Sita Ramam — a legendary tale of divine love that showcases the enormous capabilities of Indian filmmakers
Love is a force, that binds not just two people, but two souls, taking their journey together beyond Time.
Sita Ramam is a timeless story of that love, inspired by the epic tale of Ramayana, where a godly man travels thousands of miles to defeat an evil force to bring back his love. But, the context in which this film is set, makes this film a deeply relevant one — a love that knows no boundaries, quite literally.
Spanning across the 1960s-80s, a time when Indo-Pak relations were fragile, it is the story of Lieutenant Ram (Dulquer Salman) in the Indian Army, who falls in love with a mysterious woman, who sends him love letters, signed as his loving wife, Sita Mahalaxmi (Mrunal Thakur).
The manner in which this exchange of love letters is depicted between these two souls who know nothing about each other, except a feeling which binds them, is nothing short of magical. I felt that after a long time a director has peeled off layers to find that true feeling, which is uncorrupted, timeless, and so simple.
The way these letters arrive, the way Dulquer empties the sack to find that ‘one’ letter, the way he sits behind the cycle, reading her letter, these are some shots we’ll never forget. All thanks to P. S. Vinod’s genius cinematography. Poetic is the word.
Despite it being a love story, the writer and director Hanu Raghavapudi manages to keep us on the edge of our seats, sometimes by making us long for the lovers to meet, and at other times building tension by using the backdrop of the sour relations between India and Pakistan in early 1970s. The awareness that the call of duty might bring Ram’s quest for Sita to an end, keeps us deeply invested in the story.
But, this is just the beginning!
Sita Ramam is a surreal tale of love, which takes us along on a journey, where Ram’s last letter must reach Sita. And, we discover their love through the eyes of Afreen (Rashmika Mandanna), the adamant and arrogant adopted granddaughter of Brigadier Abu Tareq of the Pakistani Army, who has to deliver this deeply important letter, to Sita.
Afreen’s character is so alien to the emotion of love, that it’s almost ironic that she’s the one chosen for this task. But, the writing of this film is on a level where nothing is predictable, even by the keenest of moviegoers. We are so in it from the word go, that there’s no time to think, analyse, or even blink.
Watching it is like watching a beautiful painting in motion, with our mouths open.
But will Afreen find Sita so many years later? And where is Lieutenant Ram? What happened to their love story? These are some questions viewers are already interested in, but Afreen, not so much.
She needs access to the financial heritage left by her grandfather for her, and to acquire that, she must take this journey no matter how unwillingly and tell Sita about Ram’s letter. But can anyone stay uninvested in such a tale of love?
This reminds me of a story I read long back:
One day, while in his palace, Lord Ram lost his ring. It slipped from his finger and fell into a crack in the palace floor. ‘Will you fetch it for me, Hanuman?’ requested Ram.
Ever willing to please his master, Hanuman reduced himself to the size of a bee and slipped into the crack in the floor. To his surprise, it was no ordinary crack. It was a tunnel, one that went deep into the bowels of the earth. It led him to Naga-loka, the abode of snakes. As soon as he entered, he found two serpents coiling around his feet. He flicked them away. They returned with a couple more serpents. Hanuman flicked them away too. Before long, Hanuman found himself enwrapped by a thousand serpents, determined to pin him down. He gave in, and allowed them to drag him to their king, Vasuki, a serpent with seven hoods, each displaying a magnificent jewel.
‘What brings you to Naga-loka?’ hissed Vasuki.
‘I seek a ring.’ Oh, that! I will tell you where it is, if you tell me something first.’
‘What?’ asked Hanuman.
‘The root of every tree that enters the earth whispers a name: Sita. Who is she? Do you know?’
‘She is the beloved of the man whose ring I seek.’
‘Then tell me all about her. And tell me about her beloved. And I will point you to the ring.’
And so, like Hanuman, Afreen must tell this epic tale of love to us viewers and through it, learn the lessons of love, life, and dharma by knowing deeply about Lieutenant Ram and his Sita.
Post Sita Ramam, Dulquer Salman has become Ram for me, and Mrunal Thakur has become Sita for me. By this, I mean the two people below, who were the OG Sita and Ram for us in our childhood. Because, no matter how many Ramayana adaptations came after that, these two were etched in our hearts forever. And now, we have Dulquer and Mrunal as Ram and Sita who will be remembered for decades to come.
