'Love, Sitara' movie review: Navigating nuptials and dysfunctional families

Sitara, alias Tara, alias T (Sobhita Dhulipala) is an award-winning designer who loathed the idea of marriage until she gets pregnant one day despite her “damaged ovaries”. She promptly gets back with her on-off chef boyfriend Arjun (Rajeev Siddhartha) because, well, she wants the “whole deal” now — kids, grandkids, cats and dogs.

She also wants a “real, not over-the-top” wedding. So the two sides along with their parents and friends descend on Tara’s ancestral home in Kerala. The picturesque village, with its lakes, cows, and other rural tropes, fits the bill.

Turns out Tara’s clan has a consignment of skeletons inside the closet. And they tumble out one by one all of a sudden. Most secrets involve affairs and extramarital relationships. 

Tara discovers that her Hema aunty (Sonali Kulkarni) — the bold, single, and sexy air hostess she always looked up to — has the most to hide. 

Vandana Kataria’s ‘Love, Sitara’ is all about a dysfunctional family that realises it’s time to reckon with the past and come clean. And it’s not past indiscretions alone, most of the members continue their “cheating” escapades in the present too. Whether it’s a hotel rendezvous or a quickie on a foreign trip, everyone seems to have a side hustle in the love department. Creatures of habit? 

Unfortunately, you can’t care. The movie tries hard to draw the viewer into its web of betrayals and regrets, but one doesn’t feel for the heartaches and redemption — even when Tara’s mother (Virginia Rodrigues) is shattered by an old photo, or her father (Sanjay Bhutiani) is forced to face his demons head-on. 

Amid the messy liaisons, “cool” grandma (B Jayashree) dashes to the barn to check if her cow has found bovine love and been impregnated. But it’s more “meh” than “moo”.