ticking BGM, I was afraid she would not get to meet him which would have been harsher but thankfully they met.
Rukmini Vasanth is such a revelation that, just like Manu, I also got recharged by her smile. 😀
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Sapta
March 9, 2024
Baddy, I just saw Wild Tales and was surprised to see the inciting incident of Sapta being fleshed out in a completely different way. This was more believable for me.
Everything’s the same – A rich kid kills someone – The dad tries to help by coercing the house help to take the blame. Here the house help doesn’t automatically take a life-changing decision. He wants to consult with his family but cannot because word may get out through them and the whole deal would be nullified. I wished something similar here.
But it’s an interesting exercise to see how different these two films took this exact inciting incident.
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