Why I feel this, is simple. It’s the seamless manner in which these two have shed every layer of who they are in real lives, and worn the robes of Ram and Sita, leaving no wrinkles on them, and room for doubt. It’s a feat in itself, given the legendary status of these folklore characters who have guided us on the path of dharma since time immemorial.
We see Dulquer’s face, and the niceness that sits on it is real for us. We know that he is Ram, the upholder of goodness, and someone who walks this path, effortlessly. It’s who he is, not so much by choice, but by his circumstances. An orphan, he has no one to pray for his safety back home, but only his country, for which he’ll do anything.
How he ends up in the hearts of millions, despite having no one to call his own is one of the best sequences in the film. I cried buckets during it, and I am not ashamed to admit it. In fact, I’ve not cried this much in a film since years. It took even me by surprise!
Sita Mahalaxmi’s character is painted in graceful colours, but her stoic strength has shades which will even inspire women of today’s generation. Her letters to Ram portray her playfulness, her longing, her practical nature, and even her love for life (get me butterflies the next time you come, she writes in one of her letters). Mrunal’s voiceover during those letters is so full of emotions, that we can feel her presence, despite them being just words.
Shabdon se joda hai chehra tera
these lines from the song Chitthi by Varun Grover are terrific and so apt!
She crosses the Laxman Rekha of her religious boundaries, despite knowing her reality. It’s the dreamy romantic inside her, who knows that the path of true love isn’t all easy, but the happy ending that lies at its end is timeless. She may be all grace, but when it comes to matters of the heart, she doesn’t bow down to the pressures of the society, rather storms out of that storm, gracefully.
It’s she who breaks free, to re-unite with her love, which shows her agency, despite her circumstances. It’s she who holds Ram’s hand, stopping his world, and not the other way round. It’s she who says ‘please manage without me’ to be with her Ram before he leaves for his duty.
This Sita has grace and guts,
in equal measure, and none of it is put on.
Mrunal Thakur, exudes her acting prowess on the big screen in this masterpiece of a film, leaving us in awe. She said in an event recently that she found it hard to believe how well she was depicted on the screen by the makers. If you have seen the movie on the big screen, I am sure you agree with her on this.
I used the word masterpiece, but a more apt word would be musical masterpiece.
Songs like Chiththi (written by Varun Grover) and Ishq Karun justify and elevate Sita Ramam to a level that sets it up to be amongst the best love stories ever made in the Indian Cinema. The entire album by Vishal Chandrashekhar does to Sita Ramam what Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on’ did to Titanic — make it timeless. The marriage of music with what we see on screen is evident through this memorable shot of Sita dancing on the white snow of the Kashmir valley in her love for Ram.
But, could Ram meet Sita without help from the whole Vaanar Sena? Certainly not. Hanu’s Sita Ramam is embellished with masterful actors like Murali Sharma (you have seen him double cross Sunil Shetty in Main Hoon na), who adds a stroke of effortless humor as a sanskari administrator of a palace to the sequences when Afreen searches for Sita. His innocence but penchant for order is endearing. Venella Kishore, who literally walks around dressed up as Hanuman, as an artist of a natak mandli, is another friend to our protagonist who cannot help but go along with Ram in his search for Sita.
Ram is an orphan, but seeing how the world is his family make us not feel pity for him but view him as a hero who has come to this world to do more than just belong.
I feel, it takes nothing less than a genius to write such a loaded yet tight script as Sita Ramam and to assemble it with so many layers that you keep unveiling hours after leaving the cinema hall. It is evident when we notice how, Hanu Raghavapudi chose to get Ram captured instead of Sita in his rendition of this epic. How Sita goes north in search of Ram in the second-half of the story instead of him searching for Sita. How a muslim girl Afreen, like Hanuman, must deliver Ram’s message to Sita. And how brigadier Abu Tareq, a pakistani soldier, must find in his heart the appreciation of true love, and like Jatayu, go to any lenghts to help Ram meet Sita. A big salute to the creators who blurred all boundaries by a clear vision of what they wanted to show.
If you have been waiting for a love story to come to the big screen, Sita Ramam is as good as it gets. It is a heightened cinematic experience whose music, the story, and performances will leave you jolted from inside by the end, in a good way. I am sure I saw at least dozen viewers wiping their tears off and another couple of dozen pretending to be stoic as credits rolled on the screen.
I request you to watch this movie that will fill your heart with joy, love and eyes full of happy tears.
Sita Ramam is a love story that only gets made once in decades.
Happy Viewing!
This piece was co-written with storywallah. If you liked reading this, make sure to check out more on TheFilmProfileBlog:
